Trevor Knight is now a former Nashua South assistant coach as he was named this past week as the new head coach at nearby Dracut (Mass.) High School. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It’s taken former Nashua High School South, University of New Hampshire, and Canadian Football League quarterback Trevor Knight a couple of years to make peace with the fact his playing career is likely over.

But he’s found a silver lining in coaching, and that turned into gold this past week when he was named the new Dracut (Mass.) High School head football coach.

“I’m excited,” Knight said. “I’ve seen my dad (longtime South head coach Scott Knight) do it for a lot of years, so I know it’s certainly a challenge – but also very rewarding and a lot of fun. If you love football, it’s fun.”

Knight had been an assistant coach at South the last couple of years after two years as an assistant at Merrimack High School. He had a chance to be a quality control assistant at UNH, where he was such a standout he had an outside chance at being drafted by the NFL a few years ago. But the 28-year-old Amherst native wanted a head high school gig, and went for but did not get the Lowell (Mass.) High job.

The last few years Knight, who has a sales career with a company as well, began his own school for quarterbacks that had become almost a must enrollment for aspiring signal callers not only area but region wide. Working with them plus their receivers, etc., he began to grow as a coach.

“I’d work with the receivers who come and catch for the quarterbacks, so that’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Working with the other teams at Merrimack and Nashua South, (coaching as a head man) is something I’ve definitely thought about. It’s kind of exiting to build your own thing, do it your own way, do it how you want to do it, (Dracut) was a good opportunity.”

And a challenging one. Dracut, which plays in the highly competitive Merrrimack Valley Conference (MVC), went 2-10 last year and hasn’t won more than three games in a while and has just eight returners for 2024. So there’s nowhere to go but up.

“It’s a major challenge for sure,” Knight said, but added he’s worked with a lot of the quarterbacks from the MVC. “I’m very very in tune with the league, all their skill players of all the quarterbacks I train come and catch, so I know a ton of guys in the league. Through that, and through different things, I’ve met and gotten close with a lot of different coaches in the league as well. For me it’s kind of another New Hampshire. It’s not home like New Hampshire is, but I feel good about it.”

He’s enjoyed working with his father, whom he played for at South, and followed his guidance in his coaching quest. “I told my Dad about the setup there,” Knight said, “and he told me I’d be crazy not to take that job. Just because I can build it exactly how I want it, and the resources there.”

The Lowell process got him acclimated to the interview regimen. And Dracut, Knight feels, has a huge edge on Lowell with two turf new turf fields on campus plus a new quarter of a million dollars weight room. Oh, and a full time strength and conditioning coach.

“The facilities there are incredible,” he said. “There were some drawbacks to the Lowell job, but that being said, it would have been an incredible opportunity.”

And he would have coached against his father as South was likely to host Lowell next season or at some point.

At Dracut, Knight was concerned that he won’t be in the building during school hours as a teacher, as his other work would prevent that. But he met with the other sports teams coaches who told him, “We will be your in-school coaches” and will keep him updated on his players.

The next step will be putting together a coaching staff. When he was going for the Lowell job, Knight said he was reaching out to former teammetes, etc., “and that part is actually a lot of fun for me. The hard thing is telling people no, as I have a lot of people reaching out now.”

He figures it will take a couple of weeks to fill out his staff, and he’s not sure how many paid positions he’ll have, etc. He will meet with the players on Tuesday as a group, then have some individual meetings, and also this coming week will attend a few high school and middle school sporting events. He knows the challenge will be to attract more players – and build a program.

“The resources kind of outweigh the expectations,” he said. “Getting kids in the program will be important, and then start to raise the bar for the expectations.

“At UNH, we expected to make a deep run in the playoffs every year. I don’t think (at Dracut) anyone will expect us to make a deep run, year one or year two or whatever, but I want to build it to where it will be like that. … You can’t really fail, because they’re kind of expecting you to fail.”

He’s developed a good rapport with Dracut athletic director Tom DiGeronimo and “it’s hard to find all those resources anywhere else. … but I’m literally starting from scratch.”

Trevor Knight, shown during workouts with Winnipeg of the CFL in 2019, has now immersed himself into the world of head coaching as he was named this week as the new Dracut High head coach. (File photo via Twitter/X)

Knight said he felt his post-college career would have lasted longer – he was on the Winnipeg CFL Grey Cup champion a few years ago. But COVID hit and that awas that.

Knight also didn’t go for the vacant Hollis Brookline job, because of the atmosphere of the MVC. “You go to a Chelmsford-Central Catholic wrestling meet. It’s crazy. The Merrimack Valley Conference is definitely attractive, because of the high level it’s at. Around here, other than the prep schools, it’s the closest you can get to coaching college. That’s the piece that intrigued me about it.”

He’s been around coaches. He’s coached and given instruction.

And now Trevor Knight is a head football coach, set to build his own program the way his father has done for over 20 years at Nashua and Nashua South.

“I’ve seen my Dad do this since I was born,” he said. “I’m doing it just to prove that I can, and that’s what they’re bringing me there to do.”

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