AURORA | Overland’s new head football coach turned out to be in the building already.
A month after Seth Replogle stepped down after five seasons due to health concerns, the school hired Steve Sewell — who works at Overland as a post grad specialist — to take over the program.
Athletic director Ryan Knorr told the Sentinel that Sewell — a former Denver Broncos running back in the John Elway era — accepted the job on Thursday evening.
The 52-year-old Sewell succeeds Replogle, who had a 23-29 record with the Trailblazers, including a 2-8 mark in the 2016 campaign in which Overland ushered in an almost completely new group of starting players. Overland missed out on postseason play for the first time since 2011 when they went 1-9 before Replogle took over the next season.
Sewell’s coaching experience is extensive, as he spent seven seasons as the running backs coach at Colorado State-Pueblo, helping John Wristen launch the program and build it to national championship caliber. In Sewell’s time with the ThunderWolves, they won four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships and took the Division II national title with a 13-0 won over Minnesota State-Mankato in 2014.
The track record Sewell developed with running backs should be a boon as Overland had two of the best running backs in the area last season in Jaion Colbert and Donavan Carver, who combined for 1,964 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns. Both are expected to return for their senior seasons in 2017 and form part of a nucleus that also includes plenty of athletes in Cameron Murray, Jalone Rice and DJ Reid.
As a player, Sewell was a first round draft pick for the Broncos out of the University of Oklahoma.
Sewell joins original coach Ken Milano, Tony Manfredi, Woolfork and Replogle as the only coaches in the history of the school.
Manfredi was recently chosen as a member of the Class of 2017 of the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel