[3] He attended St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs, where he played football under legendary head coach Marijon Ancich as a center, winning the 1972 CIF Southern Section title.
[8][13] In 1982, Carberry was named head football coach at St. Anthony High School,[8] taking over a rebuilding team with only one returning starter.
[18][19] In 1989, Carberry was hired as head football coach at Monte Vista High School,[4] taking over what The San Diego Union-Tribune described as a "once-moribund program".
[25][26] In 2003, he guided the Monarchs to a 10–2–1 record and another CIF-SDS Division II championship, defeating Helix in the final at the renamed Qualcomm Stadium.
[27] In 14 seasons at Monte Vista, Carberry led the Monarchs to two CIF-SDS championships, seven league crowns, and 11 playoff berths.
[2] Gary Watkins Jr., who played for Carberry at Monte Vista in the early 2000s and later coached against him in the junior college ranks, facetiously described the discipline he imposed on his players as "almost paramilitary".
[24][29] In an effort to attract untapped talent from south Riverside County, he hired assistants with ties to the area and moved some of the team's practices to the school's more centralized Menifee campus to increase exposure.
[30] Ahead of his second season at the helm in 2005, Carberry landed two NCAA Division I transfers who went to high school in the area: quarterback Matt Ticich (San Diego) and wide receiver Chris Kehne (Idaho).
In 2007, Carberry was hired as head football coach at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California.
[36] In 2008, Southwestern joined the newly-formed Southern California Football Association and notably ended their nine-year losing streak against local rival Grossmont.
[37] Carberry led the Jaguars to an American Mountain Conference co-championship, which they shared with San Diego Mesa,[38] as well as a berth in the inaugural Tremblay Financial Services Bowl, where they lost to Pasadena.
[1] In 2012, Carberry led Southwestern to a 10–1 record and a conference title,[43] as well as a victory over Santa Monica in the American Bowl.
[1] Carberry's resurrection of the program – as described by Tod Leonard of The San Diego Union-Tribune – led the school to commit to a multimillion-dollar renovation of their home stadium, DeVore Stadium, which was "transformed... into one of the best community college home fields in the country" upon its completion ahead of the 2014 season.
"[2][57] In 14 seasons at Southwestern, Carberry compiled an 88–59 record and led the Jaguars to four conference titles and eight bowl game berths.
[35][58] The couple enjoys traveling, especially visiting historic baseball stadiums and attending college football rivalry games.