Saddleback Roadrunners football coach Paige Nobles resigns after one season

Paige Nobles coaches the Roadrunners during the first game in the new on-campus stadium. (Photo: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)

After one season, Paige Nobles has stepped down as head varsity football coach for the Saddleback Roadrunners, Athletic Director Rob Thompson said Thursday.

Thompson indicated the decision was by a “mutual agreement.” While no replacement has been named, Thompson said the announcement of a new coach would be “coming soon.”

Nobles, who was a former head coach at Northwood before becoming an assistant coach at Dana Hills, said Friday, “I did resign.”

A young Saddleback team with a number of sophomores starting was 0-10 this past season and in most of the games, the Roadrunners lost by decisive scores. Saddleback had to forfeit the game against Orange because Nobles and Thompson said there were not enough available healthy players.

School officials were excited about the opening of the school’s new on-campus stadium and Nobles said he hoped it would help the Roadrunners program in the future.

“I would hope it will attract some more of the incoming guys coming in from our feeder schools and attract some of the players who decided not to play this year for whatever reason who are underclassmen,” Nobles said at the first game in the stadium vs. Costa Mesa. “We got to do something to build this program.”

Nobles, a walk-on coach, was the third Saddleback head coach since 2020, following previous coaches Nick Diulio and Glenn Campbell. Campbell, a former standout football player at the school, coached for two seasons before resigning.

“I am looking forward to an amazing time at Saddleback High School and bringing them back to be a very competitive program,” Nobles said in an interview with OC Sports Zone in January.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com