New Alvirne football coach Matt Lee hopes to guide the Broncos to a new level this season. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HUDSON – Believe it or not, at one point during and just after college new Alvirne High School football Matt Lee had thoughts about becoming a sportswriter.

“I wanted to do what you’re doing,” Lee told a reporter. “I interned at the Lowell Sun, covered games as a stringer. A lot of games in the MVC. I was the young guy so they sent me to the far away games.”

Lee covered a variety of sports, not just football, even some minor league Lowell Spinners games. He enjoyed it, but he had just gotten his teaching license,

That experience had an important effect on Lee’s future. It’s covering those games that he realized he wanted to be a football coach.

“The only time I had ever been away from high school football were my college years,” the 35-year old former Lowell High School player said, noting he did make college visits to possibly play but decided against it.”I was at Tewksbury High, Methuen High, covering games, and that actually got me started thinking about coaching. I missed the Friday nights. Friday night at 7 in the fall you just want to be out on a football field.”

You see, after playing at Lowell High, Lee didn’t play football when he went to Springfield College, figuring he needed to focus more on academics and adjust to the college world without the added responsibility as a sport. “I started playing since I had been eight, and it’s always been a part (of his life).”

This is Lee’s first head coaching job. His former offensive line coach when he was playing at Lowell got the head job there, so while substitute teaching right out of college he asked if he could help out.

He was a freshman assistant for two years, and then he moved on to Greater Lowell Tech and was the freshman head coach for a year. That was his first job in charge of a whole group of kids.

“It’s definitely more, I kind of joked I’m like a secretary, you have to make sure they get their physicals in, make sure they know all the rules, doing attendance,” he said. “That was a good experience.”

But at the time, it didn’t register for him to be a head varsity coach. Lee says he’s never been one to look too far ahead into the future, so he just went with the flow.

The next year there was an opening on head coach Shane Abrams’ varsity staff as the defensive coordinator, so he grabbed it and held the position for nine years.

It was during the latter part of that stretch that he figured it was time to go for a top job. He hadn’t really looked at any other jobs, the Alvirne job was the first head coaching position he ever applied for.

And he got it.

“I don’t know if people were knocking the door down, but I think they had quite a few applicants,” Lee said. “It was kind of a natural step. I did a pretty good job with the defense (at Greater Lowell) for nine years. The kids were always prepared. Maybe my plan wasn’t the best, maybe it was; but I know the kids knew the plan, and in high school football that’s huge. … I tell these (Alvirne) guys, it sounds stupid but just being able to line up correctly is a big part of it.”

Lee just figured the timing was right.

“I just figured I’d give it a try, I’ve always been an organized person, so rather than just run a defense I can run a whole program, be in charge of the off-season weight room. I think you want, anybody, you think that ‘I’d do this differently, I might do that differently.'”

Defense is Lee’s passion, so he’ll still run that unit, and he will also coach the offensive line. “I’ll have a lot on my plate,” he said.

Lee knew of Alvirne, as it was just up the highway from Lowell. But he didn’t know much about its football history, but he certainly does now – a program that has struggled mightily at the top Division but has held its own when it was a Division II team a few years ago.

What was his impression?

“I’m really competitive, and my competitive juices get going,” he said. “In my mind, I wouldn’t take the job thinking we’d go 0-10, I might as well stay as a coordinator if that’s the case.

“I know what it is. They were in Division II for two years and had success. I know how the system works. You go down, you’re not eligible for the playoffs that first year. And even if you lose every game your third year, you get bumped back up.

“People in towns have opinions; some say we shouldn’t be a Division I team and others do. The culture here I think you look at the schedule and you put losses on some of the games. I’m trying to get them out of that mindset. That’s what I’ve been trying. But I’m not naïve, I know what it’s been here. If we’re going to meet our goals, it would probably be the best (Division I) season the school has had in football.”

HIS FIRST OFF-SEASON AS A HEAD COACH

From when he was hired in January, Lee worked on his first off-season program as a head coach. He got the school’s permission to use an app called “Platform Athletics” that keeps track of the team’s weight room performance.

“It takes you maxes and sets up the workout program for you,” he said. “There were some kids that were extremely dedicated, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6 a.m.to 7:15 a.m. There were kids that showed up nearly every day. Not everyone did, that’s kind of the nature of it. It was absolutely voluntary and I’m all about kids playing three sports.

“But I liked running it and being here (he still teaches at Greater Lowell, and likely will continue to do so). If kids are here at 6 a.m., they’re invested.”

So what question would Matt Lee the sportswriter ask Matt the football coach?

He took awhile.

“I’d ask about a specific player who was kind of the star, and was that par for the course for that?” he said. “It was fun, and I liked it.”

But then he realized there would be another question.

“The difference between Mass. and New Hampshire football,” Lee said. “I’m just trying to get a feel. Here there’s very similar sized towns, where in Mass. it’s all over the map.

“The school sizes are a lot the same in Division I, except for Pinkerton. And some of the good programs have only had a football program for 15 years. Some of the good teams weren’t even schools 15 years ago (Bedford, Windham). In Mass., I grew up with Lowell, Lawrence, etc.”

But the one thing the Lee knows is this:

“You’ve got to come in with a positive attitude as a head coach,” he said, “whether things are going good or bad.”

And Matt Lee is going to do his best to try to keep them going good. Who knows, maybe some day he’ll write about it.