Javi Valdes Named Killian Head Coach

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Javi Valdes knows how to build up a program.

During his two years at Mater Academy, he led the Lions to their first football playoff berth in school history. Then in his one season at Coral Reef, Valdes doubled the Barracudas' win total from the season before his arrival.

Now he's taking over another program ready to rebuild.

SFHSSports learned late last week and confirmed Monday that Valdes has been named the new head football coach at Killian.

Valdes replaces Cory Johnson, a Killian alum that went 41-15 in five seasons as the Cougars head coach.

Johnson was "forced to resign by the Killian administration" according to a tweet sent out by a Twitter account said to be a fan page of the Cougars' football team. The tweet also said the administration "felt a new direction was needed".

When reached for comment, Johnson – who led Killian to the region 4-8A final two seasons ago – only confirmed his resignation but elected not to comment further.

Valdes, whose Coral Reef team lost to Killian 14-13 during the early part of the 2015 regular season, said he's very excited about the new opportunity.

"It's not every day that you get the opportunity to coach a perennially top-10 program," Valdes said. "Killian has great tradition. I'm really excited about the level of completion – every week we're in the fire. There are no easy games and I like the challenge of that."

"Replacing Coach [Cory] Johnson is not going to be easy. The kids care about him immensely. But we're going to lay out a good program that'll make people proud. The administration believes in me and believes that we'll be successful," Valdes added.

Valdes brings with him an impressive resume.

He has three years of experience as a head coach along with multiple years of being an assistant at Homestead, Southridge, Belen and Archbishop Carroll – making Valdes a coach both familiar and in tune with the Miami-Dade County's south region.

He'll take over a Killian squad that will be rebuilding.

The Cougars went 5-4 this past season and missed the playoffs after falling in the first leg of a three-team district playoff. Although, many of the players the Cougars would've been counting on to return and be key contributors for 2016 have reportedly transferred to other programs.

2017 three-star running back Bentavious Thompson, who was second in rushing and third in receiving for Killian in 2015, is among the handful of players that transferred to district rival Southridge. 6-foot-2, 2018 receiver Daquris Wiggins – a University of Miami verbal commit – and athlete Antwaun Collier were said to also have joined the Spartans.

Valdes, who confirmed that former Christopher Columbus assistant coach Manny Fresnedo will join his staff at Killian as assistant head coach, said he's confident in the 'K' tradition and the impact it'll have on players moving forward.

"We're Killian," said Valdes. "We expect to be in the district mix every year. And whoever is here is who we want. There's enough talent at Killian to make a run. We have some good players coming back in quarterback Cariq Rackley and linebackers Mike Martinez and Romelo Brooks."

"We're going to be just fine – we're going to play to our strength and work to be the best version of ourselves."