New sheriff in town: Miramonte High School names former Moreau Catholic defensive coordinator Nick Safir as its next head football coach
By Dylan Grausz, West Coast Preps
February 26, 2024

He has waited for an opportunity, excelling as the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Moreau Catholic High School in the meantime. Now, after years of dedication to the craft of coaching, Nick Safir has been named the next head football coach at Miramonte High School, replacing former coach Jack Schram.

Safir comes to Miramonte after spending the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator, assistant head coach and special teams coordinator where he was the right hand man to Mariners head coach Keith Minor where he helped the Mariners achieve a 6-6 record and a North Coast Section playoff berth. Building the Mariners into a strong defensive team, Safir now getting the chance to lead his own program and create his own legacy has him excited that he is getting to fulfill a lifelong ambition.

"This is something I've known I've always wanted to do," Safir said. "Coaching runs in my family. A lot of my uncles were head coaches, my great uncle was a legendary head coach at Burney High School up in Burney Falls, they even named the stadium after him. So, it's something I've know that I've wanted to do for a long time, it's been a long time coming, I've been interviewing for seven years for my own program and I just feel so blessed that a program, the quality of Miramonte put their faith in me to name me the head man. This is my life's passion, this what I've always aspired to be. So to finally have my name called as the new head coach was a pretty surreal moment for me."

Coaching with Minor's staff not only at Moreau but at Encinal High School in the same role prior to that, Safir has had years of experience learning from some highly talented coaches and believes that all those years being mentored by Minor has not only prepared him to be a head coach, but to excel in the role and bring even more success to a Matadors program coming off of an NCS championship.

"I had a great head coach and mentor, Keith Minor," Safir said. "He was actually my freshman football head coach when I played freshman football. So we go way back, but he really taught me how to be a head coach. He let me sit in on meetings, he would have conversations with me about how to deal with certain situations and we had a great core of coaches that were together coaching on that staff for a long time. And I learned a lot from all of them, but Keith especially took the time to teach me what it takes to be a head coach and to do it the right way. I wouldn't be where I am today without his mentorship."

Not only getting to take over a program that has a rich history and has been successful over the years, but getting to be a head coach in an area that he is familiar with was attractive to him and made the job that much harder to resist.

"I grew up in the Bay Area, I went to Saint Mary's High School," Safir said. "And I just remember when I was in high school, Miramonte football was elite, that was top of the heap. I think it's an elite program. They're just coming off of a D-five title, which is fantastic, but we've struggled in our league a little bit and that's never been Miramonte's way in football. At least not traditionally, from what I remember. When I saw that Miramonte was open, I sent in my resume within five or ten minutes because I know what the tradition of that program is and how great of a place it can be to play, not just football, but all sports. It's a very athletic and competitive school and it's something that I really wanted to be a part of."

Taking over for Schram, who spent 13 years as the Matadors head coach and built the program to what it is, Safir is determined to build off what he left behind while also doing so in his own way by bringing his own coaching philosophy and style to the program.

"Jack Schram is a legend and he will always be a legend at Miramonte," Safir said. "I know him, he's a great guy and following in his footsteps is a tall task. He was there for 18-20 years, has a lot of championships and built that program up so he's a tough act to follow. But, I'm a defensive guy so my philosophy is going to be playing tough, playing hard, going 100% at all times on the field, no dogging it and I'm going to build up this team from the defensive side of the ball. It's important to me to do that, I think that's where the struggles of Miramonte have been in the past and we want to change the perception of what this team is on that side of the football specifically."

A players coach, Safir has always been one who has prioritized having good relationships with his players and with a talented crop of players who are hungry to win, Safir is ready to build trust with them and combine his own passion and energy to build a program that people are excited to be around each and every day.

"I'm going to be an excited guy," Safir said. "I bring a lot of emotion on game day, I bring a lot of energy during practice. I show up everyday and I've got a lot of energy and a nice loud voice. We want to bring some excitement back into this program. We want to have fun playing football and we want to show that on the field so there's going to be a lot of excited emotions going on with this team and that's really what we want to bring in with this new staff."

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