'Happy to be home': Former Colt hired as Pueblo South's new Athletic Director
Pueblo South High School has hired Christopher James as the new athletic director of the Colts.
A former graduate of South High School, James met his wife while attending the school — his daughter even graduated from South.
James is also a former state-qualifying wrestler for the Colts.
After high school, James joined the military where he served in several different tours including in Iraq. During his final tour in Kauai, Hawaii, James got back into wrestling and discovered his desire to go into teaching.
“I knew in Iraq, that I wanted to become a teacher after the craziest days of my life," he said. "The wrestling ties together with this because I could pick up new information to bring back home and help our community become stronger in that sport.”
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When he got back home from serving in the military, James began working as an assistant coach with Jerry Sisneros at South. Under their coaching, the Colts produced several Division I athletes and built the program back up to prominence.
From there, James went on to coach at the national level, being a part of Olympic training, world team camps and coaching in the World Championships in Canada, Sweden and more.
After coaching, James came back to Pueblo and attended Colorado State University Pueblo where he earned his degree in education. He then got a job at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs where he taught PE and coached wrestling. What he learned from that job, above all else, was what academics could look like, and he wanted that for the community of Pueblo.
“I learned what a good academic environment looked like for the community and the kids,” James said. “They were a blue-ribbon school, and that looked different from there to here.”
After Rampart, James went on to Fountain Ft. Carson where he became a dean, assistant principal, coach and more.
He helped build the wrestling program into a powerhouse team that once again produced Division I athletes. After working at Fountain Ft. Carson, a principal position opened up at Pueblo West High School and James could not turn it down.
After his tenure at Pueblo West, James took a job with the district before eventually taking a short break from education. But only five months into the break, he felt a desire to get back into education.
“Coming back home to work at Pueblo West was a pleasure as the building principal,” James said. “I just saw we still needed more emphasis on academics in our community.”
A late opening at South High School came up and James felt it was a perfect time to come full circle. He applied and accepted the job as South’s new athletic director with much joy.
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“I want to help Mr. Kovac and the community,” James said. “Hopefully, we can become a stronger environment for Pueblo because ultimately, what we what we do or don't do will impact our communities as a whole. I just want to see Pueblo become a stronger community.”
James’ ultimate goal is to help bring the athletic program at Pueblo South back to a high level while also trying to balance a great academic environment around the community.
Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on Twitter: @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo South hires Chris James as AD; former Colt 'Happy to be home'
