Valor Christian names Donnie Yantis its new football coach
Valor Christian has hired Donnie Yantis, a coach with experience ranging from college to high school, to be its next football coach, the school announced on Friday.
Yantis comes to Valor Christian from Arizona State University, where he was most recently the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.
“Coach Yantis is an unbelievable mentor to his players and comes with a wealth of football knowledge from the high school level all the way to NCAA Division I level,” said Valor Christian athletic director Brian Bonn. “Donnie’s desire to be more than a coach and be a supporter for all things that are Valor Christian is exactly what we need in our community.”
Yantis was an assistant at Arizona State for two seasons, and served as the program’s assistant athletic director for football recruiting for two seasons prior to that.
Prior to ASU, Yantis was the head football coach at Arizona Christian, an NAIA program which he helped start in 2014. That same year, he was named the NAIA Independent Conference coach of the year.
He previously coached at Glendale (Ariz.) and Paradise Valley (Ariz.) high schools, where he was 94-70 in 13 seasons, and led his teams to nine playoff appearances.
“My goal as … head football coach is to build upon the success of the program by reinforcing the championship culture at Valor, and to elevate it by integrating my years of knowledge and experience in coaching and leading young men, to be the best they can be both on and off the field,” Yantis said.
Yantis succeeds Ed McCaffrey, who was hired as the coach at the University of Northern Colorado in December following two seasons as head coach. McCaffrey’s teams were 24-2, including a 14-0 run and the 2018 Class 5A championship. The Eagles were 10-2 last season, and reached the quarterfinals.
Yanits is the fourth head coach in school history, following Brent Vieselmeyer (2008-12), Rod Sherman (2013-17) and McCaffrey (2018-19).
The program has won eight championships in its history.
Follow all of football’s coaching changes this offseason in our coaching changes tracker.
