Boulder – Miguel Rueda has been hired as Colorado’s head athletic trainer.
Rueda, who started this week, was Fresno State’s head trainer for five years. He is considered one of the best in the business.
Before Fresno State, Rueda had stops at Holy Cross (1994-95), the Miami Dolphins (1997-98) and Towson University (1998-2001). He has an undergraduate degree from Boston University and a master’s from Fresno State.
He replaces Steve Willard, who resigned two weeks ago after seven years in the athletic department. Willard, who plans to enter private business, was a trainer for former coach Gary Barnett’s football teams at Northwestern and CU.
Rueda’s hiring caps nearly a complete makeover in the football and training departments. Eight of the 10 full-time football coaches are new. Jeff Pitman was hired in May to take over as the strength and conditioning coach, and Rueda heads the sports medicine department.
Ticket update
Colorado has had an 87 percent season-ticket renewal for the 2006 campaign, athletic director Mike Bohn said Tuesday.
The Buffs have sold 17,100 overall, nearly 4,000 shy of their goal for 2006. Of the total sold, 850 are new accounts.
In order to help spark lagging season-ticket sales over the past few seasons, the Buffs have used former coach Bill McCartney and other volunteers to persuade existing season-ticket holders to renew and other fans to buy in.
Also, Bohn expects to sell out the club seats and suites. Single-game tickets went on sale Tuesday.
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
