Valor Christian’s Rod Sherman, pictured during last season’s Class 5A football championship game, is moving from athletic director to a new role. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Valor Christian has appointed Rod Sherman as the school’s Director of Institutional Advancement, meaning one of the state’s most successful athletic departments is in search of a new head.
The school announced the move in a press release on Tuesday evening.
“Rod is a founding member of our leadership team and I know he will do an exceptional job leading these (other) areas for our school (in his new role). We felt strongly this position needed to be filled from within,” Kurt Unruh, Valor’s Head of School, said in the release. “Of course there is concern when you take a highly accomplished person out of their area of expertise and ask them to lead a new area, but, we believe strongly in Rod and know that the skills he brought to developing our athletic program are transferable to other areas of the school.”
Sherman has been the Eagles’ AD since the school was founded in 2007. In his time heading the athletic department, Valor Christian has won 11 state championships, including five in football, as well as 30 league championships.
He was the football team’s offensive coordinator from 2007-12 before becoming head coach prior to the 2013 season. In that first year, Sherman led the Eagles to the Class 5A title. Valor returned to the championship game this season, but lost to Cherry Creek.
Sherman will remain as football coach.
His new role will oversee “the functions of admissions/retention, branding, fundraising and parent community,” according to the release.
“I am honored to have served the Valor community as athletic director since the school’s inception in 2007,” Sherman said in the release. “I have learned much during my tenure, and am thankful for the many relationships and experiences it has afforded.
“Looking forward, I am humbled and excited to transition to the role of Director of Institutional Advancement and am equally excited to watch the athletic department grow under the leadership of a new athletic director.”
The school’s search for a new athletic director will begin “immediately,” according to the release.