Mike Sanford appointed football coach with Valor Christian

Mike Sanford is about a headset in his microphone.

The former interim boss football coach at the CU and the long -time offensive coordinator of College returns to the coaching world when he was announced as a new coach at Valor Christian.

Please welcome coach Mike Sanford, our new boss football coach! 🤩🏈🦅 #Govalor

– Valor Christian Athletics (@valorathletics) February 28, 2025

He takes over Brett McGatlin, who stepped down from the program at the beginning of this winter.

Sanford came to Colorado as a member of Karl Dorrell's employees in the 2022 season. After two years in Minnesota, where he held the same position, he was discontinued as a quarterback trainer and offensive coordinator.

He has additional experience in the head coach outside of seven games with the buffs. He was head coach in Western Kentucky from 2017-18. His curriculum vitae is more than solid when he played in Boise State from 2000 to 2004 before entering the coaching ranks. His stops include UNLV, Yale, Stanford, Boise State, Notre Dame and Utah State at the head of Western Kentucky, Minnesota and Colorado.

When Deion Sanders was stopped as a Buffs trainer in December 2022, Sanford was not held back in the staff. Since then he has jumped into the media world, where he became an integral part of the height sports radio and as an analyst for local television stations.

He is commissioned to return the Eagles to the championship level of the game that they have got used to.

Valor last played in the State Championship game in class 5a in 2022 and lost to Cherry Creek 24-17. For the Eagles it was the third defeat against the Bruins in the title game in just as many years.

In 2023, the Eagles came to the Staatsturnier as seeds No. 7, but lost in their first game of the off-season against the legend of number 10. In this autumn they reached the semi-finals as No. 5 seeds, but lost to Cherry Creek 42-17.

This was the first time that the Eagles had not played for a state championship in two seasons since winning their first state championship title in 2009.

Valor lost in the semi -finals in 2017 and 2019. The 2017 defeat against Grandview and the 2019 defeat against Columbine. After each of these losses, the head coach (Rod Sherman and Ed McCafrey) did not return the following year.

Sanford now has the task of catching up the Eagles with Dave Logans Cherry Creek program. The Bruins have been the dominant football team in Colorado since 2019 and won five of the last six 5A football titles.