HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — The sports world is small, the football world is even smaller and a lot of times coaches and players cross paths along their respective journeys.
Valor Christian HS Head Football Coach Mike Sanford has coached all over from Western Kentucky to Utah State, Notre Dame to even CU Boulder.
Since taking over at Valor before the 2025 season, Sanford told Denver7's Douglas County Reporter Tyler Melito coaching has taken on new meaning for him, beyond just wins and losses.
"This has been the most exciting and fun and rewarding two years of my coaching life," Sanford shared. "There's more to this than just coaching football, than just the improvement of people's skill set, but the impact and the opportunity to transform. Hopefully, with our program, young people from the ages of 14 to 18, that to me is is the responsibility and the calling that I wanted to have in life."
Sanford saying high school football is the last bastion of football.
"When I first got hired to Valor Christian, it was March of 2025, first team meeting. You had 110, 115 individuals that were sitting up in their chair, and frankly hanging on just about every word that I was having to say," described Sanford.
During his career, he's coached a lot of players, some of whom have gone on to the NFL, take for example Brady Russell who was a player when Sanford was the interim-head coach at CU Boulder.
"Brady Russell's one of my favorite players that I've ever coached," Sanford said. "My wife is not a very hands-on with with being at everything. She's not the head coach's wife that you know shows up to every meal or goes to pregame meal, does not want to be on the sideline, but she does love the love getting to know the people that I get to coach and one of her favorite players, that I've ever coached, is Brady Russell."
Sanford saying he is not surprised with Brady's success now in the NFL.
"Brady was a walk-on, Brady didn't have any recruitment, Brady was an undrafted free agent that had to fight scratch and claw to even get on a roster," Sanford said. "He was cut by his uncle [Matt Russell, currently an executive for the Philadelphia Eagles front office]. His uncle at the Philadelphia Eagles. They brought him in, and he was he was on his way to Seattle, and and found a way. Now he's a captain for the defending Super Bowl champion."
While it has been a few years since he coached Brady, Sanford isn't done with the Russell family, now coaching Reis Russell, a standout offensive lineman for the Eagles who is also Brady's cousin.
"I think that Reis embodies characteristics that the same characteristic that that Brady did, and that's joy," Sanford detailed.
Reis, a Senior at Valor, will play the next chapter in his football life at the University of Washington he told Melito. He shared he's known Coach Sanford since he was in the 3rd Grade, going to his cousin's practices at CU. When he found out Sanford would be coming to Valor for his Junior and Senior seasons, Reis says he was ecstatic, calling it a full circle moment.
"I heard he was going to be our head coach, and I was so fired up," Reis recalled. "It's been so great with him. I mean, just getting to you know know him and his family so much more, and playing for Coach Sanford, I mean, I hear such great things about him from Brady, and then I was finally able to feel it myself, and it was it was so special."
While Reis says he has a lot of amazing football role models, he credits Coach Sanford for being someone everyone on the team including himself can trust.
"I think the biggest thing is he's holding us accountable. I mean, it doesn't matter who you are in this program. If you're a freshman who hasn't played a snap for this team yet, or if you're a senior leader on this team, everyone's held to the standard every single day, and everyone's pushed to be their greatest," Reis said.
It's not just Reis and Brady who are a part of the Russell Family Football Bloodline. Reis sharing his dad, the aforementioned Matt Russell was a stellar linebacker at CU Boulder, ranking second in program history for career tackles. Reis' uncle also played at Arkansas. But coming from a strong football family, Reis has tried to blaze his own path.
"Doing my own thing, playing offensive line, and just learning a whole new craft has been really fun," Reis described. "Just doing everything I can to continue on the Russell legacy, and you know, having my own path through that is really cool."
