Garden Grove hires Kevin Nichols as football coach

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Garden Grove has hired Century offensive coordinator Kevin Nichols as its football coach, Argonauts athletic director Ricardo Cepeda announced.

Nichols served as the offensive coordinator the past three seasons at Century under coach Lance Neal.

Century has made impressive progress the past few years. The Centurions went 4-5-1 last season and 7-5 in 2024 after going winless in 2021 and 2022. Century’s postseason appearance in 2024 was its first since 2004.

Nichols also served as the offensive coordinator under Neal at Loara in 2022.

Nichols has mostly run a hybrid version of the spread offense.

He earned first-team All-Orange League honors as Magnolia’s quarterback in 2004. He was nominated to play the Orange County all-star football game after that season.

Nichols played football at Santa Ana College under Geoff Jones and went on to serve in the Army for 10 years.

At Garden Grove, he replaces Matt LemMon, who resigned in the spring after two seasons.

Garden Grove finished 2-8 each of the past two seasons.

This fall, the Argonauts two drop two leagues in the Orange County Football Conference to the Omicron League. They will compete against Buena Park, Estancia, Los Amigos, Santa Ana and University in the league.

Please send football news to Dan Albano at dalbano@scng.com or @ocvarsityguy

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 11:55 AM.