It’s a family affair at Sheldon as the Nixons lead a group hungry to play
Sean Nixon held his all-white helmet Wednesday. There was no logo but that didn’t matter; he declared it too valuable to ever lose. This day was something close to a national holiday, he said.
Nixon is the Sheldon High School senior quarterback, a slender, tall, gritty and prolific passer. He is also a team leader and straight-A student who had a lot to play for last fall. That season didn’t happen, of course, due to the pandemic that shuttered schools and sidelined sports.
Football is back in play, with games scheduled for later this month and next. And despite no Delta League championship to contend for or a postseason to target, there were no complaints the first day gear was handed out by head coach Chris Nixon, father of Sean.
Another family tie is Huskies receiver Scott, a sophomore and the brother of Sean. Scott will remind you that he doesn’t have the gnarly, thick beard his brother sports, nor does he want to even try, but he does have better grades. He’s a 4.2 student, and the gag here is that when your GPA is considerably better than any 40-yard dash times, that’s a great thing. Here, they champion scholars and ballers.
“It finally feels real,” Sean Nixon said at practice this week, holding the head gear. “When I found out (the Elk Grove Unified School District) cleared us to get gear, I was sending all-caps texts to teammates. We’ve been waiting seven months We want to play. We don’t want to miss this chance.”
Scott said the most frustrating part of the wait were the “stop-and-starts, where one day we’re going, then it shuts down, and wondering if it’ll happen again. We’re excited to be back.”
Imagine, then, the glee of their coaching father, a fixture on the regional scene since the early 1980s, when he played for his father Marshall Nixon at Nevada Union and later ran pass routes at UC Davis. He was a championship coach or coordinator or both at Elk Grove High in the late 1990s and into the last decade. He is in his second season at Sheldon.
The view of 32 varsity players in pads for the first time, the sound of strike drills on the sled, pleased coach Nixon. He applauded the group for sticking it out all these months. when the easy choice might have been to just quit.
“These kids, they kept coming back, and coming and coming,” coach Nixon said. “They’re a great group, a great group of kids and people. Really proud of them. They want to play for each other, and we have guys chomping at the bit.”
Sean and Scott Nixon grew up on football fields, playing youth ball before their prep days, and working as ball boys for their father when he was steering 12-1 teams at Elk Grove. The sons kept sharp since summer by throwing and catching.
As true team leaders, they acknowledge football doesn’t work without teammates, and they have good ones, including third-year starting linebacker/running back Malcolm McGlothin. There’s big guys in the trenches in Juju Amituanai, who is 6-foot-3, 245 pounds, and Michael Sullivan, who is 6-5, 250. The line coach is Steve Blum, who said, simply, “I’m just so excited for all of these kids. We’re going!”
As for the quarterback’s beard, it’s not going anywhere. Nixon the QB has had it for more than a year. He says girlfriend Gracie Blohm is a factor.
“She might be the only reason I even have it,” the passer said with a laugh.
Good times have returned on all fronts.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.