Mark Knudson is a Colorado baseball rarity.

The first Colorado native to play for the Rockies and the last Colorado State player to make the major leagues, Knudson is the lone man to play for a Colorado team in high school, at the NCAA Division I level and then for the Rockies. 

Even now, the game has never left him as Knudson, 62, is the head coach at Prospect Ridge Academy in Broomfield.

Not bad for a homegrown baseball life.

“He’s lived a life as a high school, college and professional player that kids in this state would dream of,” points out former longtime CSU sports information director Gary Ozzello. “And there’s only one guy in this state who’s done what he did in this sport — him.”

Knudson’s feat could stand in perpetuity, too.  UNC hasn’t had a big-leaguer since the 1980s. CU/CSU are unlikely to bring back their long-defunct programs and Air Force has only had one big-leaguer — Griffin Jax. The Twins right-hander and former Cherry Creek High School star is the only player who is currently in a position to possibly match Knudson’s feat, should Jax ever end up with the Rockies.

Knudson, who starred at Northglenn, was drafted by the Astros in the third round in 1982 out of CSU. He debuted for Houston three years later, then was traded to Milwaukee in 1986. The right-hander pitched for the Brewers through 1991, spent 1992 in the Padres’ minor-league system, and then became one of Colorado’s first-ever free-agent signings in October of that year.

In four games for the Rockies in 1993, Knudson had an unsightly 22.24 ERA across 5 2/3 innings, but he finished his career with a 4.72 ERA over 121 games (59 starts). Along the way, he threw two complete game shutouts in 1990, was the Brewers’ opening day starter in 1991 and helped Milwaukee’s Triple-A Denver Zephyrs win a league title.

His experience with the Zephyrs gave him a taste of pitching at Mile High Stadium, and in the waning days of his career, it put Colorado’s newly minted franchise on his mind.

“I had every intention of trying to sign with the hometown team after 1992, pretty much no matter what,” Knudson recalled. “I really wanted to be a part of that first Rockies team… Fortunately there was mutual interest.”

Now in his seventh season as Prospect Ridge Academy’s skipper, Knudson originally got into coaching after helping former longtime CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann design a pitch count restriction that was implemented in 2016. Knudson joined the Miners’ staff as a pitching coach in 2017 and then became head coach halfway through the season.

“In my case, I originally got involved with high school baseball because I wanted to help rectify the arm injury situation,” Knudson said. “The first thing I had to learn was how much I didn’t know. You sit back and watch games, and you think you’re good at second-guessing, but when you have to actually make managerial decisions on the fly, it’s a whole different world.”

Knudson has also been involved in local media over a quarter century, including radio/TV gigs, a past column for The Coloradoan and his “Three Strikes” column for Mile High Sports. The intersection of his coverage at Coors Field and duties for Prospect Ridge Academy has led to some asides with Rockies manager Bud Black in the home dugout at Coors Field.

“I’ve asked Bud Black for his advice several times,” Knudson said. “He’s given me a lot of good advice on how to think a couple innings ahead.”

Experienced coaches around him — six-time state champion Bob Bote is his lead assistant — also eased Knudson’s transition from ex-pitcher/sportswriter to manager.

“I kind of feel like Don Baylor must have felt when he had Don Zimmer on his bench,” Knudson said. “There’s not a better high school coach around than Bob Bote, and his grandson, sophomore Zeke Bote, is our shortstop and is going to be a great player. Obviously that family has an incredible baseball pedigree with (Bob’s son) David Bote having reached the majors.”

But Knudson might not still be coaching at Prospect Ridge Academy — and he might not be alive — had it not been for the “miracle” circumstances that helped him avoid long-term health issues after suffering a heart attack at a Miners game in 2019.

The manager was stewing in the bullpen after a tough loss when he started feeling pain in his pectorals. He started walking with his wife to their car to go to the hospital when he collapsed. As fate would have it, one of the dads on the visiting team was a Northglenn firefighter and was there with his company. They responded to Knudson not long after he hit the dirt.

“They were on me in seconds, and if I had to have called paramedics, and have them be four, five minutes away, I very well could’ve had brain damage or heart damage,” Knudson said.

A blocked artery caused the heart attack, and after having a stint put in, Knudson was back coaching the next week. He hasn’t looked back, as the Miners rallied to a 12-11 record that year, then made the Class 3A playoffs in 2021 and ’22.

While the Miners (4-17) are rebuilding this season with a roster heavy in underclass talent, Knudson said the next goal is to win the school’s first-ever Class 3A Metro League title. That will take true player development in a program that only has 21 players. Knudson cannot afford to cut anyone who tries out.

“In a small school like ours, a lot of things have to break right,” Knudson said. “We only add about eight kids a year. Then you have to develop a team-first culture, which is sorely lacking in club baseball… So it’s a mix of kids who have been playing club ball and kids who haven’t had a lot of experience, and I’m trying to blend them into a cohesive outfit that’s focused on the name on the front of the jersey.”

And perhaps the biggest obstacle the program faces is a lack of a home field. The Miners currently practice and play games at Northwest Open Space, which is about nine miles from the K-12 school. The fundraising for their own field is in order; now, the school has to find some land nearby to buy and build it on.

“We lose kids right and left who are in our junior high but then they transfer to Broomfield or somewhere else because we don’t have our own place to play,” Bob Bote said. “Getting the young kids to practice is really hard. So we’ve got to get more players and keep those club players in middle school, and (having a field) would be a huge step to keeping them.”