Oxarart named Head Coach of Mustang Football

There has been a long wait to see who would take the reigns as Malta's Head Football Coach after Tad Schye stepped down from the position, last winter.

It's a job that comes with a long legacy of excellent coaching, and sounds intimidating to the average man.

Malta didn't hire just any "Average Joe," for the job. Last week former standout coach and current Malta Athletic Director Scott King, informed Nick Oxarart, a player he coached, that he is Malta's newest head coach.

Nick Oxarart, will be the first coach over the last half century, to be born and raised in Malta.

He was a sophomore when the Mustangs football team won it's first state championship in 1996. He played on special teams and started a couple of games at fullback due to an injury to the starter.

He started at linebacker and running back for Malta in 1998, when Malta made it to the State Championship and lost to Huntley Project.

He graduated in 1999 from Malta and eventually took his talents to Minot State in Minot, ND and participated for a year as a linebacker.

Originally he joined Minot State's business management program, but it wasn't his cup of tea. He then went back to a subject he enjoyed in school.

"I always thought about getting into math. I loved it. I kind of tutored some people a little bit. I had great math teachers in high school. I also wanted to try coaching too, so I thought teaching would be a great option," he said in an earlier interview.

He and his wife Shannon, also a Malta native, graduated from Minot and finished student teaching in December of 2004.

After teaching a year in Miles City, eventually Oxarart and his wife Shannon, made their way back home, to Malta in 2006. Coach Oxarart, is the current Math teacher at Malta High.

Oxarart has always been a huge Mustang fan and it can be seen through a school project website that still exists today.

"When I was in college I had to create a website and I just kind of kept track of all of the past Mustangs that went on to play college football," said Oxarart.

On another part of the site Oxarart did 80 years of Mustang Glory where Oxarart put most of the scores of Mustangs games.

"I was trying to put scores online for people to look up, but I lost time to keep up with the project, but I (was always) a big fan of the Mustangs," said Oxarart.

The pride of Malta blue and white runs through his veins and he will look to leave a another positive stamp on the school's dominant reputation in football.

"It's a pretty good feeling to come back and coach the team, you just have a greater sense of pride in wanting your team to do well and to coach 'em up right," he said in an earlier interview.

His coaching career started with the school in 2006, as receivers and linebackers coach, which he did until 2012. He was also assistant head coach to Coach Bleth in the JV team. Last year he was outside linebacker and running backs coach as well as head coach of the freshman/sophomore football team.

"Just being a part of Mustang Football success and tradition for 8 years has been a great achievement for me (so far)," Oxarart told the PCN.

He also said, he looks forward to helping a young offensive line develop and mature.

"We had a lot of sophomores play varsity last year and I look forward to seeing them step up as juniors and be