Aztec hires former state champion Colton Weaver as head football coach

Aztec turned to one of its own to try to halt a steep slide in its football program, hiring former Tiger and 2011 state champion Colton Weaver as head coach after a stretch that has produced just one win in the last 18 games and six head coaches since 2020.

The Aztec High School athletic department announced the move on social media over the Memorial Day weekend, and the 30-year-old Weaver confirmed the hiring in an interview with the Tri-City Record. Weaver said, “I’m an Aztec guy through and through,” adding, “Graduated there, wife graduated from there, I’m a state champion from there.” He said he is returning to a place where he wants to build the program again and get to work.

That assignment comes with obvious pressure. Aztec last won the Class 4A state title in 2011, when Weaver was a sophomore lineman under head coach Brad Hirsch. That team finished 13-0, beat Goddard 28-27 for the championship and delivered Aztec’s first state title since 1953, a benchmark that still defines the program more than a decade later.

Weaver also played baseball at Aztec High before graduating in 2014. His return gives the Tigers a coach with direct memory of the school’s highest standard, but it also raises the bar for what counts as progress. For a program that has spent years searching for stability, success now has to mean more than one good night or a short burst of momentum. It has to mean consistency, a competitive roster and a team that stops cycling through staff changes before the season can take shape.

Weaver spent the past two seasons at Bloomfield High School under head coach Mike Kovacs, whom he described as the standard of success. That experience matters in a county where Bloomfield, just 7 miles away, has won three of the last four Class 4A state championships. The contrast underscores how much the balance of power has shifted since Aztec’s title run.

The hire also arrives amid broader changes inside the district. Thomas Riddle has taken over as activities and athletics director, and Lauren Laws moved into the superintendent role after a unanimous school board vote in December 2024.

Weaver said he has already met with players and faces a short turnaround with less than three months before kickoff. He said the immediate goal is to “make them love football again,” a job that now carries the weight of restoring belief as much as building a depth chart.