‘This is a dream for me.’ Former Capital football player hired as school’s next coach
Jay Bohner didn’t apply for the Capital High football job the last time it came open.
It was 2004. He was entrenched as an assistant coach at NAIA’s Olivet Nazarene. He was convinced his future was in college football.
But Bohner didn’t hesitate a second time. And now the storied program is his.
Capital announced it hired Bohner, a 1989 graduate of the school, as its sixth football coach on Tuesday. He is the first former player to take over the Eagles and replaces Todd Simis, who resigned after 18 seasons last fall.
“This is a dream for me — to be able to come back and coach at Capital,” Bohner said. “It’s probably the one job that could pull me from where I’m at right now.
“I had a really, really great situation here. That was the one job that I was willing to leave this place for. Otherwise, I would have retired here.”
Bohner, 51, returns to Idaho after 33 years in Illinois. He first left Boise to become an offensive lineman at Olivet Nazarene before landing as an assistant there for 12 years.
A coaching change led him back to the high school ranks, where he went 33-38 while rebuilding two Illinois programs.
He took over Kankakee in 2012 after a winless season and went 10-17 in three years. He then moved to Casey-Westfield in 2017. The program was 3-15 the previous two years. But it went 23-21 in five seasons under Bohner.
Bohner knows he’s walking into a different situation at Capital, which never had a losing season and missed the playoffs once in Simis’ 18 seasons.
“The other two programs were really rebuilds, and this one is not,” Bohner said. “This is going to be a reload.”
Bohner grew up on Capital traditions like “Gurkha Stick” and “Eagle Score.” He said the program made him the man he is today, and he can’t wait to instill those traditions into a new generation.
“The big thing the kids should know about me is that I’m one of them, having been a graduate of the program,” Bohner said.
“I understand the value of the program. I understand the value of hard work. And I understand that hard work, discipline and character are what is going to win us football games.”
While he lived in Illinois for 33 years, Bohner maintained a connection to Idaho. His mother and two brothers still live here, and so does his oldest son. He’d return for two weeks during Christmas and the summer each year.
Bohner said he and his wife talked about retiring in Boise. He figured that was the only option because he never imagined he’d get another shot at his alma mater.
Then, everything fell into place.
Bohner said he will finish out the school year in Illinois. He plans to come to Boise in April for a coaches’ meeting before moving permanently and starting a summer program in June.
“We know this is a blue-collar school,” Capital Athletic Director Jason Willer said. “We don’t have the fancy stadiums or any of that. So to have somebody who understands that concept, it was an added incentive to hire him.”
