Familiar face to coach Cougar nine

By Joshua Lindenstein

Longmont Ledger

If there was one candidate for Niwot High School`s baseball head coaching job who knew exactly what has made the program tick for the past decade, it was Craig McBride.

On Monday, the long-time Cougar assistant was given the opportunity to put that knowledge to good use when NHS hired him to take over the perennially strong program.

McBride, 45, has been an assistant for Niwot since the fall of 2000, a stretch that includes the team`s Class 4A state titles in 2004 and 2005.

He replaces Jason Lathrop, who resigned in August after three seasons to devote more time to his family and his job as an English teacher at Niwot.

Niwot athletic director Jim Butterfield said there was “a significantly high level of interest” in the opening. McBride was chosen over a pair of in-state head coaches who were also finalists for the job.

“It`s real exciting,” said McBride, who owns an electrical contracting company in Westminster. “I think that it`s going to be a lot of fun. I didn`t want the program to go in a different direction, so I`m happy they made that choice.”

McBride inherits a program that won five state titles from 1998-2005 under legendary coach Bob Bote, who led the program for nearly three decades.

Bote resigned after the 2006 season and Lathrop — another former Bote assistant — led the Cougars to a 48-22 record and two state tournament appearances the last three years.

“There`s definitely some pressure there,” McBride said. “I can only hope that I can live up to those high standards that those two guys set. Both of those guys are stellar people and stellar head coaches, and I feel honored that I got chosen for the jobbecause of that.”

McBride learned under Bote and Lathrop. But he also got to have more and more involvement in the program the last few years, even helping run the show a couple of times when Lathrop was out due to a death in the family and when he had shoulder surgery.

“I think he knows what it takes to run this program and take it to the next level,” Butterfield said. “It`s a no-lose situation with a guy like him on board.”

In addition to coaching at Niwot, McBride — whose sons Casey and Layne played for the Cougars earlier this decade — co-owned the Grand Slam USA indoor baseball academy that was in Longmont for five years. Before that, he coached at the youth level for 10 years in Wheat Ridge, Westminster and Longmont.

While Lathrop had the luxury of the assistant coaching staff staying intact when he was hired three years ago, most of those coaches have moved on to other gigs now, meaning McBride`s first order of business will be assembling his staff.

The coach was already helping run Niwot`s fall ball program until a new head coach could be hired, so the transition into the day-to-day operations of running the team shouldn`t be too big of an adjustment, he said.

The Cougars return a strong senior class off of last spring`s team, including lefty pitching ace Ryan Strufing.

Strufing said the hiring of McBride takes a little of the anxiety out of having a new coach for his senior season.

“I`m pretty excited about that,” Strufing said. “That`s who I was hoping for. He`s the guy that knows what the program is supposed to be doing.”

Hiring a new coach for NHS` most high-profile athletic program highlights a busy first few months on the job for Butterfield. The first-year AD already hired a golf coach before the school year started and hopes to also have new girls soccer and girls swimming coaches in place in coming weeks.

“This is a good one to have closure on, for sure,” Butterfield said.