Former Nampa football coach returns to lead team. ‘Those kids are close to my heart’
A late coaching change threw a curveball to the Nampa High football team. But the Bulldogs quickly found a replacement, one with plenty of experience in the program and in the same position.
Jon Choate will return to lead Nampa this fall, the school announced Monday. Choate previously led the Bulldogs for four years before taking a position on The College of Idaho’s coaching staff.
But Choate never left the Nampa High building, continuing as a physical education and weightlifting teacher, molding many of the players still in the program. That made him a perfect fit to step back in to lead the team, said Greg Carpenter, Nampa’s athletic director.
“He knows the families. He knows the kids. He knows the system,” Carpenter said. “He checks all the boxes.
“He can come in and let the coordinators do what they need to do. He also fills a void in our defense. We needed a linebackers coach, so it’s a perfect fit.”
Choate previously led Nampa to an 11-25 record (.306), including a 7-11 (.389) mark during two seasons at the 5A level. Nampa returns to the 5A classification, Idaho’s largest, this fall.
He spent the past six years as the special teams coordinator at College of Idaho. He also coached the linebackers for three seasons and the defensive line for another two.
Choate said he initially hesitated to take over the program, but he said he couldn’t leave the students he works with every day hanging. Even if Nampa promoted an assistant to the head coaching job, that would leave another vacancy on a staff that remains largely the same from when Choate left in 2016.
“Just because I was wearing a different color on Saturdays doesn’t mean I wasn’t rooting for Nampa High on Friday night,” said Choate, 45. “Those kids are close to my heart.”
Choate replaces Dan Holtry, who took over the Bulldogs in 2016 but resigned earlier this month.
Holtry led Nampa to four playoff appearances and a 31-31 record in six seasons. That includes the past four seasons at the 4A level, where Holtry and the Bulldogs went 29-15 (.659), won at least one playoff game each year and reached the semifinals in 2018 and ‘19.
Holtry coached at the school for 17 years and taught there for 19 years. But he resigned June 15 after a late opportunity arose to become a vice principal at Vallivue High.
Holtry, 44, graduated from Vallivue in 1996, and the job allows him to put an administrative degree he earned 12 years ago to use.
“It was a difficult decision,” Holtry said. “But I have a young family with a 6-year-old and 2-year-old. And they’re only 6 and 2 once.
“I had an opportunity to provide for them and spend a lot of time with them.”
Choate, the brother of Texas co-defensive coordinator Jeff Choate, is the third new coach in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference this fall. Capital (Jay Bohner) and Mountain View (Brian Compton) also have new coaches.
This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 3:12 PM.
