Valor Christian announced Friday that director of performance Jamie Heiner would be replacing Valor’s first-ever athletic director, Rod Sherman, effective June 1, head of school Kurt Unruh confirmed.
Sherman announced in January he would be and accepting a new position as director of institutional advancement. He will still serve as head football coach.
“We are very grateful for Rod Sherman’s founding of Valor athletics,” Unruh said in an e-mail. “Thanks to Rod and his team, Jamie Heiner takes over a successful program. Our expectation is that Jamie will continue to improve and enhance Valor athletics for the benefit of our students and I believe he is the perfect individual to lead our program into the future.”
The position change was announced to Valor’s parent community in an e-mail Friday morning. Heiner has served as the director of performance since 2012, and the leader of the Athletic Chaplaincy Program for the past two years.
“It’s going to be a very different role for me,” Heiner said of his promotion. “My role before was overseeing all the strength and conditiong in the weight room, and building specific programs for all 24 sports.”
Unruh’s e-mail to the Valor community states Heiner has created quality relationships with students, coaches and parents, and “has a long personal history of working in sports as an athlete himself, as a business owner and as a coach and mentor.
“His experience and skills along with his passion to see our students develop both as athletes and as young men and women of faith make him an ideal director for our program,” Unruh said.
But Heiner still has big shoes to fill. Sherman had served as the athletic director since the school first opened its doors in 2007. “Quite honestly, I’ve never considered being an AD in my life until there was an opportunity,” Heiner said. He started his first business in 2003, and opened Impact Sports Performance training facility in Broomfield in 2005.
“I never thought I would leave that,” Heiner said. But opportunity knocked.
One of his best friends, former NFL defensive tackle Darius Holland, recommended Heiner to Sherman when Valor was in need of a new director of performance. Holland was working for Valor as an enrollment coordinator at that time. Heiner also had a recommendation from Valor assistant offensive line coach Joe Nu’u.
“Rod Sherman reached out to me for the position, and it wasn’t something I ever thought I’d do. But I was very sure of the call to go to Valor. And when the AD position opened up, after talking with Rod and coaches, I personally felt a call to make that transition too,” Heiner said.
After going through an intense interview process — six hours, speaking with the director of spiritual life, head coaches, Sherman and even athletes — Heiner was Valor’s guy.
Valor is now left with a few positions to fill, including a .
Heiner takes up AD duties in exactly one month. The first order of business is to hire a replacement for director of performance.
“It’s really the foundation of our athletic program,” Heiner said.
Morgan Dzakowic: 303-954-1275, mdzakowic@denverpost.com or twitter.con/morgandzak
