‘Miner Magic’: Resurgent Nevada Union Miners grind their way to 15-6 win over Del Campo
For years, the Nevada Union Miners cast a formidable shadow on a good part of the Sacramento-area high school football scene, rolling out waves of players big and small and teams that devoured all comers with the tricky wing-T offense and a tenacious defense.
They went by “Miner Magic” in Grass Valley, where football was the thing for kids to do and for fans and business owners to watch and discuss in the foothills. Then the decline in enrollment hit the proud program particularly hard, the program bottoming out in 2013 at 0-10. There was profound heartache in 2018 for all the worst, most tragic reasons, when beloved NU players Tyler Nielson and Justin Gardner died in a car accident during spring break in a head-on collision, the result of a drunk driver, near Los Banos.
On Friday night in Fair Oaks, Nevada Union grinded and gritted its way to a throwback victory, a 15-6 effort at Bee-ranked No. 22 Del Campo in a Foothill Valley League contest, pleasing the coach, Brad Sparks, to no end. He has endured all the emotions at NU. He was the coach who agonized and had to heal his program over that 2018 tragedy. He keeps those fallen players in mind, always.
The Miners headed home at a robust and encouraging 5-1, the program’s best start since the 2009 team under coach Dave Humphers went 13-1 and won their last CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
Now in his seventh season as the head man at NU after years as an assistant, Sparks beamed at the progress of the program. The varsity roster numbers are up, in the 40s. The intensity is there to see. He reminded his team afterward that there is no real “Miner Magic” beyond legend and lore, and that the core of the program’s success then and now is rooted in hard work and commitment.
“We won this game starting seven years ago, in 2018,” Sparks said. “That’s the magic, believing in the program. We have blue-collar kids. They don’t give up. Our staff has worked hard to bring the program out of the depths, including that car accident. This is such a great group of kids.”
Nevada Union has gone from a Division I, large-school power with close to 3,000 students in its heyday to a 1,500-enrollment school that has shown this season that it will be a difficult out in the D-IV playoffs. The Miners have produced recent playoff teams but seek that playoff breakthrough. At this rate, that will happen this season.
A 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior back, Rhyder Eelkema, broke free for a 52-yard touchdown sprint on the first play from scrimmage, and Nate “Ziggy” Pritchett had a 5-yard run in the quarter for a 15-0 NU lead.
Del Campo scored its points on an Isaac Craig 2-yard run on fourth down in the second quarter. There were no points in the second half in a game coached by men who are good pals. Sparks and DC coach Matt Costa regularly exchange text messages, hang out when they can, and they can relate to what one has to endure in running a program of tradition.
And this: The coaches embrace old-school football, NU with the return of the wing-T run game and DC with the run-heavy fly offense under offensive coordinator and one-time Granite Bay championship coach Ernie Cooper.
“He’s a good friend,” Costa said of Sparks. “It’s nice to have those Friday games against a friend when it’s a big less stressful. It can be a weird dynamic in coaching. One, this is high school football. It’s not the end all, be all of human existence. No one’s job is on the line. You never want to lose to a friend, but that the same time, if you’re going to lose a game, it might as well be to someone you like and respect.”
Costa added: “We were joking back and forth that this looks like football, circa 1985, with the fly and wing-T, and what’s old is new.”
NU welcomed back the services of senior linebacker Jake Barefield, back in action from a broken leg. He and junior defensive lineman Craig Statler led a physical tone, and Logan Eandi and Grady Kamba had interceptions to stall DC drives.
An assistant coach with links to NU’s glorious past is Josh Van Matre, a star in the late 1990s. He’s been with the NU program off and on since 2005, and he coaches multiple sports at his old stomping grounds. He has a son, Carter Van Matre, on the team, and father and son hammed it up in good spirits afterward.
“It’s great to see these kids having success,” coach Van Matre said. “Feels like old times.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2024 at 11:31 PM.