Is Chris Nixon out at Sheldon? Beloved coach ordered to turn in keys after angry parent issue
A high school football team in the Elk Grove Unified School District is stuck in a holding pattern with five team captains and a host of others declining to practice Monday and Tuesday as the biggest game of their season looms — a stand of unity as student-athletes and the entire varsity coaching staff want their beloved head coach with them to lead the way with a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoff berth on the line.
What’s more, Friday’s game at Cosumnes River College has double meaning for host Laguna Creek. It is Senior Night for the Cardinals, meaning each senior will be honored with parents before kickoff. Laguna Creek also needs a victory to help secure a playoff berth.
Longtime Sheldon Huskies coach Chris Nixon on Monday afternoon was ordered into the principal’s office to speak with administrators and athletic director Jason Bumbaca to address a situation following last Friday’s home Delta League contest against Elk Grove. A father of a Sheldon player, moments after the game finished, allegedly approached Nixon in anger and cursed at him about playing time for his son, an issue in prep sports for decades.
According to several witnesses who observed the incident, including three Sheldon assistant coaches and several players, Nixon was upset that there was no school administrator at that moment to prevent the scene, or to keep spectators from walking onto the field to reach coaches. Bumbaca arrived to speak to Nixon, and the two got into a heated exchanged about fan access to the field.
Nixon on Monday was told he could not curse the athletic director and was ordered to turn in his keys. Was he fired? Suspended? No one seems to know. Reached by The Sacramento Bee, Nixon said he was not allowed to speak about it, nor was he allowed to talk to Sheldon players, as mandated by his administration.
Bumbaca as of Wednesday afternoon had not returned texts or emails from The Bee for comment. Neither has first-year Sheldon principal Leticia Bucio. The Elk Grove Unified School District did return an email on Wednesday afternoon and wrote that The Bee’s inquiry regarding Nixon’s status, “relates to a confidential personnel matter, and for this reason the district is unable to comment further. However, please know that the Sheldon football program will continue and finish the season.”
Nixon did emphatically tell The Bee that he did not curse Bumbaca and that he doesn’t even curse in practice or at games. He added that he is deeply “appreciative for all my players and our fantastic coaching staff,” adding that he wants to finish out the season. An assistant coach said Nixon did not curse the athletic director but that he himself cursed in frustration.
Two assistant coaches told The Bee that they were asked to run practices this week. They declined out of support for Nixon. Bumbaca as athletic director canceled Sheldon’s practice on Monday when only 12 players showed up, and then canceled practice again on Tuesday when only 11 arrived.
A player told The Bee that Bumbaca told the team that if fewer than 17 players did not show up for Wednesday’s practice, Sheldon may have to forfeit against Laguna Creek. Sheldon has endured a taxing season, sitting at four wins and five losses, thinned by injuries. The team had plenty to play for this week, however.
“I am being told that Sheldon is doing everything in its power to make our game happen,” Laguna Creek coach Ryan Nill said. “All we can do is practice and be ready to play. Playoff implications aside, I am hoping Sheldon can figure it out because it’s our Senior Night also.”
‘I won’t play for another coach’
One of Sheldon’s team captains is senior receiver/defensive back Samarjit Bimb, a one-time ball boy for Sheldon when his older brother Jasjit Bimb, was a player. Jasjit Bimb is now a Sheldon assistant, one of several on staff who played for Nixon at Elk Grove High or at Sheldon.
Samarjit Bimb on Wednesday morning drafted a detailed email to Bucio, the principal, urging for the immediate reinstatement of Nixon. A 4.0 student, Bimb told The Bee in speaking for the team captains and other teammates, “I can’t and won’t play for another coach.”
He added, “It’s very sad that this is happening, and it doesn’t make any sense to us. Coach Nixon and staff care about us so it’s really frustrating that this is happening. We love coach Nixon. He spends so much time preparing us every week and he always checks up on us and asks how we’re doing. He spends countless hours getting us ready for life after football.”
Bimb continued: “Coach Nixon and our other coaches’ No. 1 priority was always to make sure we had good attitudes on campus. He always taught us to not talk trash to our opponents, to behave at school, get good grades. His biggest priority was making sure we became well behaved people. So I really don’t understand why they’d do this to him.”
