Mike Campbell, former Arapahoe coach, takes football job at Englewood
Mike Campbell led Arapahoe’s football program for 15 seasons. Now, he is headed to Englewood.
Campbell announced his resignation from Arapahoe earlier this month, and was introduced as the Pirates coach on Wednesday.
“It’s awesome. I’m looking forward to it,” Campbell said on Wednesday evening after he was introduced. “I’m going to go after it the same way I have always gone after football: with everything I have, and do right by the kids, and try to put a competitive program on the field.”
Campbell led Arapahoe from 2003-17. He started there as an assistant in 1996.
“Finishing up 15 years as a head coach at Arapahoe, you kind of start looking at goals for the next five years,” Campbell said. “It just started really resonating with me that maybe my time was up there, and it was time to do something different.”
Campbell focused in on a small-school environment. He found it at Englewood, which has an enrollment of 547 competes in Class 2A.
“There’s just something about it,” Campbell said. “You go to these small towns, and you go in, they’ve got their own stadium, they got the mascot on the 50-yard-line, and everybody comes from the neighborhood and walks to the game.
“It’s just something I always wanted to do with my life,” he added. “I have a lot of buddies that I played college football with that are in smaller towns in Washington and Oregon, and they just love it. You’re here in Denver, but you’re also in a small town. It just had that feel. I wanted to try something different.”
Another draw for Campbell was the fact that Englewood has recently renovated all of its athletic facilities, as well as a supportive administration.
“When you talk facilities,” he said, “they’re second to none.”
At Englewood, he will take over a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2010. The Pirates are coming off of consecutive 4-5 seasons.
Campbell, one of the top coaches in the state, should be up to the challenge. He led Arapahoe to three 10-win seasons since 2004, and had a 90-68 record at the 5A program.
“We had a really, really deep candidate pool,” Englewood athletic director Nate Smith said. “When the committee got together and we interviewed people, obviously Mike’s track record does not need any additions to it — he’s got a strong track record — but what impressed the committee the most was a strong commitment to academic-based athletics, and really, his thoughts about supporting the athletes and building relationships with them and just helping them be the best people they can be.
“It really came through that he really cared about his athletes.”
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