Coaching Corner

Valor Christian athletics faces turmoil after football coach resigns

Amid a high-profile search for a new football coach, the Valor Christian community wanted answers.

On Feb. 10, a group of parents, coaches and students gathered at the private school in Highlands Ranch to meet with head of school Bryan Ritz. The concerns centered around the resignation of football coach Bret McGatlin a month earlier and how his departure correlated to larger issues within the Eagles athletic department.

Criticism voiced at that meeting alleged a toxic environment within the department. That environment, critics said, had caused discontent, high coaching turnover and a perceived over-emphasis on winning championships over program stability.

Past and present coaches, as well as parents, held Valor Christian’s leadership responsible for the turmoil, which reached a tipping point with McGatlin’s resignation in January shortly after he was put on a performance improvement plan.

Both Ritz and athletic director Keith Wahl declined an interview request for this story, but Ritz addressed concerns voiced in the community meeting held Feb. 10 — audio of which was obtained by The Denver Post.

Valor Christian is one of the top athletic departments in Colorado, with 57 state championships since the school opened in 2007 — eight of which belong to the football program. The department is built on the notion of experiencing sports as an act of worship, led by “transformational” coaches who reject the idea of winning at all costs and “choose a countercultural approach to athletics,” according to the school’s website. But the foundation of those values had been shaken, critics at the meeting said.

To understand the tumult around the school’s athletic department, The Post interviewed more than a dozen coaches and parents who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution from the school.

At the core of their concerns was a belief that Valor Christian athletics had lost its way.

“It’s devastating that this culture in the athletic department is pulling people apart, and misleading and misrepresenting people,” assistant football coach Matt Fox, who declined an interview request from The Post, said at the meeting. “And quite frankly, the behaviors are serial, the behaviors are intentional and premeditated, and it’s not a coincidence.

“And for me, it’s disappointing, because this isn’t about Coach McGatlin entirely. That man lived up to every ethos that this school put in front of him.”

McGatlin’s resignation

Former Valor High School head football coach Bret McGatlin, left, and then-new offensive coordinator Bob Stitt prepare for the upcoming season at the school in Highlands Ranch on Aug. 15. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

When Valor Christian announced McGatlin’s resignation Jan. 16, Wahl told the community that McGatlin was leaving the Eagles after three seasons to “pursue new opportunities in his career.”


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