{"id":39307,"date":"2022-07-21T22:33:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T04:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/champenoy-returning-to-college-coaching\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:48:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:48:59","slug":"champenoy-returning-to-college-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/champenoy-returning-to-college-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Champenoy returning to college coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"DHS
DHS head coach Aaron Champenoy watches his boys soccer team practice on Thursday at DHS. Champenoy is in his fourth season as the team\u2019s head coach. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Fort Lewis College Department of Athletics announced the resignation of Assistant Athletic Director for External Operations, Aaron Champenoy on Tuesday, effective on Friday.<\/p>\n

Champenoy also was the head boys soccer coach at Durango High School, where he led the Demons to the 4A state quarterfinals for just the third time in the program\u2019s history last fall. Champenoy coached DHS for four seasons, leading the Demons to a 46-11-5 record during his tenure. He also served as the assistant athletic director in 2018 and the high school athletic director in 2019 and 2020 before joining FLC\u2019s staff last year.<\/p>\n

Champenoy isn\u2019t done coaching. He will return to the pitch as the head men\u2019s soccer coach at Montana State University Billings after an impactful year at FLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole decision was bittersweet,\u201d Champenoy said. \u201cI love the guys at the high school \u2013 we made it to the Elite 8 last year, and the culture and the relationships I built made it hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Fort Lewis, Champenoy said he was most proud of his efforts to help add lights to the Dirks\u2019 soccer field, which were installed over the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a super-exciting improvement for the programs at FLC,\u201d he said. With Durango\u2019s high school teams also expected to play under the lights, he said the lights are about more than just allowing night games take place, he said it should help make the field \u201ca community gathering place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank former Director of Athletics Brandon Leimbach for allowing me to join the Fort Lewis College athletic department,\u201d Champenoy said. \u201cIt has been an honor and pleasure to help lead the department as assistant athletic director and interim athletic director, and I feel confident in having left the program in a better place than I found it. I hope to have helped the Skyhawks grow to reach new levels of success while offering a different perspective to our administrative team.\u201d<\/p>\n

His most recent college coaching experience comes from Hastings College, an NAIA powerhouse that compiled a 43-3-2 record and the 2016 National Championship title during his stint. The native of Omaha, Nebraska, also coached the University of St. Thomas-Texas for nine seasons, bringing his college career coaching record to 175-91-19 over 15 seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to have Aaron join the department and lead the men\u2019s soccer program,\u201d said MSUB director of athletics Michael Bazemore, who made the appointment. \u201cHe brings a depth of experience with a proven track record of success, which includes a national championship and coach of the year accolades.\u201d<\/p>\n

His success was no different after transitioning into athletic administration. An advocate for continued improvement and the student-athlete experience, Champenoy could often be seen on the sidelines of home events, connecting with community members in hospitality areas, and representing Skyhawks athletics in the local community. In addition to his expertise in external operations, Champenoy served as interim director of athletics from April to July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank Aaron for all he has done for FLC Athletics. He has been helpful in my transition while providing interim leadership for the department in addition to doing a wonderful job as assistant AD,\u201d said Director of Athletics Travis Whipple. \u201cWe will certainly miss Aaron, but we wish him well as he follows his passion and returns to the sidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Champenoy replaces Thomas Chameraud, who announced last month that he would opt to not renew his contract after three seasons in charge of the Yellowjacket men\u2019s soccer program.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy passion has really always been the interaction with student athletes and to put all of my energy into coaching, I\u2019m looking forward to it quite a bit,\u201d Champenoy said.<\/p>\n

The Yellowjackets kick off their 2022 campaign with three preseason exhibition contests the week of Aug. 13. Champenoy will report Aug. 1, his players report Aug. 5, and they can start practicing Aug. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, maybe our paths will cross again because I absolutely loved being here,\u201d Champenoy said about Durango.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Champenoy steps down from Fort Lewis College, Durango High<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[592,132,28,845],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-high-school","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-headlines","tag-soccer"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84289,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39307\/revisions\/84289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39307"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}