Coaching Staff
We have built a team of coaches with high-level technical skills in their sport. We strive to train our athletes as if they will compete at the collegiate level. This includes intense physical training, as well as concepts that are utilized at the collegiate and professional levels. Our coaches have the highest expectations for the athletes on campus, and Northland Christian athletes deliver time and time again.
We aim and build for championships, but championships don’t define us. Trophies and medals may lose their luster, but the character development that occurs through hard work, playing through adversity, and being a contributing member of a fiercely competitive team with a common goal is lifelong.
Our coaching staff is proud to graduate student athletes that are prepared to take on the challenges of college, the workplace, and the ever-changing world. Our student athletes graduate with lifelong memories, lifelong friends, and the tools to be scholars and leaders with a Christian worldview.
BASEBALL
Coach Rick Nixon ~ Varsity Baseball Head Coach

While still practicing daily as an orthopedic surgeon, Doc Nixon volunteered as team physician at St. Pius X High School for over 10 years, and Northland Christian School for 15 years. His love of baseball kept him involved in the game as a youth coach while his two sons were growing up. He served as pitching coach at St. Pius X High School in 2009 and helped win a State Championship that year. He joined the baseball coaching staff at Northland in 2010 and served as the pitching coach and first assistant for 5 years. He became Head Coach in 2015 and is starting his sixth year at the helm. The teams under his leadership have advanced into the postseason each year, reaching the Final Four in 2017 and winning the State Championship in 2019 for the first time in 25 years.
Coach Nixon is married to Vicki, his college sweetheart, and has two grown sons. Johnny is an attorney in Houston and Jacob is a financial analyst in Denver.
Monny Webster ~ MS Head Baseball Coach

BASKETBALL
James Van Hook ~ Varsity Basketball Head Coach

After college, Coach Van Hook spent a combined six years in Katy ISD and Spring Branch ISD as a mathematics teacher and assistant basketball coach before accepting his first head coaching role at Northland Christian in 2013. Under his leadership, the program broke an eight year absence from the state playoffs, and a 33 year absence from the state championship game.
Coach Van Hook and his wife, Kady, have been married since 2007, and welcomed their daughter, Rachel, to the world in 2014.
Elizabeth Bohannon ~ HS Girls' Head Basketball Coach

Greg Bohannon ~ MS & HS Girls Basketball Coach

Jacob Bragg ~ MS & HS Assistant Basketball Coach
CHEER
Kim Downey ~ MS & HS Cheer Coach

CROSS COUNTRY
Elizabeth Bohannon ~ MS & HS Assistant Cross Country Coach

Patti Abt ~ MS & HS Head Cross Country Coach

AJ Palazzolo ~ Varsity Football Head Coach

Eric Allen ~ Strength & Conditioning Coach | HS Football

David Suggs ~ HS Football Assistant Coach
As a high school athlete, he participated in football, basketball, track, and baseball. While excelling in football (his mom’s favorite sport), being involved in multiple sports offered an opportunity to become a better athlete. Baseball (his dad’s favorite sport) was a sport he was good in.
He won honors such as all conference, all region, and all state as a high school football player and made several all-star teams in baseball.
Staying busy in all the sports did not interfere with what was most important – academics. Coach Suggs was a National Honor Society student and Boys Delegate. He also was a member of the Key Club and a Vice President of his class grades 9 – 11.
After his high school years were over, he went to Western Kentucky University to play football. After being red-shirted his freshman year, he learned the college game and by his junior year was a defensive starter at the outside linebacker position. This was natural to him and his stats prove it. Still today, he ranks in the top 10 in multiple defensive categories – Career Assist Tackles (7), Season Assist Tackles (4), Season Tackle for Loss (6), Career Fumble Recoveries (7), Career Forced Fumbles (2), and Season Forced Fumbles (4). As a junior he led the Ohio Valley Conference in Tackles for Loss and was named Defensive Player of the Week versus Youngstown State University. As a senior he was a Co-Captain and named the team’s Defensive MVP.
After graduating with a BS in Health Education he moved to Daytona Beach Mainland High School for his first teaching and coaching position. While at Mainland he received awards such as Teacher of the Month (twice), Most Outstand First Year Teacher, Conference Girls Track Coach of the Year (this was the first time the Girls Track Team had won a conference championship), and was the first African-American Head Football Coach in Volusia County Schools.
While at Mainland he coached football, baseball, track, and power lifting. All these sports provided an opportunity to reflect what he did as a high school athlete. Most importantly it was an opportunity to meet lots of different student-athletes.
Coach Suggs left Mainland and went to Osceola High School in Kissimmee, FL for a year and then to the Great State of Texas at La Marque High School. This coaching experience proved to be a momentous experience in his coaching career. While at La Marque the teams compiled a record of 45 – 7 with a State Championship Finals in 1993.
Coach Suggs later moved to other high schools as an assistant head coach and coordinator (offensive and defensive) before landing his first Athletic Coordinator and Head Football Coach position at Fort Bend Willowridge High School. At Willowridge he revived a historic program that had fallen on tough times. Since Willowridge he has been the head coach at Port Arthur Lincoln High School, Beaumont Central High School, Aldine Nimitz Senior High School, Galveston Ball High School, and Beaumont Ozen High School. All of which he has led to a playoff season.
Coach Suggs has won Coach of the Year honors in football six times and has had an opportunity to coach many collegiate and professional athletes – Terry Anthony (Mainland/Tampa Bay - R) Michael Thomas (Nimitz/Houston Texans), Manny Ramirez (Willowridge/Denver Broncos - R), Anthony Collins (Beaumont Central/Outland Trophy Finalist at Kansas), and Ivory Williams (Olympic Caliber Sprinter) just to name a few.
After retiring from the public-school system Coach Suggs joined the staff at Northland Christian. Coming to Northland provided him with a chance to do what he believes God has called him to do – be a difference maker in the lives of young people.
Coach Suggs extends his thanks to Northland’s administration, faculty, community, and students for affording him the opportunity to be a part of this great family!
Monny Webster ~ MS Head Football Coach / HS Assistant Football Coach

