Nampa football needed a new coach. It found one who rejuvenated a Utah program
Trampis Waite knows Nampa High football struggled last season, limping to a 1-8 record. But the 31-year-old isn’t afraid of a challenge.
Waite previously inherited a winless program at Utah’s Bear River High. He won three games there his first year, and he led the Bears to a pair of playoff wins in four seasons.
Now he’ll look to engineer a similar turnaround at Nampa after the district’s school board officially hired Waite on Tuesday as the Bulldogs’ fifth head football coach in six years.
“I thought they were in every football game,” Waite said of Nampa’s 2025 season. “I’ve already gone through six or seven of their games last year on tape. There were a lot of good things on offense and defense that I saw, especially with injuries that they’ve had and the athletes that they’ve got coming back.
“I definitely don’t think it’s a long shot to say we are not far off.”
Waite takes over for Ty Thomas, who stepped down in December after leading the Bulldogs to a 5-14 record the past two seasons. That included a 2024 playoff appearance and that 1-8 mark last fall, when Nampa lost four games by eight points or fewer.
Thomas said he still wants to remain a part of the football program, but he needed to find more time to follow his three children in their activities.
“I still want to be involved, just in a little different capacity,” Thomas said.
Waite brings a 14-32 (.389) career record from his time at Bear River to Nampa. The Bears finished 4-8 or 3-8 every season under Waite, winning one playoff game in Utah’s third-largest classification in both 2023 and ‘24.
Waite graduated from Oregon’s Ontario High in 2013, where he played for his father, Randy Waite. He played four seasons at quarterback at Eastern Oregon before joining the Mountaineers’ staff as a graduate assistant and a running backs coach.
He took his first high school coaching job as the co-offensive coordinator at Big Sky High in Missoula, Montana, while his wife finished her college degree. He then served as the offensive coordinator at Eagle Point High outside of Medford, Oregon, before taking his first head coaching gig at Bear River.
Waite and his wife, a Borah High grad, sought to return to the Treasure Valley this offseason to raise their 4-year-old son near their families. He interviewed for open head coaching positions at Vallivue and Columbia. While both hired internal candidates, Nampa Athletic Director Greg Carpenter said sources from both schools raved about him.
“He saw success everywhere he’s been,” Carpenter said. “... There’s a lot of praise from everywhere he’s been that he’s a hard worker and extremely organized.”
Waite joins the program during a period of turnover. While Thomas plans to remain on staff, two-time former head coach Jon Choate and longtime offensive coordinator Danl Richard both left the program. So Carpenter said Waite’s experience building a coach staff stood out among the 11 candidates Nampa received and the four interviews it conducted.
Waite brings a background as an offensive coach to the Bulldogs and said to expect a pass-first offense from Nampa next season. But he added that finding new leaders remains the key to contending again in the 5A SIC.
“It comes down to leadership,” Waite said. “If we can get some buy-in with what we’re trying to sell, that will push us forward and the rest will fall into place.”
Nampa’s hire marks the latest in the offseason coaching carousel in the Treasure Valley. Rocky Mountain, Capital, Meridian, Kuna, Columbia and Vallivue have all hired new coaches. Ridgevue remains the last open job in the 6A and 5A Southern Idaho Conferences.
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 12:22 PM.
