Scott Knight talks with Nashua South his players after a game this past season. Knight stepped down this past week after 22 years as the Panthers head coach, and 36 in the program. (Telgraph photo by TOM KING)

It’s one of our favorite stories.

Back in 1996, during the week of the Nashua-Londonderry Division I state championship football game, one of the preview stories yours truly worked on was up and coming Panthers assistant Scott Knight. Knight, working for his third Nashua head coach – the first was interim John Fagula, then it was Bob Aylward, and now at this time Bill Hardy – loved his little niche. He was the Panthers’ strength coach, ran the weight room but also was the line offensive line coach.

The predictable question was asked, “Do you ever want to be a head coach?”

“No way,” came the response, or words to that effect.

Of course, little did Knight know that just over six years later Hardy would step down in late March, early April of 2003. Not the greatest time to lose a football coach. Not only that, the athletic director was an interim, the well-known George “Butch” Joseph. It could have been chaos for the football program but Knight, after 14 years as an assistant coach, stepped in and took over.

“When I got into this, my goal was not to be a head coach,” Knight said. “I just wanted to be a strength coach, coach the O-line, and kind of do my thing. That’s what made me happy. I kind of fell into this when Billy stepped down, and never lookded back. Twenty-two years later I was still there.”

He chuckled. He actually told that story to his players this past Monday when he gave them the news.

We always used to remind him of that.

But earlier this past week, as many know by now, Scott Knight, a fixture with Nashua football for 36 years, stepped away. He’ll coach at Plymouth State as an assistant next fall. It all makes sense, he lives up that way after he retired as a teacher at South last year. This fall felt strange, not because of the commute, but because he felt he was coming into the day mid-stream. Didn’t feel right.

“It was more different than I thought it would be,” he said. “I’d been in the building my whole career. … “plenty of coaches that go from a different work to coach. That’s what they’ve always done. But for me, this was something new, just rolling in at 1:15 whatever. I just had a different vibe coming in. I liked being in the building all day long. … It wasn’t as fun as it should have been. It had a different feel to it.”

We figured we’d be writing this column a year from now. The Panthers have a boatload of players coming back that will be bigger, stronger, faster, and should be a serious contender. Knight might have been able to go out on the shoulders of his players with a championship plaque in his hands. Maybe.

But the trend these days for long-term coaches is not to leave when the getting is good, the cupboard bare. It’s to hand the reins to another coach with an experienced team in tact. Knight will be doing just that. He’ll never admit it, but there’s probably an assistant or two that he’s rooting for to get the job, giving kids familiarity and that keeps the current staff together. That could be, but the job will certainly attract its share of candidates, one would think.

“It’s a Divison I program, everybody knows how much success they had this year and we’re anticipating good success next year,” said Nashua athletic direcotr Lisa Gingras, who hopes to have the search process end with a new coach by the middle of next month. “I’m sure it will attract a lot of people.”

The other thought is it would be a natural move for Knight’s son Trevor, the current head coach one year in at Dracut, Mass. But the word is he’s staying put.

Whatever happens, it will be a change. There were three things you could count on come mid-August for more than two decades: The sun would rise, it would set, and in between Scott Knight would be on the practice field blowing a whistle.

From a personal standpoint, he’s been great to work with. You want a quote as a writer? Call him up, ask one question, set the phone on speaker, turn the recorder on and go have dinner. You come back, Knight would still be giving loads of info. After a game, he was always available, after the biggest of wins and the toughest of losses. It had to kill him after the Panthers lost to Londonderry in the quarterfinals because, as he admittted, the thought when the buzzer sounded was “I just coached my last game.”

The Scott Knight we interviewed back in 1996 was, well, more of a follower. The Scott Knight we know today is a leader, setting an example for his players in the best and worst of times. Let’s face it, the couple of years before this season weren’t great. Not only did a young football team have trouble getting wins, the team and the whole Nashua community lost popular assistant Bill Monsen to a sudden passing. It was gut wrenching; football staffs at both North and South are close groups. Knight coachd Monsen and then coached with him. They were great friends and co-workers.

But Knight guided the program through those tough times. The players kept coming, as he said, to practice every Monday, and that was half the battle.

Now the battle will be he’ll have to supress the joy of just coaching to coach. No more administrative work, or all the other things a varsity head coach at the high school deals with that we can only guess about.

“I’m kind of looking forward to going back and just coaching a position,” he said. “Just being an assistant. I’m really looking forward to that. So yeah, that’s the plan.”

Back to the future. Just a change of uniform and color.

“I’ll still be a Panther,” Knight said with again a chuckle. “Just a green Panther.”

And still one heckuva football coach.

(Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on X @Telegraph _TomK.)