Legend names former Cherokee Trail head Monte Thelen its new football coach
Monte Thelen, who spent 13 years as the head football coach at Cherokee Trail before stepping down after the 2015 season, has been hired by Legend.
Titans athletic director Kevin Boley announced the hire on Wednesday afternoon.
The hire is a huge move for the school, and the program. Thelen is a well-known and successful coach who has been a head coach for a number of years, including 12 at Rangeview prior to starting the program Cherokee Trail.
Thelen was 89-43 at Cherokee Trail, including an appearance in the Class 5A championship game in 2012.
“He was a coach that basically built that (Cherokee Trail) program from scratch and built it through those infant stages, and from (Class) 4A into 5A, and then into the Centennial League,” Boley said. “And, obviously to the state championship game against Valor.”
The Cougars went 5-5 last season, and hired Thelen’s defensive coordinator Dain Mangnall to replace him in December.
Thelen takes over for Robert Doyle at Legend, who had been there since 2011. Doyle’s teams were 22-28 in his five seasons.
Boley and the school went through the process of replacing Doyle, and were close to making a hire last month, but hit a late snag. It caused the search to start from scratch.
“At the conclusion of that, I reached out to Monte and just basically expressed an interest,” said Boley, who is also Legend’s boys basketball coach.
Thelen didn’t apply for the job the first time around, but Boley told him, “If you’re interested, I’d love to have a conversation with you.”
The two had crossed paths while both worked at Rangeview in the 1990s.
“When we were looking for coaches, especially when things didn’t work out the first time,” Boley said, “I was asking people and I was relying on friends — other ADs, other coaches — and I was asking, ‘Who should I be talking to?’ And Monte’s name kept popping up. So his reputation and his success was just really exciting for us, and we’re just really excited that he was in a situation where he was available and ready for another opportunity.”
Thelen will take over a Legend program which has had just one winning season in its eight-year history, though the Titans have quickly climbed the classification ladder with its growing enrollment in Parker. The Titans, now playing in 5A, went 4-6 in 2015.
“I think historically, when you look at football teams and new schools, I think football probably takes the most time to develop,” Boley said. “You need big kids, you need lots of kids, and things like that.
“I think we’re at that point now where we’re really excited about some of our returning kids,” Boley added. “We have the best freshman group that we’ve had since the school opened. We feel like we’re just the right coach away from being able to get to that next level in football.
“And I think when you’re talking about the Parker area, you’ve got lots of athletes, you’ve got great feeder teams, so the the right coach can have a huge impact on your program and on your school.”
Among those returners is quarterback Marc Muma, who threw for 1,320 yards last season and accounted for 14 total touchdowns. The team also returns experience at running back and receiver, as well as all over the field on defense.
Thelen becomes the third coach in Legend’s school history. Michael Wade was the team’s first coach, and led it from 2008-10.
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