Nic Caberos is the new Mitchell Friend de Coup director.
Caberos replaces Nick McGraw, who is leaving the teaching profession.
Mitchell, along with Findlay, was arguably one of the top openings of the 2024 offseason. Findlay hired Ohio Northern University assistant professor David Coolidge for its show choir job.
A product of the vocal music department at Papillion-La Vista South High School and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Caberos was most recently the vocal music director at Lincoln Northeast High School.
During his time at Lincoln Northeast, Caberos shepherded the show choir program to some of its best times. The varsity mixed group, Voices ‘N Harmony, made big strides in competitiveness locally and found plenty of success outside of the Lincoln-Omaha beltway. VNH took the Grand Champion title at the Northwest Missouri State Show Choir Festival this past February, the program’s second-ever win. Additionally, the second group Dynamix evolved from a womens group to a mixed group under Caberos’ watch.
He will now move one state north and take over South Dakota’s most successful program. This past season marked the 40th for FDC, which was founded by Jeff Gemar. Gemar led the group until 2000, after which Jon Loy and Tatum Mahlen led the group. Chris Miller’s hiring ahead of the 2008 season brought the group back to prominence on a national level. Miller’s final season with Mitchell in 2016 included three wins and eight major captions across six contests. Jen Randall was director from 2017 to 2019, and McGraw spent the last five years with Mitchell.
The hiring of Caberos continues Mitchell’s trend of hiring directors with previous show choir experience. McGraw had great success with Keokuk, a smaller school in Iowa’s southeastern corner. Randall was the long-tenured show choir director at Keller Central, the group that pioneered the modern Texas show choir scene.
Caberos did not respond to an interview request for this story. An Instagram account named Lincoln Northeast Show Choir posted “it is with heaviest hearts to announce [sic] that our Show Choir Director, Nic Caberos, will be leaving our department this year. We are so excited for Caberos’ future endeavors! We are one lucky school to have had this man at our school.”
Further details on Friend de Coup's 2025 season are not known at this time.