Space Coast hires new head football coach: Clifton Nichols

Support local journalism and stay in the know. Unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com is only $1 for 6 months.

Longtime Brevard County offensive line coach Clifton Nichols was named head football coach for Space Coast Jr./Sr. High this week.

He came to the job after four seasons of coaching the offensive line for the Vipers. He was also the run-game coordinator. Previously, Nichols had coached the line at Titusville, both as a varsity and junior varsity coach; and he coached at Eau Gallie in the same role. He also coached at Rockledge.

Nichols was a four-year letterman with the Raiders and captain of the school's state championship team in 2001. He then attended and played football at Louisiana-Monroe until 2005, before returning to Brevard and beginning his coaching career.

He follows Matt Martin, who coached the Vipers to a 2-5 shortened 2020 season. Nichols will be the fourth head coach for the program five seasons, and he is the fourth new coach in Brevard County since the end of the year, joining Ben Waldrop at Cocoa Beach, David Kintigh at Melbourne and Jake Owens of Palm Bay, himself a previous Vipers head coach.

Contact McCallum at 321-242-3698 or bmccallum@floridatoday.com. Follow @321preps on Twitter and Instagram. Be sure to subscribe to FLORIDA TODAY.