SAN JOSE – Mike Machado, who turned Valley Christian into a football powerhouse amid its transition to the West Catholic Athletic League in the early 2000s, has stepped down as head coach after nearly three decades, the school announced Monday.
In 29 years leading Valley and three as head coach at Saratoga, where he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, Benny Pierce, Machado guided his teams to eight Central Coast Section championships and 252 victories.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as the head football coach at Valley Christian for the past three decades,” Machado said in a statement. “Our program is built on incredible student-athletes, families, and coaches. I am confident that the future of Warrior Football is bright, and I look forward to supporting the next coach as the program continues to grow.”
As a freshman coach at Saratoga, his roster included now 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.
Machado took over Saratoga’s varsity program in 1995 – replacing Pierce, then the CCS’s all-time winningest coach at 269 victories – and led the Falcons to the section’s Division IV championship in 1996.
Two years later, Machado made the move to Valley Christian, which became a football juggernaut by the middle of the 2000s.
The school moved into a new state-of-the-art campus on a hilltop in South San Jose and in 2003 joined the CCS’s strongest league, the WCAL.
Valley won the CCS Division I title in 2002 and cakewalked to the Division IV championship a year later, which led to the creation of an Open Division in 2004.
The Warriors won back-to-back Open championships in 2005 and 2006, leaving little doubt that they were the best in the CCS during that period.
Valley continued to contend for CCS and WCAL championships over the next two decades but struggled to stabilize itself after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Warriors won the last of their seven CCS championships under Machado in 2018 and the last of their seven WCAL crowns under the coach in 2019.
This season, Valley finished 3-7.
“Coach Machado’s impact on students, athletes, and families will be felt for generations,” Valley Christian Principal Dr. Jennifer Silva said in a statement. “His leadership, character, and commitment to developing young men of God have left a remarkable legacy. We are grateful he will continue to serve our community as Dean of Students at VCHS.”
Qualified applicants for the head-coaching position are asked to email Eric Scharrenberg at football@vcs.net.