Story by Carson Creech

Photo by Jeremiah Holmes

AURORA — The Gateway football team, coached by Rashad Mason, finished the season 8-2, a five-win improvement from 2025.

Today, he is being recognized as the Broncos High School Tackle Coach of the Week. The Denver Broncos and CHSAA will continue to honor one flag football coach and one tackle football coach each week throughout the season.

Throughout the season, all Coach of the Week honorees will be recognized on the field during a pregame ceremony at Broncos home games.

Q&A with Rashad Mason:

What was your football background before becoming the head coach at Gateway? How did you end up at Gateway?
Originally, I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. From Nashville, I was honored to receive a scholarship to the University of North Carolina. That's where I first started coaching, for the club football team in North Carolina while I was finishing up my degree. Started there in 2017, then moved back to Nashville, and that's when I started coaching high school.

How did you end up at Gateway?

It's a crazy story. One of my buddies that I knew from college ball asked me to come out here with him. He ended up leaving the next year and I decided to stay. My first job at Gateway was the head baseball coach, but the next year, I got the head football coach job.

How would you describe your coaching style or philosophy?

What I tell my kids is a next-play mentality and trying to persevere through adversity. You never know how it comes, but we know it's going to be there. Preparing for the worst and just playing ball, having that mental toughness. Also, holding each other accountable and giving a winning effort. When it comes to coaching, I'm a guy that I feel like we can go multiple on both sides of the ball. Anything we want to do, I was confident enough for me and my staff to be able to implement it.

What kind of expectations did you bring coming into this season?

To be honest, I felt like we had a good opportunity to win the league championship. These were my freshmen that I started with when I first got the job as a head coach, and they've been with me for four years. I knew we had a good opportunity based off the dedication they had shown throughout the summer, and how they were competing approaching the game. I thought that we were going to be able to get the league championship, but we fell short to George Washington.

Since becoming the head coach, this season was the most successful in terms of wins and losses. What changes did you make on and off the football field that helped make this season successful?
This year the guys really got after it in the summer. This year is the first time that we had over 30 kids showing up every day in the summer. It was tough for us definitely because we didn't have a football field to practice on. This whole season, we practiced on the JV baseball field. I was also able to get a lot more coaches there this year. We ended up with nine coaches on the staff, so that really helped a lot. Everyone grinded and it was awesome with everybody being committed.

After just barely missing the playoffs this year, how did you handle that conversation with your team?

First and foremost, I told them I was extremely proud of them because we were projected to go 1-9. I told them for what they did this season, especially without having a practice field with lights, I told them that I'm extremely proud of them. Don't hold your heads down, y'all played your best. My whole thing was just proving people wrong, and they did that this year. They'll still go down as one of the greatest teams that came through Gateway. The guys who had seen the hurt on all those seniors' faces knowing how hard we worked, they don't want to feel that same feeling again. We're just going to put our head down and work.

What does this team mean to you as a coach and community?

It means everything. It's everything for this community. It's been overlooked for so long. Being able to bring life back into it for those underprivileged kids that don't get a lot of resources, hopefully we can show that if you've got determination and focus on your craft, you'll be able to accomplish anything. It was huge for the community, for us, and for these kids.

I want to talk about your experience in being the baseball coach as well as the strength and conditioning coach for Gateway as well. How does that impact your football coaching style?

For me, growing up as a three-sport athlete, it's everything. I think just being in the building and being able to be a crutch for these kids, if anything's happening, come talk to me. I'm really like a father figure to a lot of these kids and it's not just the athletes, it's everybody in the school. They're comfortable talking with me and I try to help them out. With the baseball, that's when I saw my first success because we ended up winning the league championship in 2025. It started there and then I think everybody started believing and it trickled down to football. I'm just glad to be here and help Gateway be successful and get the light that they need.

Is there anything we didn't get a chance to talk about today or anybody you want to give a shoutout to before we wrap up?
My coaching staff, the Gateway community, our Athletic Director, Paul Jefferson, for giving me the opportunity. My wife, my kids, and everybody that's been here and supporting me and supporting Gateway.