Junior Lane Dalton was thrown into the fire late last season and responded by helping Miramonte to a North Coast Section championship. He’s battle-tested now, but the 2026 schedule is unforgiving.
It’s year three for coach Nick Safir, and he’s set a high bar: In his second season, the Matadors won the North Coast Section (NCS) Division 5 championship, coming from 14-0 down against a heavily favored Hayward team with the starting quarterback and top running back both out
with injuries.
But now Miramonte isn’t sneaking up on anyone, and in addition, the Mats must play one of the toughest schedules in all of NCS (see sidebar).
Safir, though, is confident in his group.
“We finally got over the hump against Hayward,” he said, and on top of that, those young players who had to step in because of injuries have now been through the fire of postseason.
“To have to come in and start five games at the beginning of November, with a broken finger, to start in those high-stress games …” That’s Safir talking about junior quarterback Lane Dalton, who has earned the confidence of the players and coaches after that late-season run.
“He’s taken charge of the offense,” Safir added. “Everybody has relaxed and bought into him.”
Dalton’s ability to see the whole field and spread the ball around will be especially important this year, as Safir has a deep wide receiving corps that will put pressure on opposing defenses.
“This group will surprise people,” said Safir, as there’s lots of depth behind returning standout George Gilbert – including Parker Bjornson, Michael Fagundes, Colton Bernstein and Tre Murphy.
Jonah Imberg, who emerged with 124 yards in the win over Hayward, returns, and though he doesn’t have the size of a prototypical lead back, he has both speed and grit.
“He never complains,” said Safir. “And he’s so explosive.”
Harrison Feusier will also see plenty of snaps in the backfield, as one definite advantage Miramonte has this year as opposed to previous seasons is a much larger roster.
In Safir’s first season, he only had 25 varsity players, and the junior varsity team was at about the same number. And there was no frosh team.
Safir added a frosh team last year, and could have as many as 40 varsity players this fall, which cuts down on the number of two-way starters and allows the staff to adjust to the inevitable injuries.
That depth is especially important in the trenches, as rotating players is crucial to keeping them fresh and healthy.
For example, the Mats have four returning starters in the offensive line, but unlike last season, none are expected to start on the defensive side. That means Jack White, Brooks Butler, Dave Greenstone and Jackson Thompson can focus on offense, but also provide a boost on defense when needed.
Ben Romweber and Cooper Buster will be able to spend all their energy on the defensive line, and Safir is also optimistic that younger players are going to step up and claim starting spots.
Tres Buster will anchor a solid linebacking corps, and Henry Hunt, Gilbert and Feusier will carry the load in the defensive backfield.
One big hole to fill is kicker, as James Rogers handled both punting and placekicking at an elite level. There are plenty of candidates, however, including Julian Salter, who transferred to Miramonte from De La Salle, and will be eligible after sitting out for five games.
And when football players start transferring from De La Salle to Miramonte, it shows that the program is being taken seriously – and that the 2025NCS Division 5 title might only be a first step.
The schedule does the Mats no favors
The powers-that-be have not been kind to the Miramonte football program – and as a result, the defending North Coast Section (NCS) Division V champions are facing a brutal schedule that could deny them a chance to defend that title.
The problems began last fall, when the smaller schools in NCS forced through a change in the way teams qualify for postseason. Instead of using MaxPreps’ computerized ratings to determine the top teams, NCS shifted to just counting wins. That’s a significant advantage for schools in the northern part of the section, as they do not have to deal with the more talented teams in the East Bay and North Bay.
“If you don’t have six wins,” said coach Nick Safir, “you might not make the playoffs.”
But that’s just the start.
The Diablo Athletic League re-aligned prior to this season, and despite Safir’s desire for Miramonte to be in the top division, the Mats were placed in the second of the three groups.
That’s not an easy one, with Northgate and Las Lomas on the schedule, but the real issue is the teams Miramonte doesn’t play as part of its league: Acalanes and Campolindo, which were fourth and 14th in the MaxPreps’ NCS ratings last year.
The Acalanes Union High School District requires that its four district schools – Miramonte, Acalanes, Campolindo and Las Lomas – play each other, so two of Miramonte’s non-league games have to be against two NCS powerhouses.
In addition, the Mats must complete their home-and-home series with Windsor, which was 15th in NCS last year, as well as playing Northgate, Las Lomas and College Park in league play.
To top it all off, now that NCS only counts wins for postseason qualification, few teams are willing play Miramonte, a program on the rise, making it difficult for Safir to find opponents.
Oakland Tech and Montgomery are both back for the second year of their home-and-home contracts, but Safir had to fill his final game with Granada, a 6-6 team from the powerful East Bay Athletic League that returns its quarterback and top running backs.
So the Miramonte schedule is, to put it bluntly, a meat-grinder.
After Granada in week two, the Mats start a five-game stretch in week four that goes Windsor, Campolindo, Acalanes, Las Lomas and Northgate.
That gantlet would challenge even the best teams in NCS, and the hidden cost is that all those games will be physically demanding – and the odds of having a fully healthy roster during or after any of those games is low.
But Safir isn’t backing down or complaining.
“We’ve got the team to handle it,” he said. “We’re ready for the challenge.”
