It’s the end of an era for Benicia High’s varsity baseball program.

Jim Bowles, who managed the Panthers for the past 16 seasons, announced his retirement from coaching and plans on moving to Reno. Bowles hopes to commute to Benicia High to continue teaching Economics – at least temporarily – but is hanging up the cleats for good.

“I just turned 51 and there are other things I want to do,” Bowles said. “I want to spend more time with my family and have a more flexible schedule. I love being around the players and coaches, but I don’t enjoy the administrative stuff like I used to – all the scheduling and fund-raising and things like that. It just seemed like the right time.”

The Panthers went 345-123 overall (.737) and won four Sac-Joaquin Section championships under Bowles – including a SJS Division II title last season – and 11 league championships.

“He’s done a tremendous job,” said Benicia High athletic director Craig Holden. “He elevated the baseball program to a point where we’re expected to win a Section title, and that’s hard to do. Every year there’s an expectation and that speaks volumes.”

Bowles played baseball for Benicia High’s varsity in the early 1980s and helped the Panthers win their first-ever SJS championship in 1983 – a school year that saw Benicia become the first California school in more than 50 years to win the football, basketball and baseball Section titles. After pitching 10 games his senior season, Bowles earned a scholarship to pitch for San Jose State University under legendary manager Gene Menges. Bowles red-shirted his first year at SJSU but played for the Spartans from 1985-88.

“I was planning on playing third base at Solano College and all of a sudden I discovered I had talent as a pitcher,” Bowles said.

Graduating with a major in Economics, Bowles entered the corporate world and worked as an executive for Swisher Sweets. But baseball was always in the back of his mind, and when a former SJSU teammate invited him to become an assistant coach at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, Bowles jumped at the chance.

“I learned so much that one year and was motivated to get back into baseball,” Bowles said.

Bowles had an opportunity to continue his executive career in Jacksonville, Fla., but he decided to move to Benicia instead and started his own real estate business. In 1994 he was invited to become an assistant coach for Benicia’s junior varsity baseball team and eventually became an assistant under varsity manager Ron Wheat. Bowles had no ambition to become a manager, but when Wheat retired after the 2000 season, he took the helm beginning in 2001.

The 2002 season was bittersweet for Bowles. The Panthers had just reached the SJS Division I semifinals when their team bus was hit by a truck carrying bricks. Bowles, the only adult on the bus besides the driver, had to kick out some windows to allow players to escape the wreckage, and nine players were air-lifted to the hospital. Benicia had only 10 players available for the semifinals against Lincoln High three nights later and lost 6-3.

“We had players in the dugout on crutches and with bandages wrapped around their heads,” Bowles remembered. “We were just happy to be able to play the game.”

Under Bowles, the Panthers have always been one big happy family. His home is a revolving door for current and former players and coaches, and Bowles has kept in contact with more than 100 former players. The BHS baseball program’s annual Alumni Game routinely attracts dozens of former players who all pay their respects to their former manager.

“The players just like to play for him,” Holden said. “He keeps it loose but knows when to put his foot on the gas pedal and when to take it off. Those were key factors to him being successful.”

Bowles credits his family and coaching staff for his success. His wife, Susan, is the consummate “Team Mom.” His son, Jack, was a starting second baseman when Bowles won his 300th game as a manager in 2014. His daughter, Kaitlyn, attends every game and helps out whenever possible.

Current varsity assistant coaches Jared Pickett, Craig Bennigson, Ryan Richardson and Eliot Palmer all played for Bowles, as did JV manager Joe Medina. Freshman manager Randy Dismuke played for the Panthers when Bowles was an assistant.

“There’s no way I could have accomplished everything I did by myself,” Bowles said. “My assistant coaches know what they’re doing and everyone knows their roles. I would feel patronized if they didn’t challenge my ideas once in a while, and they respected me enough to let me know what they think. We worked really well in that dynamic.

“It makes me really proud and makes me feel like all the sacrifices and time I gave were definitely worth while. I feel like I did something that mattered to people.”

Holden won’t begin the search for Bowles’s replacement until the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.