Nick White steps down as Warriors head coach

White says he is stepping away from the team for personal reasons.

“I just want to spend more time with family,” he said. “The time and commitment is a lot. It’s pretty much a 365-day job if you’re doing it right.”

White will be remembered as one of the most successful coaches in Del Norte football history after posting an overall record of 34-8, including a 12-0 record in official league games and three consecutive unbeaten Big 4 championships.

After taking over from Lewis Nova, the Fort Bragg native and former Cal Poly Humboldt defensive MVP, immediately earned the respect of his fellow coaches.

“I have so much respect for coach White and what he brought to Del Norte football and the Big 4 conference,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said after hearing the news. “His teams showed the most improvement in the weight room every year, and I really thought him and his brother (assistant coach Chris White) were so good at maximizing what his players do.”

White’s teams won league championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022. There was no official league championship in the four-game COVID-shortened spring season of 2021.

His association with the program goes well beyond his tenure as head coach after serving as an assistant with the team for almost a decade before taking over as head coach.

He said most of all he will remember the people associated with the program, “the relationships and everybody that put in the work to build the program to where it got. That’s a special part of it.”

He also expressed gratitude to his fellow coaches and all the players he got to coach.

“I want to thank the coaches who put so much time in and spent time away from family to make it work, and the players who gave everything, and the parents who bought in,” he said. “You can’t have a program without the support of the parents.

“And the community that does an amazing job here. We had a lot of support and a lot of backing. Everybody worked hand in hand.”

He did not, however, rule out a return to coaching at some stage in the future.

“I imagine I will,” he said. “We’ll see what happens in the next chapter of my life.”

White is considered one of the top coaches in the entire NCS after leading the Warriors to a 7-3 playoff record in three straight appearances, including two NCS championship games.

This past fall, after being denied a home playoff game by the NCS seedings committee despite dominating all year and winning a league title, White and his players traveled to play at Tennyson High School in Hayward and came away with a statement 50-14 victory.

The Fort Bragg High graduate was named the Jacks Defensive MVP in his senior season at Cal Poly Humboldt (then Humboldt State) after leading the conference in tackles.

Prior to that, he was a part of the Corsairs’ back-to-back championship teams in the early 2000s, the last time the school won a conference title in football.

White is the younger brother of CR head coach Jason White.

“He definitely will be missed,” Tomlin said.