Head Coach-Ryan Marini
Coach Marini is excited to be heading into his 8th year of being the head coach at Denver South. He will also serve as defensive coordinator for the Ravens. In the past 7 years, under Coach Marini’s direction, the program has gone 44-28, including 3 league championships and 4 state playoff appearances. Coach Marini is in his 22nd year of teaching social studies in Denver Public Schools, the past 12 years at Denver South High School the previous 10 years at Abraham Lincoln High School. He has coached football at a plethora of schools, including Lincoln, Heritage, Cherry Creek, Littleton, and Denver South. In addition to football, he coached 8 years of basketball at Lincoln during their two state championships (2007 & 2008). Coach Marini played strong safety at Heritage High School (Class of ’98) and at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA (National Playoff Qualifier, 1999). He would like to thank his wife Christy (teacher at Campus Middle School) for her role as Director of On-field Technology and generally putting up with his nonsense.
Offensive Coordinator-Kyle Baker
Coach Baker is in his 7th year coaching in Colorado at Denver South. He will again serve as varsity offensive coordinator for the Ravens. This is his 14th year total as a high school coach. Previous to South he coached 7 years in the Orlando metro area. While in Florida Coach Baker was lucky enough to have coached 23 Division I scholarship athletes and 68 total scholarships. Coach Baker loves fishing and any thing football. He would also like to thank his wife Emma for supporting him through all his adventures.
JV O-Coordinator/Varsity OL Coach Mike Patterson
Coach (Mike) Patterson will be entering his 6th season coaching at Denver South. This year he will be coaching the varsity offensive line, as well as be the OC for the JV Team. Coach Patterson’s coaching has consisted of the last 6 years at South, as well as being the varsity defensive line coach at George Washington High School for two years before that. Patterson will be entering his 3rd year of teaching at Denver South. During Patterson’s high school career, he was a unanimous selection to the Nebraska All-State Football Team by both the Omaha World-Herald, and Lincoln Journal Star during his senior season. His high school success on the field, as well as in the classroom earned him a football scholarship at the University of Sioux Falls where he was a part of two NAIA National Championship teams.
Varsity DB Coach-Duane Rich
Coach Duane Rich joins the staff for his 4th season after previously coaching for three years at Abraham Lincoln from 2015-2018. He started off as a offense and defensive assistant on the C-Team/JV (QBs,RBs,WRs,DBS). From there progressed to Varsity as the RBs coach. Coach Rich was a three-sport athlete in High School playing football, basketball, and running track earning letters in all three. He then earned a scholarship to play football at the Colorado School of the Mines, where he later transferred from after freshman year to Northern Colorado. Rich received his Bachelors’ in Finance and is now currently working on a Masters’ in Data Analytics. One of his favorite phrases is “Paralysis by Analysis,” which is something he hopes to eliminate when working with the team this year.
Varsity OLB Coach-Ben Harp
Coach Harp returns for his 4th year to coach inside linebackers at South. Born and raised in Boise, ID, Coach Harp was an all-conference corner at Borah HS. After high school, coach went on to student coach for the Idaho Vandals. He was lucky enough to coach under Robb Akey(current defensive coordinator at Central Michigan) where he worked on both side of the ball. Coach Harp is excited to give back and to be a positive influence to these young student/athletes as they navigate a fun but at times tricky and technical section of road.
Varsity WR Coach-Isaiah Sanchez
Coach Sanchez stepped on the football field at the age of 7 and fell in love with every aspect of the game and has been involved in football ever since. He played high school football at Bear Creek High in Lakewood, CO. His first coaching experience was as a flag football head coach with i9 sports, where he was part of back to back championship seasons. He then got the chance to be an assistant coach with the team he grew up playing for the Denver P.A.L. Redskins. He helped out with two different age groups this past season, 6-8 yr olds and as well as 12-14 yr olds. He will be again working with the WR’s this upcoming season, his 4th for the Denver South Rebels. He is excited to learn from the South coaching staff and wants to help prepare these student-athletes for life on and off the field.
Varsity ILB Coach-Alvaro Marquez
Coach Marquez enters his 3rd season coaching inside linebackers at Denver South and 6th season coaching football after coaching for two years at Abraham Lincoln High School and one year in Greeley coaching 5th graders. He was born and raised in Denver where he played football and ran track in High School. He earned his Bachelor’s in Business Administration at The University of Northern Colorado and currently owns and runs a construction business in concrete.
Varsity D-Line Coach-Darwin Cox
Coach Cox will be entering his 4th year of coaching at Denver South, again working with outside linebackers. In the previous 3 years, his 8 of his DL/OLB’s have earned all-league honors and one achieved all-state honors. Coach originally hails from Flint Michigan where he played high school football and baseball. He then went on to play 9 years of semi-pro football with the Flint Fury. Coach moved to Colorado in 2012 and has been coaching the last 6 years. Before coaching at Denver South, Coach Cox was part of the Hinkley High School staff that made the playoffs in his final two years coaching there. When not coaching, Coach Cox helps keep the city safe as Denver Sheriff.
Varsity RB Coach-Mouctar Kamara
Coach Mookie played high school football at Grandview and Thomas Jefferson High Schools and graduated from DC21 in 2016. As a high school athlete, Coach Mookie was a three-year varsity starter, an all-conference player as a Junior and Senior and a captain at Thomas Jefferson High School. During his senior year of high school he tore his ACL but recovered to come back and go to College at Chadron State. Coach Mookie has been coaching has been as the head coach for the Denver Eagles 6th, 7th and 8th grade football teams in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In three seasons we went from a 1-7 record to this year being undefeated in the regular season and being conference champions with a league Super Bowl appearance. Coach Mookie is excited to be joining the Denver South family. For Coach Mookie it is not just about football, but about teamwork, discipline, perseverance, goal setting, handling success and failure, time management, keeping fit, and building a lifetime of friendship with your teammates.
JV DL/OL Coach Francisco Wilson
JV DB/WR Coach Chris Simmons
Freshman Head Coach-Austin Meeler
Coach Meeler is excited to be the head freshman coach this year at South He coached at South during Coach Marini’s inaugural season as head coach, took some time off, and then returned 3 years ago. Prior to coaching at Denver South, coach Meeler was the head freshman coach at Littleton HS for 8 seasons. In addition to coaching football, coach Meeler has been coaching middle school basketball at Slavens K-8 for the past 9 years where he also teaches 3rd grade. Before coaching, Meeler played quarterback and defensive back at Palmer HS in Colorado Springs before playing quarterback at Adams State and Howard Payne University. Go Ravens!
Freshman Def. Coordinator Coach-Steve Gonzales
Coach G is entering his second year coaching at Denver South coaching the OL and DL. This year, Coach G will also be the DC for the Freshman team. Before coaching at South, Coach G coached youth football with the BV Generals, Lakewood Tigers and the Warhawks. Coach G play 4 years of semi-pro football. Coach G earned his degree in Business Management and Accounting with a minor in History from Chadron State, where he also played Rugby. When he’s not coaching, Coach G is a Fugitive Recovery Agent and a personal security contractor.
Freshman Coach-Nate Richey
Freshman Coach-Justin Jones
Coach (Just) Jones will be entering his his 1st season at South HS as a coach with the Freshmen team. Born and raised in Denver, a South HS graduate himself. He comes over as a very well respected youth coach and has been coaching youth football the past 9 seasons, coaching kids as young as 4 and 5 years old from flag football up until 7th grade tackle. He’s previously helped with our futures program the past 2 springs as well. Coach is looking forward to joining our staff and working with our student athletes as he continues his coaching journey as a Denver South Raven.