Ralph Vidal

Professor

“In football, if you get knocked off your feet it’s usually because of not thinking.”

Coach Vidal, the offensive line coach for the SMC Corsairs, may well be a master of understatement. Take the subject of bicycling. “I’m not really what you’d call a serious biker,” says the coach. He then goes on to describe extended trips that he and his wife have taken through the Bavarian Alps, France, the coast of Maine, the Colorado Rockies, and the California coastline in general. And then there’s the trip they’re planning through Thailand. It makes you wonder where Ralph Vidal will end up biking if he ever gets “serious.”

Vidal has been coaching football since 1975 and currently teaches weight training to his athletes and to students who just want to get in shape. He feels a strong connection with his students “especially the athletes. That’s because we spend so much time together over the course of a couple of years.” Vidal says that the role of coach “often extends beyond the playing field. For a lot of our kids, it’s the first time away from home. They have to take on a lot of responsibility. And with many of them, there isn’t a lot of support at home, so we try to help them stabilize their lives.”

The coach has a lot of hope for the Corsairs football squad this year. And of the other team he works with—the SMC faculty—he says, “They’re simply the finest educators I’ve ever been involved with.”

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