Hardy Nickerson, a Verbum Dei graduate who played linebacker at Cal, made the Pro Bowl five times, coached in college and the NFL and was the head coach at Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland twice, has been named head football coach at JSerra.
Nickerson, 60, becomes the first black football coach in the Trinity League since its inception in 2006.
“I’ve been around a lot of football and I’ve coached at literally every level,” he said. “We’re in the most competitive league in the country, the SEC of high school football, but it’s also about building young men and mentoring them.
JSerra hopes to strike gold like Santa Margarita did when he hired Heisman Trophy winner and 15-year NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, who won the Division 1 Southern Section championship and the CIF Open Division championship this year in his rookie season as a head coach. Palmer used his NFL connections to put together a top-notch group of assistant coaches.
Nickerson also has plenty of NFL connections and far more coaching experience than Palmer. A former defensive coordinator at Illinois, he served as an NFL assistant with the 49ers, Bears and Buccaneers and was the head coach at Bishop O’Dowd from 2010-13 and from 2022 until this season, when his team won the Division 5-AA state championship.
He said his phone has been busy hearing from many Verbum Dei graduates. He graduated from school in Los Angeles in 1983.
“They’re fired up,” he said.
He takes over a program that went 3-7 last season and severed ties with former Azusa Pacific head coach Victor Santa Cruz. Nickerson soon learns that coaching in the Trinity League is similar to college and the NFL, where teams expect to win or where there is little certainty of keeping the job long term.
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