Fort Collins football coach Matt Yemm steps down to become firefighter
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Matt Yemm was forged in the fires of Fort Collins football.
For his next endeavor, the Lambkins alum and former Colorado State player will be fighting literal fires.
Yemm is stepping down from his seven-year role as Fort Collins High School football coach and physical education teacher at his alma mater.
“There’s never a right time to leave this place,” Yemm said.
What’s next? From one community staple to another. Yemm has a conditional offer to become a firefighter with Poudre Fire Authority and is planning to go through academy training in spring 2026.
“I love the team aspect and service nature of firefighting. I like a physical job. And then, something that’s always important to me is helping other people, especially in this community I grew up in,” Yemm said.
“This checks all the boxes for me.”
For those who know Yemm, this next step hardly feels surprising.
He’s been a popular figure around Fort Collins for two decades now.
Yemm was a Lambkins quarterback standout in high school on some of longtime coach Eric Rice’s best teams, winning league MVP honors and helping FCHS to a 12-1 season with a semifinal berth in 2006.
In college, he became a CSU hometown fan favorite, playing receiver and holding on kicks in the latter part of his Rams career from 2007-11.
Even the firefighting element isn’t a shock. Yemm was a volunteer firefighter with Windsor Severance Fire Rescue during the mid-2010s.
The alumnus had already come home, too, serving as a Fort Collins assistant coach from 2013-18 before taking over the head coaching role in 2019.
There have been ups and downs, but often thrilling highs. Yemm finished with a 34-37 overall record, but ended his seven-year tenure on a high note with a 9-3 season.
“I didn’t want to leave when the well was dried up. And that’s not the case here. We have so many awesome kids coming up through the ranks. There’s going to be more high notes to come,” Yemm said.
There were numerous memorable moments.
Yemm’s first head-coaching win in a comeback city rivalry victory over Poudre in 2019. A 2021 team that also had a strong senior class, going 9-3 and winning a home playoff game. Or the 2023 walk-off Canvas Classic stunner over Fossil Ridge.
Levi Hermsen and Jack McKeon authored special individual seasons in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Both were testaments to Yemm’s intuitive feel for the game as an offensive coach.
It seems fitting to leave with this senior class, though. The group has several college-bound players and embodied Yemm’s program-wide emphasis on becoming “incredible young men.“
For one example, Fort Collins held its football banquet on Dec. 9 and honored nearly three dozen academic all-state juniors and seniors — 27 on the first-team and five honorable mentions.
That’s almost 80% of the Lambkins’ football upperclassmen.
Congratulations to our exceptional Junior and Senior student-athletes. Their achievements in both academics and athletics exemplify true excellence. pic.twitter.com/h0u6YZruiP
— Fort Collins Football (@FortCollinsFB) December 10, 2025
It’s all of a piece with another goal upon becoming head coach at his alma mater.
When Yemm took over in 2019, Fort Collins football enthusiasm was low after a 10-20 record in the prior three-year stretch. There were only about 60 players total in the program, from varsity down to the freshman team.
Yemm, along with an assistant coaching staff he defers all credit to, has flipped that around.
This past season, there were nearly 100 players across the program’s three teams. That’s been a regular occurrence instead of an outlier number.
“I think it’s important to get students involved, whether it’s football, the arts, extracurriculars, all of it. For us to get more kids out for football was a huge success. It took a whole team effort,” Yemm said.
Players say Yemm’s outgoing, gregarious nature and people-first focus has made him popular with both the team and other students across the building as a PE teacher.
“Nobody here has a bad thing to say about Coach Yemm. It’s very hard to find that now anywhere in high school football,” Fort Collins senior Mason Bandhauer told the Coloradoan in September.
▶ Fort Collins alum, head coach Matt Yemm ‘growing the future’ for surging Lambkins
The final ride was a fun one, too, even if Fort Collins players mostly knew it would be a “last dance.”
Yemm told them over the summer that he was applying with PFA but wanted to shut down the “rumor mill” that he might not coach this 2025 team.
So the Lambkins made it a special sendoff season.
They went 9-3, swept the city, won a playoff game behind an epic McKeon performance and only lost to three top-15 teams, pushing the reigning Class 5A runner-up in a playoff loss at No. 4 Legend.
McKeon was Colorado’s top running back with nearly 2,200 rushing yards and led 5A with 27 rushing touchdowns. Bandhauer (an offensive lineman) is headed to a power-conference program at Iowa State.
The Fort Collins football head coaching job is expected to be posted after the new year in early 2026.
Yemm said he respects whatever direction FCHS athletic director Kyle Tregoning goes in for the new hire. But since Yemm isn’t taking another coaching job or leaving town, he can still be a potential voice in the process.
“I’m willing to give my opinions and feedback. I’m still a Lambkin forever and care very deeply about this program,” the coach said.
“At the same time, I don’t want to have my hands all over it, either.”
Now, it’s on to the next chapter for the longtime Lambkin, who said it’s been “surreal” walking the same halls he did as a teenager.
The student became the teacher.
“This will always be my home away from home. It was such a cool opportunity to be back here and one I’ll cherish,” Yemm said.
Chris Abshire covers high school and community sports for the Coloradoan.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins football’s Matt Yemm stepping down as Lambkins head coach
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