Jacob Bragg ~ MS & HS Football Coach

GOLF
SOCCER
Patti Abt ~ MS & HS Head Girls Soccer Coach

Jose Ortega ~ MS Boy's Soccer Head Coach | HS Soccer Assistant
Once Coach Ortega earned his degree from the University of Houston, he began his coaching career at Dean Middle School in 2013. Coach Ortega lead the Dean soccer team to four undefeated seasons. In 2015 he became a trainer for the Aspire Soccer Club, where he continues to work with youth teams today. He became the head coach of the Northland Christian Middle School soccer team in 2019 and is eager to lead the Cougars to success on and off the field.
Coach Ortega and his wife Veronica have been married since 2015 and have three wonderful girls.
SOFTBALL
DaQueta Johnson ~ Head Softball Coach | MS Volleyball Coach

Coach D's vision is to expose young student-athletes to a sound structured coaching environment that will ultimately guide them to achieve higher skill levels and better knowledge of the game. It all begins with stressing the importance of academics as it relates to competitive sports and to the success in their personal future endeavors through life.
Coach D, played her collegiate softball at Purdue University, from 2003-2006, setting several records over the years. Tied school single-game record for home runs with two against Dayton, Feb. 22, 2004, tied single-game RBI record with seven hits. Ranks among the career top five in three categories: home runs (2nd with 25), RBI (3rd with 118) and slugging percentage (5th with .483) Ranks among the single season top five in home runs (4th with 10, 2006) and RBI (3rd with 46, 2006) Owns spots among the single-season lists for sacrifice flies (2nd with 5) and RBI (3rd with 44).
Dwayne Johnson ~ MS/HS Assistant Softball Coach
***Coach Dwayne “DJ” Johnson was also selected as one of the top fifty coaches designated as an Adidas Futures top coaches for two seasons. Finishing in the top 5 of 50 teams from across the Nation. Coach Dj has been asked to coach in Italy.
SWIMMING
Silvia Kroeck ~ Varsity Swim Coach
She loves working with students teaching swim technique, sportsmanship and reaching for goals. Swimming and teaching is a passion of hers and she loves to see the joy in students when they reach a goal that they worked for.
She is starting her 5th season at Northland and is excited that swim team has become an integral part of the sports program at Northland.
TENNIS
Greg Bohannon ~ HS Tennis Coach

TRACK
Elizabeth Bohannon ~ HS Head Track Coach

Jacob Bragg ~ HS Track Coach

Patti Abt ~ MS & HS Assistant Track Coach

VOLLEYBALL
Carolyn Lemm ~ MS Athletic Director | MS Head Volleyball Coach | MS Head Track Coach

Coach Lemm has a Bachelor's degree in Physical Education from Harding University. She has been a coach and teacher at NCS since 1982.