Capital coordinator named new head coach
John Michael Salazar’s dream was to become the head football coach at Capital.
That was accomplished Thursday afternoon as the 1995 graduate of the school was named the Jaguars’ new head coach. Salazar spent the past three seasons as the offensive coordinator/ associate head coach under Joaquin Garcia, who resigned in December.
Salazar said his desire was to guide the program at his alma mater, for which he played as a defensive back/ wideout from 1992-94 and was a part of teams that won district titles in 1993 and 1994. Now, he wants to return the Jaguars to that lofty status as a district and state contender in Class 5A.
“I had a great experience when I was attending the school,” Salazar said. “We won district championships and had a nice little culture of winning. It was something I always wanted to bring back here, at least consistently.”
Santa Fe Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez said in a news release he had confidence Salazar is the right fit to take on the program, which will move from Class 6A to 5A in the fall.
“Coach Salazar’s extensive leadership experience in the community, integrated with his passion for football and dedication to promoting personal and academic growth, makes him the perfect candidate for head football coach of Capital High School,” Chavez said. “He is committed to mentoring all student athletes both on and off the field.”
During Salazar’s recent stint as the offensive coordinator, Capital came within a hair of qualifying for the playoffs in 2021 and 2022, then struggled through a 1-9 season last year in which Capital lost seven games by eight points or less. He also spent four years as an assistant under Bill Moon in the 2010s and was a part of a pair of district championship teams.
Salazar said one thing he was especially proud of last season was that the team didn’t quit despite the mounting, demoralizing losses after a season-opening win at Grants.
“A lot of them could have lost heart and given up on the season, but they didn’t,” Salazar said.
Garcia said Salazar is a good fit for the program because of his passion not just for Capital football, but for the players,
as well. When Garcia took over the program in 2021, he went out of his way to hire Capital graduates because he felt they understood the culture of the south-side school.
“He wants to be there,” Garcia said. “When I took the job, the first guy I called was John Michael. I told him that I’m probably not going to be at Capital forever and I told him, ‘I want you to be the next head football coach at Capital when I leave.’ ”
Moon, who coached at the school from 1988-96 and from 2012-21, said he always saw Salazar as head coach material. Moon said he always took on the leadership mantle, and he remembers the tenacity at which he played. Moon credited Salazar for being a key part of a secondary unit that set the school record for interceptions in a season with 24 in 1994.
“There is no challenge for any of his players that he will ever ask them to do that they cannot do,” Moon said. “He has a real good judgment what a kid can do and what he can’t. One of the reasons I put him on [a top receiver] was that I knew he could do it and he believed it and he did a great job.
“I think that is something be passes on to each kid that he touches.”
Garcia said Salazar was a coach who was not afraid to express his opinions regarding the program, which he wanted in order to ensure the coaches were doing the best thing for the players.
“John was loyal but he wasn’t a ‘Yes, sir’ type of coach,” Garcia said. “We had our battles, but we both knew it was the best for the kids. I wanted coaches who worked hard and sold me on their ideas. For me, that was big.”
Salazar said most of the coaches under Garcia expressed a desire to return for the upcoming season, and he will talk with them individually about that. He added he is unsure if he will continue as offensive coordinator and will have to fill the defensive coordinator spot that Garcia occupied along with his head coaching duties.
He spent much of the offseason overseeing players who are competing in winter sports in the conditioning program. He said he wanted to ensure the transition to the next coach, whoever it was, was seamless.
“I’m here for these guys and they needed a little stability after ‘Wax’ [Garcia] let them know he wasn’t going to come back,” Salazar said. “A lot of them were a little shellshocked and anxious about what the future was going to be. My job was to reassure them that everything was going to be all right and they could count on me, whether I was going to be here or not.”