Coaching Staff

Coach Rick Nixon was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He played football, basketball, and baseball at Scarborough High School, and was named by the Houston Chamber of Commerce as the Outstanding Athlete in the City of Houston his senior year. He attended the University of Texas at Austin on a baseball scholarship, and was named to the All-Southwest Conference team, All-Regional team, and Academic All-American team his senior year. Aspiring to become an orthopedic surgeon, he earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and completed 5 years of orthopedic training at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas. After a year of fellowship training in sports medicine, he started his orthopedic practice in northwest Houston in 1991. He has served as Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Orthopedic Department at Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital, and currently is the Medical Director of the Operating Services.

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.

Coach James Van Hook was born and raised in Edmond, Oklahoma, and is a graduate of Edmond North High School and Oklahoma State University. He grew up playing baseball, basketball, football, and ran cross country and track before focusing on basketball during his later high school years. He was nominated for Scholar Athlete of the Year by The Daily Oklahoman as a Senior. While in college, he fell in love with coaching as a volunteer assistant coach at Glencoe High School, where he helped the team win a state championship in 2006.

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.

Coach Kim Downey has a degree in Biological Sciences from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California. Coach Downey lettered in Cross Country, Soccer, Track, Badminton, and Cheer at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, California. Downey has been teaching high school science for 23 years, and has coached Varsity/JV Cross Country, Varsity/JV Boys Soccer, and Cheerleading at various schools over the years.

 

Kim Downey was voted the Spring ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2007 and Northland Christian Teacher of the Year in 2013. She started coaching with the hopes of having a positive impact on the future of her athletes and to help them realize and grow their God-given talents. She believes that there is nothing better than watching athletes accept challenges, grow their faith, achieve goals, and succeed while having fun. When not teaching or coaching, Kim enjoys spending time and traveling with her husband and two daughters.

A native of Shelbyville, TN, Coach David Suggs started his athletic career at a youthful age after putting aside his love for music. He started playing organized athletics in the fifth grade and has not looked back since.

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!

Coach Jose Ortega was born and raised in Houston, Texas and is a graduate of Cypress Ridge High School and the University of Houston. He began playing soccer at an early age and played for Texas Premier FC, Cypress Ridge High School, and Lonestar College. After suffering a few knee injuries, he decided to turn his attention to coaching.

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.

Silvia has worked in aquatics for 45 years with numerous certifications in the aquatic industry. She has coached 2 public high school swim teams as well as summer swim league teams and coached for many years as a USA 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.

Coach Carolyn Lemm has been a part of the Northland Volleyball program since 1990. She has coached both MS and HS. She took the 1997 Varsity VB team to the State Final Four. Her MS teams have many Championships and are consistently in the top 3 teams.

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