Brian VanGorder planned on retiring from coaching to spend time with his wife and six children.
Then American Heritage-Delray asked if he would take over the reins of the school’s high school football program.
“I walked away from the college game with no ambition to go back to the college or pro game a couple of years ago,” said VanGorder, 63, who was the defensive coordinator at Gulf Shores High School in Alabama under Mark Hudspeth last season. “I was over at Gulf Shores last year and really enjoyed that. I thought I would retire at Gulf Shore.
“The Laurie family is very important to me,” he said referring to school founder William Laurie and now his son, Dr. Douglas Laurie. “They mentored me while I was young. I coached at American Heritage Plantation and then Douglas asked me to coach here.”
The Stallions got off to a good start in VanGorder’s debut at his new school as they downed Tradition Prep 49-8 at home in the season opener.
Senior quarterback Josh Ramos was 7 for 7 for 114 yards and two scores and added 70 yards on the ground and another TD. Senior Aiden Howard ran for 98 yards and Jackson Patterson contributed 33 yards and three scores. Seniors Matt Galardi (79 yards) and Ryan Vanscoy (31 yards, TD) also helped in the receiving game. Senior linebacker Roman Navarro led the defense with 11 tackles.
Ramos, 17, of West Palm Beach, is in his second year at Delray after spending the previous two years at Suncoast.
He said he wanted to be part of a program that is trying to return to the prominence when it won state championships in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
“My goal was to just win,” said the dual threat quarterback. “I just wanted to do my job and I had trust in the guys to do what they had to do. I think we can go far if we keep doing what we did tonight and just trust in ourselves.”
VanGorder brings a wealth of experience as his coaching career began in 1981 at West Bloomfield High School in Michigan as an assistant. He served as the head coach at three South Florida high schools, including Boca Raton Academy (now the Boca Raton campus of Pine Crest School). VanGorder posted a record of 52–16 and was named “Coach of the Year” on seven occasions. VanGorder’s 1987 American Heritage School (Plantation) team was ranked No. 1 in the state of Florida.
He joined the college ranks in 1989 at Grand Valley State University as a linebackers coach before becoming head football coach at Wayne State University and Georgia Southern University. VanGorder also had stops at the University of Central Florida, Central Michigan, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Louisville, Auburn, Bowling Green and in the NFL as a linebackers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons, where he also became the defensive coordinator.
VanGorder succeeded Nick Martinez, who took over the American Heritage football program in September 2020 after the death of head coach Brian Sheridan.
He said he likes high school football because of the youth of the kids and added that the players at the school have been respectful.
“They are learners, and they are very disciplined,” VanGorder said. “I have always been a coach that has enjoyed development, so I believe there is a piece of that puzzle that is wide open of training and teaching high school kids. They all have a good spirit.
“Then there is a part of me, someone with six kids, to be back with them and try and mentor them and give them information from someone who has been through a lot” he said. “A lot of our kids have grade-point-averages over 4.0, so they are pure student athletes. Out of our 12 senior athletes, I believe there are five that want to go on and play college football. We have 19 ninth-graders and as we grow them that conversation about being Power-5 or major college football might change. There are great stories and great learning that can come from all of those experiences.”
Navarro, 17, also a West Palm Beach resident, acknowledged there was some trepidation when the season began because they were getting their third coach in three seasons.
“There were a lot of uncertainties going into this offseason,” he said. “Something that could have been unfortunate, turned out to be pretty fortunate because we have coach VanGorder, and he is a pretty awesome head coach. We have a whole new coaching staff surrounding us on both sides of the ball. All around, we have some of the best position coaches in South Florida.
“Something that was a worry for some of us rising seniors turned into something we are looking forward to going into this year,” Navarro said. “I have been here since middle school, and we have had four different head coaches. We had some come and go and we had coach Sheridan who unfortunately passed away two years ago. It was important for us to get some new coaches out here and go out with a bang. We want to have some fun, play some football and coach VanGorder is setting us up in the best way to do exactly that.”
Boynton Beach’s Patterson, 17, said the team is just trying to take the next step to being a solid program.
“We wanted to become a team,” Patterson said. “We have a lot of freshmen this year. We just wanted to create that bond this first week so we could keep it going for the rest of the season. We have a good thing going here and one thing that coach VanGorder preaches is family. We stay together and we’ll be OK.”
Vanscoy, who returned this year after sitting out the previous two due to COVID concerns, has been at the school since the fourth grade.
“I missed it a lot,” said Vanscoy, 17, of Lake Worth. “I was still at home training, but this is what coach VanGorder is building — family.”