Bimb said he did not observe Nixon cursing anyone.
“I saw the whole incident go down Friday and I don’t understand how coach Nixon was in the wrong,” Bimb said. “It really makes no sense, and it’s sad that our school cares this little about us players that they’d do this to our coach that loves us and the coach we love back.”
Sean Nixon, the coach’s oldest son who coaches quarterbacks and helps call plays, said: “This all makes little to no sense to me. I saw the incident. My dad was verbally attacked by a parent. Of course, (my dad) is going to be angry after that because that should not be allowed on the field after a game. We love our players and feel for them. They deserve better than what is being done to them. They’re very upset as they should be, and we love them and appreciate their support.”
Sean Nixon said he worries about the future of Sheldon football if his father is not reinstated.
“I don’t know what will happen to Sheldon football going forward,” he said, “but doing this to the guy that cares about the players and program more than anyone isn’t a recipe for success. Players will suffer from this and it’s really heartbreaking that the school doesn’t seem to care.”
Sean Nixon added: “I was at Sheldon for two years before my dad was hired as head coach. The culture was a mess. Players were getting into fights on campus weekly, no exaggeration. My dad was hired, and the culture changed dramatically. Football players became model citizens on campus. Fights and issues on campus with football players stopped. That was always our biggest concern, and we were able to positively shift the culture of our football players.
“Without my dad, the culture will revert right back to how it used to be, and it’s too bad that the school doesn’t understand that. Kids take pride in being a Sheldon football player. They want to buy their jersey after graduation. Alums all come back to games. They won’t any more if my dad isn’t there, and that’s sad.”
Nixon one of this era’s top coaches
Nixon has coached at Sheldon since 2019, keeping the Huskies together during the spring-shortened COVID season of 2021 and keeping morale up in what was a frustrating time for student-athletes. Nixon coached Sheldon playoff teams in 2021 and 2022. Two of his assistants are his sons, who grew up around the sport, including as ball boys when Nixon coached Elk Grove High to championship seasons.
Sean Nixon was a two-time Bee All-Metro player, including at quarterback; and receiver/running back Scott Nixon in 2022 was named The Bee’s Player of the Year. Another assistant, Ryan Robards, was The Bee’s 2012 Player of the Year under Nixon at Elk Grove when he set regional rushing records.
Nixon is a longtime teacher at an elementary school in the district and has long been known to pour himself into the Huskies football program, including meeting with players in the off season and making practices hard but capped with fun, often with post-practice Otter Pop popsicles. Coaches are on year-to-year, at-will contracts, and they can be dismissed or not renewed at any time. It’s common, but it is unprecedented for it to happen to top-tier coaches, however.
Nixon since the late 1990s has gained a reputation as one of the top coaches of this generation, starting with his offensive coordinator days at Elk Grove to his head-coaching stints at that school and Sheldon.
Second angry parent confrontation
Players and assistant coaches told The Bee that this wasn’t the first time a parent angrily approached Nixon immediately after a game, again tied to playing time and no barrier to prevent fans from getting to the field.
Robards, the former Elk Grove star, has been an assistant under Nixon for several seasons, doing so out of loyalty, friendship and of sharing the same vision of how to mold teams and student-athletes. Robards like other varsity coaches declined to run the team without their head coach.
“It’s been a wild turn of events,” Robards said. “The kids have really bought into the program and into coach Nixon, so it is sad to see it go down like this with a lot of them being seniors. There was an instance earlier where a parent came down on the field after a game, in which we won, to start yelling at the coaches about playing time. Most would think security at the gate to get on the field becomes a priority. Unfortunately, that was not the case (last week). Nixon voiced his valid concerns with Bumbaca about how unacceptable this occurrence was.”
Robards added: “As someone who was there the whole time, I didn’t see any point where Nixon was out of line. For this to lead to the decision of (a suspension or termination) is utterly embarrassing and will ultimately give a black eye to the school and district. Many kids have admitted that football and the program itself have kept them disciplined and given them an outlet to keep them out of dark situations.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 11:25 AM.