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Saddleback has hired a new football coach to lead the Roadrunners into the next phase of their program.
The Santa Ana Unified school has selected former Northwood coach and Dana Hills assistant Paige Nobles as its coach, replacing Glenn Campbell who resigned after two seasons in January.
Nobles takes the reins as Saddleback continues construction of a new stadium and field house. He anticipates the Roadrunners playing in the new stadium this fall.
“Saddleback is going through some exciting changes,” Nobles said. “It’s going to be an amazing stadium.”
The new facility could help boost a program that finished a combined 5-15 the past two seasons after not playing during the coronavirus-shortened spring season in 2021. The Roadrunners went winless in league in 2021 and 2022, and 2019.
“If my players buy into the process and know the first year will be tough,” Nobles said, “(and) they believe and play as a team, we will surprise some teams and we will keep climbing to achieve our goals.”
Nobles was surprisingly fired at Northwood in the fall of 2020 during the pandemic. After guiding the Timberwolves to an 8-3 record and trip to the playoffs in his first season, he said the school decided to go in a “different direction” while he was guiding the team through modified conditioning and skills training.
Nobles became an assistant the past three seasons at Dana Hills. Northwood captured consecutive CIF-SS championships in 2021 and 2022 and finished as a runner-up in the state championships.
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“I was very excited and happy when Northwood won their first CIF title because that was my freshman class,” Nobles said. “Then winning back-to-back was icing on the cake. I have nothing but great respect for the Northwood coaches who made that happen.”
Saddleback is part of an Orange Coast League that is undergoing others changes.
St. Margaret’s is now led by former Corona del Mar coach Dan O’Shea. Santa Ana’s new coach is Rory Schoonmaker, who replaced veteran Charlie TeGantvoort, now at Marina. And defending league champion Orange had several standout players transfer to other schools this offseason.
Nobles joined Northwood in 2018 after a long stretch as an assistant at Laguna Beach.
Please send football news to Dan Albano at [email protected] or @ocvarsityguy on Twitter