Rod Sherman no longer is the Orange Lutheran football head coach, the school announced Monday (Feb.2).
Orange Lutheran said in a statement: “Effective today, Rod Sherman has concluded his tenure as Head Football Coach at Orange Lutheran High School. We are grateful for his five years of service and the contributions he made to the football program, and we wish him well.”
Orange Lutheran said it would begin a national search for its next football coach.
Orange Lutheran assistant coach will serve as the football program’s head coach until a new coach is hired, the school said. Kyla Laulhere will continue as Orange Lutheran football general managerr, leading all football operations..
Sherman was the head coach at Orange Lutheran, his alma mater, from 2021 through the 2025 season. His overall record as Orange Lutheran head coach is 33-29, and 9-6 in the Trinity League.
This past season Orange Lutheran finished 3-9 overall and 1-4 in the Trinity League. The Lancers had to forfeit two early-season wins after it was discovered that they used an ineligible player in those games.
Orange Lutheran in the 2025 CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs beat St. John Bosco, 20-19. The Lancers had lost to St. John Bosco 48-0 in a Trinity League game five weeks earlier. They lost to Santa Margarita 31-6 in the Division 1 semifinals; Santa Margarita went on to win the CIF-SS Division championship and the CIF State Open Division championship.
Sherman coached Orange Lutheran to the CIF-SS Division 2 championship in 2021.
His wife Kristen Sherman is the flag football coach at Orange Lutheran. She coached the Lancers to the CIF-SS Division 1 championship in 2024. Orange Lutheran lost to JSerra in the 2025 CIF-SS Division 1 championship game 25-20.
He was Orange Lutheran’s offensive coordinator from 1997 to 2007. Sherman also was a school athletic director during that time.
Sherman was the football coach at Valor Christian in Colorado, 2012-17, where his teams won three state championships. Running back Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers played for Sherman at Valor Christian.
It is the second coaching change in Trinity League football since the conclusion of the 2025 season. JSerra removed Victor Santa Cruz as its football and replaced him with former NFL player Hardy Nickerson who had coached Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd to a state championship this past season. Months prior to the 2025 season, Santa Margarita hired former USC and NFL star quarterback Carson Palmer, a Santa Margarita alumnus, to be its football coach and Palmer led the Eagles to CIF Southern Section and CIF State championships.