Pete McCarty was one of the best Maine high school football players of his era, and has continued to have an outstanding coaching career.

Born January 12, 1956 in Bangor, he became one of the Rams' greatest players. A feared linebacker who also played offense, McCarty won the James J. Fitzpatrick Trophy, given to the state's outstanding Class A player, in 1973, after leading the Rams to the state championship.

He also played basketball and baseball for the Rams, playing on a baseball state championship team his second year. 

He was heavily recruited and chose to attend the University of Massachusetts, where he became one of the best linebackers in the Yankee Conference. He was a first team All-Yankee Conference linebacker in 1977.

When his playing career ended, there seemed to be one logical choice for his future: coaching.

Several years ago, he told the Portland Press Herald, "I went to Massachusetts as a criminology major. But I was trying to fool myself. I was trying to do away with that jock label. But midway through my first semester, I said, 'Who am I going to kid?' I enjoy football, so why not do what I enjoy and get paid for it."

From UMass, McCarty returned to Maine, where he was an assistant coach for his hometown Bangor Rams for one year, then an assistant football coach at Maine Central Institute for another.

From 1980-81, he served as a graduate assistant at Syracuse, then for three years was the defensive coordinator for American International College in Springfield, MA. From 1986-91, he was the outside linebackers coach at Holy Cross.

He had a one-year stint in the NFL, serving as an intern for the New England Patriots in 1991. Then he returned to the college ranks.

From 1992-96, he coached defensive ends and linebackers at Maryland. From 1997-2000, he was the defensive tackles coach at Illinois.

His travels continued in 2001, when he coached defensive tackles at Georgia Tech. He joined Stanford as the defensive line coach from 2002-2003. He followed that with two years as the defensive line coach at Central Florida.

He joined the staff at Western Michigan as defensive line coach in 2007.

Peter has two boys, Cullen and Jackson.