The sky was grey and the ground was wet. Their photographer canceled because of the weather but they were still determined to have their announcement photoshoot at the place where it all started: Sac State and Hornet Stadium. 

In 2013, Nick and Kimberly Mazza were Sacramento State student athletes and best friends. 

Flash forward to 2019, the two are married and expecting their first child in May of next year.  The couple do not know the gender yet but they said they will put them into competitive sports either way.

Kimberly Mazza, who graduated in 2014, was a goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team during her four years at Sac State. Nick Mazza, who graduated in 2015, was a defensive lineman for the football team during his four years. 

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“We met, I guess, through sports,” Nick Mazza said. “It was a sports Halloween party.”  

The rest was history. 

They credit their connection as Sac State students and athletes as the bond that glued them together. For them both, being athletes made it easier to understand each other and spend time together. 

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“We were both super involved here when we were student athletes,” Nick Mazza said about their time at Sac State. “(Kimberly was) the president of the SAP (Sexual Assault Prevention Student Advisory) committee and then I was the representative from football for a year, so we did that together.”  

The couple also said they would also go to sporting events together and attend each other’s games as much as possible. 

Nick Mazza proposed in 2015, three days after he graduated from Sac State. 

“He’s taking me to a nice dinner and he was just really quiet, and that’s not Nick at all. I looked at his pocket and I didn’t see a box, because in my head I was going to see a box,” Kimberly Mazza said. “Then he asked me if I wanted to take a picture by the Christmas tree and I said ‘That’s weird, why would you ever want to take a picture by a Christmas tree?’ Then he proposed at the Christmas tree.”

The couple said they had a “show up and get married” wedding in 2017. 

Now Nick Mazza is a sheriff’s deputy for Contra Costa County and Kimberly Mazza is an instructional coach at a charter school in Stockton. 

Nick Mazza advises other student couples “to respect each other’s differences, see their strengths for what it is and how it will make you guys stronger as a couple.”

“Find someone that compliments you,” Kimberly Mazza added. “There’s just times in your life when you’re not motivated so having someone that’s willing to put a fire under you is super valuable.”