Paint Branch Coach Michael Nesmith on Building More Than a Football Program

Michael Nesmith has been the head football coach at Paint Branch High School since 2007, and he has coached football every year since he was 19. Nesmith, who also teaches English at Paint Branch, said he wants to use football to help build young men, not just to win games.

Nesmith joined Moderately Mic’d for Episode 10, recorded in August before the 2026 season, to talk about his Seneca Valley roots, the “PB300” identity he built at Paint Branch, being a father figure to his players, and how recruiting and transfers have changed high school football. The conversation was also personal for host Jason Makstein: Nesmith was one of his assistant coaches during the one season Makstein played football at Quince Orchard High School. Capital Sideline previewed the episode before Paint Branch’s season opener.

From Seneca Valley to Paint Branch

Nesmith played at Seneca Valley High School in the 1990s and said he learned to coach from Seneca Valley’s staff, starting with what he heard from them as a player and later as an assistant. He said he spent eight years as an assistant there. “In eight years at Seneca, we won the state championship four times while I was there and lost in the state semis three other times,” Nesmith said.

Nesmith said his love of the game started with neighborhood games as a five- or six-year-old, playing alongside older kids who drew up plays. “And so I learned that if you had a plan, if you had plays, a strategy, you could beat the big kids,” Nesmith said.

Nesmith said he went to the University of Maryland for a year after high school and missed football. He said he then answered an ad in the Gazette for a head coach of a Seneca Chiefs youth team. “They hired me as a 19 year old head coach. We went four and four,” Nesmith said. He said he has coached every year since 1993.

Nesmith said he then spent five years at Quince Orchard before taking over Paint Branch. He said he arrived having bought into an outside perception of the Burtonsville school. “I had bought into the notion that Paint Branch was a difficult school,” Nesmith said. “I get there, and I got a bunch of nice kids, a bunch of nice boys. It’s a nice school.”

In December 2021, the Washington Football Team named Nesmith its High School Coach of the Year, WJLA reported.

What PB300 means

Fans of the program see “PB300” on Paint Branch gear. Nesmith said the name comes from the movie 300, about Spartan soldiers, which came out in 2007, his first year at Paint Branch. In the scene Nesmith described, the Spartan king asks the soldiers of an allied Greek army their professions, and then his own men answer that they are soldiers.

Nesmith said the point for his players is year-round commitment. Players are free to play other sports, he said, but those who are not are expected at winter and spring workouts. “We’re working year-round on football,” Nesmith said.

Nesmith said he tries to teach his players to “use football and not let football use you.” “Football’s a great vehicle when it’s used properly,” Nesmith said.

A father figure, and a few more sons each year

Asked about former players who describe him as a father figure, Nesmith said he coaches “a lot of the way that my father raised me.” Nesmith said he tells players they will understand what the program means only after they graduate: “you’re not going to know that Paint Branch football is family until you leave.” He said former players call him for job recommendations and advice years later. “It’s like I get a few more sons each year as they graduate,” Nesmith said.

Nesmith said he treats players fairly but not identically, because some respond to a coach in their face and others withdraw. When he gets on a player, he said, the message is: “I love you. I don’t like your football right now.”

Nesmith said the players he could not reach, including some who went to jail or died, used to weigh on him. “I have to celebrate the victories and, you know, mourn the defeats, but not take it personally. Otherwise, I was going to burn out,” Nesmith said.

The player Nesmith named as the best example of why he coaches is Anthony Nettles, whom he coached at Quince Orchard and who is now one of his assistant coaches. Nesmith said Nettles struggled in high school, then earned a degree from West Virginia, served in the military and earned a master’s from Georgetown. Nesmith said Nettles, now a financial advisor, leads a financial literacy seminar for Paint Branch’s seniors and juniors each year. Nesmith said Nettles once told him he had written down a saying Nesmith shared in class: “the reason why most people fail instead of succeed is that they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.”

Recruiting, the portal and transfers

Nesmith said parents often underestimate how much physical measurables and grades matter in college recruiting. As an example of speed separating two very good high school players, he pointed to Octavian Smith Jr., who ran a 4.4, played wide receiver at Maryland and was with the Baltimore Ravens at the time of the interview. Smith, a Paint Branch graduate, signed with the Ravens as an undrafted free agent in April, The MoCo Show reported, and the Ravens waived him Aug. 29.

Nesmith said he tells players from ninth grade on that they need A’s and B’s. “C’s will not get you into college,” Nesmith said. “You have to compete in the classroom the same way you can be on the field.”

Nesmith said the extra year of college eligibility and the transfer portal cut roster spots for high school seniors. He said some FCS programs, naming schools on “the Towson, Morgan State and Monmouth level,” now pitch recruits on the chance to succeed there and move up to a bigger school. “So it’s almost like they’re turning into JUCOs in a way,” Nesmith said.

On high school transfers, Nesmith said he finds it hard to criticize families who move a son to a program that sends more players to college. He also warned of the effect on schools that keep losing players. “So we’re close to having some schools that may not be able to field football teams if we don’t figure out a way to kind of level the playing field to some degree,” Nesmith said.

Beyond football, and the 2026 team

Nesmith said he talks with players about the news, voting and how to judge sources. “We’re in the information age, but as much information as is out there, there’s even more disinformation,” Nesmith said. He said a senior recently told him he had not been talking with the team about those issues as much as before, and that he apologized to the team and promised to do better.

Looking at the 2026 season, Nesmith said Paint Branch would count on many sophomores to play varsity, calling it “the youngest team I’ve ever had.” “We expect to be a strong program again this year, but we’ll be young,” Nesmith said.

Paint Branch opened the season with a 28-0 loss at Quince Orchard, Capital Sideline reported. Moderately MOCO’s past Paint Branch coverage includes the Panthers’ 34-14 playoff win over Blake in 2025.

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