Northwood High officials continue search for another varsity football coach

Northwood players take the field for a game last season. (File photo: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)

Northwood High School football players are continuing conditioning drills as school officials conduct their search for a new football coach after announcing Friday they had dismissed Paige Nobles after one year.

Nobles had an 8-3 record in his only year as head coach. Northwood officials declined to elaborate why they made the move and wished Nobles well. Nobles responded in a text to OC Sports Zone he was told the school was going in a different direction but was unavailable for further comment.

Nobles was a walk-on coach at Northwood. Northwood currently has three full-time staff members on the football staff: J.C. Clarke, Dean Toohey, a former head coach at Northwood and Mike Stewart, who was named by Nobles as the new offensive coordinator in August.

It’s not known when a new coach will be named or whether the new coach will continue to be a walk on-coach. With the season scheduled to start in January 2021, it appears likely that the new coach could be hired soon.

“We are still exploring all of our options,” said Brandon Emery, co-athletic director in an email Monday night. “Practices are being carried on as previously scheduled and are being run by our assistant coaches.”

Whoever takes over will be the fifth head coach for the program since 2014. Toohey took over for Curtis, the Timberwolves’ first coach, in 2014 and coached through 2015 before resigning. Toohey continued to be an assistant coach at Northwood.

Phil Roh then coached for one year before resigning after the 2016 season to spend more time with his family. Then Pete Mitchell coached the Timberwolves in 2017 and 2018 before stepping down. School officials indicated it was a mutual decision and that they wanted more of an “on-campus presence.”

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