With mothers often getting recognition for their well-deserved contributions to family life, fathers sometimes get overlooked. Some dads work hard outside the home to provide for their families. Others play less traditional roles. And for some, being a dad is a full-time job in itself. Here are the stories of just a couple of La Jolla fathers who go to great lengths for their families every day. LARRY MICHAELS Larry Michaels used to work for Qualcomm in the marketing department. That was before he followed his dream to be a chef — and before he and his wife, who also works for Qualcomm, had their daughter, Mia. Now, Michaels’ day consists of getting Mia ready for school, shuttling her to various extracurricular activities, volunteering at her school and cooking for his family. In between, he puts time into his own business, My Five Star Chef — planning private catering events for anywhere from four to 75 people — and balancing responsibilities as 8-year-old Mia’s primary caretaker. “I just sort of fell into this role,” Michaels said. “I find that it comes pretty easy for me.” Michaels, who generally works nights and weekends, said the biggest challenge in a typical day is finding the time to develop his professional life in between school bells. “I haven’t solved the dilemma of finding part-time work during school hours,” he said. Mia, meanwhile, gets to be spoiled in the culinary department. Instead of frozen waffles for her friends after sleepovers, they get homemade crepes. For Michaels, however, the rewards come with the long-term effects of having his daughter grow up in his care. He’s lucky, he said, that his wife has been able to do the “heavy financial lifting,” while he gets to spend time with Mia. “It’s amazing being able to spend time with [Mia],” he said. “We have a unique relationship, and she’s turning out great. I’ll take some credit for that, and give some to my wife.” As far as playing a non-traditional family role, Michaels said he got over the stigma that stay-at-home dads sometimes get a long time ago. It was harder when Mia was younger, he said, especially when the only community activities for stay-at-home parents and their children were usually preceded by the moniker “mommy and me.” To go from working in a corporate setting to not working and taking care of his child, he said, was a bit of a shocking transition. He said he quickly realized, however, that the benefits far outweighed the costs. “Initially, it may have been a little awkward,” he said. “But then I decided that it wasn’t about me. It was about her and her experiences, and I stopped feeling sorry for myself. The alternative is that I work full-time, and don’t see my daughter as much, and I just feel that it should be about her, not me.” JOHN McCOLL If you were to look up “SuperDad” in the dictionary, you might see La Jollan John McColl’s photo. In addition to working full-time in real estate development and investments for Trinity Pacific Investments, the 53-year-old father of two spends upward of 25 hours a week coaching his sons in football, baseball, basketball and volleyball. McColl not only teaches his own sons, David and Daniel, the ropes, but as the head freshman football coach at La Jolla High School (LJHS), he’ll soon be spending almost every day with about 55 students coming in to learn the ropes of high school football. McColl’s son David, a sophomore at LJHS, is a quarterback on the football team, and son Daniel, 12, is an all-star on the La Jolla Pony little league team — of which McColl is also the coach. “Life is short and you only have so much time with your kids at these ages. I made a conscious decision that I would always be in the middle of my kid’s lives, and every sport they decide to play I ask them, ‘Do you want me to be your coach?’ If they say ‘yes,’ I coach that sport.” McColl sees himself as a mentor more than a coach. He doesn’t allow his sons to play sports unless they ace their report cards. In spending hours a week with many other local boys, he said teaching “not only sports, but the right thing to do in life,” is a priority — “We even correct their English,” he said. “At the end of the day, they won’t all be pro athletes, but they’ll be good husbands and good fathers, and if we can be good mentors and teach the right things, that’s what they’ll grow up to be,” McColl said. And for McColl, mentorship and being an involved father runs in the family. McColl’s dad, Bill, set the bar high not only by being a college and pro football hall-of-famer, but also by becoming a doctor and coaching his own sons (two of whom also became professional football players). Bill McColl, who was well-known in the 1950s for his all-star status playing for Stanford and then the Chicago Bears, is now 81 and has lived in La Jolla for more than 25 years. John McColl’s wife, Anastasia, said John’s ability to work hard during the day in order to make time to spend every day coaching comes as no surprise. “He was shown by example,” she said. “His father was a busy doctor but even when the kids had six games a week, he always made time for each of their games.” For McColl, the rewards that come with his strong dedication are made apparent through his sons’ success and appreciation. Just last week, for example, he invited son Daniel to Dallas to root him on in the National Volleyball Championships, which McColl’s team ended up winning. McColl switches off, taking each of his sons every other year to the sporting event, but this year Daniel himself had an all-star tournament that fell during the same time. “I told him, ‘You’ll have to miss the all-star tournament,’ and he looked at me and said ‘Dad, you come to all my games every year, and I can come see you this time,’” McColl said. “As a dad, I said, ‘Wow, that’s really special for me.’ I just enjoy every day and all the little things that come with it.”