Northwood assistant Paige Nobles named Timberwolves new head football coach and wants program to keep building and winning

New Northwood football coach Paige Nobles talks to returning players on the team Tuesday morning.

Northwood High officials introduced Paige Nobles, who was an assistant coach last season, as the new head varsity football coach Tuesday morning in front of the Timberwolve players.

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Nobles, 49, was the special teams coordinator, defensive line coach and running backs coach for Northwood under Coach Pete Mitchell, who stepped down after the season, his second as head coach. Northwood was 8-4 last year and advanced to the second round of the CIF Division 12 playoffs.

Nobles said he is “very excited” about the challenge and wants to build on what Northwood accomplished last year.

“We want to keep moving forward and in a positive direction to make sure that we keep building the program,” he said. “I would love to increase our numbers.

“We want to be a well oiled, physical machine.”

The announcement from co-athletic director Phil Roh that Nobles had been named coach drew an enthusiastic round of applause from the players. Roh told the players, “this is a pretty attractive job because they get to coach you guys.”

Nobles said he has impressed with the players attitude and work ethic.

“They’re always upbeat, they’re always optimistic,” Nobles said. “They just love to play the game.”

Nobles said most of the assistant coaches from last year’s team are expected to return, including Dean Toohey, Mike Stewart, Dan Selway and Pete Mitchell Jr. (Pete Mitchell’s son). Selway and Mitchell were co-offensive coordinators last year. Nobles said the roles for the staff haven’t been finalized.

It will be the first varsity coaching job for Nobles.

“I definitely feel I’m ready,” Nobles said. “I was mentored by one of my good friends from Laguna Beach High School where I previously coached, John Shanahan (head football coach), so he taught me a lot of the ins and outs and the do’s and don’ts.”

Nobles coached at Laguna Beach for eight years. Before that he was the freshman baseball coach at Beckman and then helped on Coach Glen Fisher’s varsity football staff.

Nobles used to be a fireman, but said he was injured and forced to retire.

“After two or three years, I ended up having back surgery and needed to take some time off,” he said.

But Nobles wanted to get back into coaching.

“I wanted to be closer to home, so I went to Aliso Niguel High School and was the JV head coach there and the running backs coach for varsity under Kurt Westling and then I had an opportunity to be the JV head coach for baseball at Laguna Beach and then ended up staying at Laguna Beach and doing the football there as well.”

Nobles was one of 13 original candidates for the Northwood job.

“Paige is definitely a go-getter, he’s dedicated to the program, he’s present on campus and he’s here all the time,” co-athletic director Brandon Emery said. “He definitely cares about the kids. That’s something that is visible. He has a great connection with the kids and the kids respond well to him.

“Overall, he’s a good role model for the kids to look up to.”

Nobles and his wife Debbie have three children and live in Aliso Niguel. Nobles played college football at Arizona State, where he was a defensive back.

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