Veteran and successful Colorado high school coach Jim Capra, who has guided his teams to more than 350 wins, a 1994 state title and five final four appearances has been named as new Adams State College baseball coach, ASC director of athletics Larry Mortensen announced in February.
Capra, a 1980 ASC graduate, who has been serving as the head baseball coach at Arvada West High School since 1987, begins his duties, focusing on recruiting for the Grizzlies’ upcoming 2012-13 academic year, immediately. He will also continue his coaching position with the Wildcats and his physical education teaching position at Hackberry Hill Elementary school this spring before returning to Alamosa full-time in the summer.
Last month, Mortensen announced that the Grizzlies would resume sponsorship of baseball after the college had been without the sport for 35 years.
“Jim will bring a very high level of experience, passion and commitment to the program. He is connected in the region, understands Adams State and the RMAC and is extremely motivated,” Mortensen said.
“I feel like the luckiest man alive,” Capra said about being selected for the position.
Capra, well known in Colorado baseball circles has sent over 60 players to NCAA (Division I and II) and NJCAA college programs during his time with the Wildcats and has had more than a dozen players selected in the Major League Draft, most notably 2-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher Roy Halladay, now with the Philadelphia Phillies and a first round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1995.
In 1994, Halladay’s junior year, the Wildcats won their only state title, scoring three runs in the last of the seventh to defeat Smoky Hill High School, 7-6, for Colorado’s 6A state title. A year later, Capra led the Wildcats back to the 5A state championship game, which Capra regards as the greatest display of high school talent in the state.
The contest, won 6-3 by Cherry Creek, included five eventual major-leaguers, including Halladay.
The Wildcats also made the state semifinals in 1992, 2005 and 2007.
Capra, who was named as the Colorado 6A Coach of the Year in 1994, also had the opportunity to serve as the head coach of the first ever high school all-star game at the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field in 1995 and is well recognized by his peers.
A 25-year head coach and a teacher with 31 years of experience, Capra served as the baseball president of the Colorado High School Coaches Association from 1999-2000 after serving as the vice president for the two prior years. In that role he helped organize the CHSCA’s Top 40 game, played annually at Coors Field, numerous coaches’ clinics and served as a communication liaison between coaches and state athletic administrators.
“I want to have some player camps and coaches’ clinics for the valley schools. Those are great opportunities to share philosophies,” Capra said.
“I think Adams State can be a gold mine in baseball with all of the interest in the San Luis Valley. Resuming the sport is going to rejuvenate that interest with having the next level of baseball to shoot for,” he added.
Capra also added that his status as an Adams State alum should help in recruiting. “I think it’s a big benefit. I can tell them (potential players) of the big differences between the 1970’s and now. A lot of people that graduated from here have been real successful. That’s a big deal,” he said.
“I’m really excited about the facilities that ASC now has to offer. It’s nice to see everything developed and modernized. The campus and community is going to be attractive for kids,” he said.
“I have been most impressed with how friendly everybody is. During my visits down here, I just get a much warmer and different feel than in Denver.”
“It was a great decision for ASC to add baseball, Capra said. “Very soon, we’ll be able to compete in the RMAC.
“The athletic department and the community of Alamosa are excited to have Coach Capra back,” Mortensen added.
A native of the west Denver suburb of Edgewater, Capra was a 4-sport athlete at Jefferson High School, where he graduated in 1975 and earned all-conference honors in both football and baseball. He then took those talents to Adams State, where he learned in the summer after his redshirt year that ASC was dropping the sport.
However, Capra still shined on the gridiron and was a 3-year starting wide receiver for the then ASC Indians during his collegiate career playing alongside current Grizzly head football coach Marty Heaton, assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Manny Wasinger and Associate A.D. Larry Joe Hunt, amongst others.
After completing his bachelor’s degree with a double major in physical education and social studies in 1980, Capra began his teaching and coaching career at Alamosa High School, where he served as the school’s head baseball coach from 1981-82.
He then moved to Arizona and served as an assistant baseball coach for the Kingman High School Bulldogs in 1983 and 1984 and in a similar role for the Phoenix North High School Mustangs in 1985.
Capra and his wife Michelle, who he met while in Arizona, then returned to Colorado, where he served as an assistant coach at Arvada West for the 1986 season before taking over the reins of the program a year later.
He has also served as the head coach of Arvada West’s American Legion summer team since 1986 and in that role has helped the Wildcats win numerous tournament titles both in Colorado and out-of-state.
Capra and his wife, also an elementary school teacher in the Jefferson County school district, have three children. His oldest son Vince is a fourth-year cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs. He played football for the Falcons for two years and baseball last year before ending his athletic career to complete his degree and Special Forces training this May.
His son Nick is a junior right handed pitcher at Regis University, a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, which ASC also belongs to.
Their daughter, Katie, is a sophomore student at the Aveda Institute, a cosmetology school in Downtown Denver.
