Coach Whitehead is entering his 2nd season as the head coach for Boulder High School, and his 14th season coaching overall. In his first season he guided the Panthers to an 11-12 record and finished 36th in the CHSAA Baseball RPI ranking.
In Whitehead's first season, the Panthers finished 6th in the Front Range League and had big wins over Fairview, Broomfield, and Monarch. The offensive production was up from a year ago with the Panthers scoring 202 runs (8.8 Runs per game), 202 Hits and 156 RBI's. The Panthers had a team batting average of .325 and were able to keep themselves in games late.
John came to the Panthers after spending 4 years at Arvada West where he helped develop the Wildcats pitching staff, and also served as the interim head coach last year. While serving as the pitching coach at Arvada West, Coach Whitehead helped establish an identity for the staff, and saw 8 players sign to play at the college level. Before his time at Arvada West, Coach Whitehead helped Golden reach the State Tournament as their defensive coach and hitting instructor, and also was apart of the Arvada High School football and baseball staff.
Coach Whitehead is originally from Tennessee, where he played multiple sports in high school, signed to play at Jackson State Community College, and finished his playing career at Covenant College. John spent two years working for the Seattle Mariners AA program (Jackson Generals) before starting his coaching and teaching career. Coach Whitehead taught and coached 6 years in Tennessee before moving to Colorado. Over those 6 years he was apart of 1 State Runner-Up, 1 Final Four, 7 State Tournaments, and 2 League Runner-Ups across football and baseball.
John is married to his wife Becky, and they have a son, Garrett. The best thing said about Coach Whitehead during the interview process was "...as good as he is at coaching, he is a better mentor of young men."
Coach Whitehead's Transformational Purpose Statement is "To inspire athletes to become powerful, loving and self-disciplined people by encouraging them to act in faith, integrity and togetherness in the joys of competition."
