Trevor Knight returns to Stellos Stadium tonight as the head coach of Dracut (Mass.) High School. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Trevor Knight will walk into Stellos Stadium today and something won’t feel right.

“It’s very, very, very strange,” Knight said. “It’ll be weird as a true outsider. … I’ve been gone from there for a little bit so it’s going to be kind of strange.

“Obviously I grew up in that stadium as a kid, so being a head coach in that stadium is really weird to think about.”

But that’s what the former Nashua High School South and UNH standout, plus former Panther assistant is now – a head coach. This is Knight’s second season as the head coach of Dracut (Mass.) High School, and his Middies are coming to Stellos to take on Nashua North today at 5:30 p.m. in a non-league game for both.

Knight took over the Dracut program in late January of 2024, and had just eight returning players. He somehow put together a competitive team and was 4-7. This season, with a young team comprised of mainly underclassmen, the Middies have struggled at 1-6.

It’s been baptism by fire for Knight, as this is his first head coaching job.

“It’s been good,” he said. “I give credit to all the head coaches across America, but especially this area where resources are limited. They have indoor turf fields in Texas and what not. It’s a lot of work, it’s fun, I love building relationships with our kids. Our team is incredibly young. On any given night we’re starting two seniors, two or three juniors and the rest are freshman and sophomores.”

And that’s why last week the Middies were beaten by Billerica 42-6 last week. Their lone win is over Dover-Sherborn, and as Knight said, “fortunately but unfortunately we play in the best league in Massachussets.”

That would be the Merrimack Valley Conference (MVC), and Dracut, Knight says, is on the very lower end on the enrollment scale in the league, with some 790 students at last look.

“We’re playing against schools that have 3800 kids,” he said. “Multiple top 20 teams. In some of these games we’ve been able to hang around for a little bit, but we’re just too young to go blow for blow with some of these teams.”

The irony is Dracut is in Massachusetts’ Division V but because o the league they’re going up against Division I, II and III teams.

“It’s almost like Milford vs. Bedford,” Knight said. “That being said we do have young talent. Kids make plays. Things pop out at you on the field, but we haven’t been able to sustain it for four quarters yet.”

Dracut’s beat Dover-Sherborn in the Middies season opener, 27-6, but it’s been a struggle since. After facing 4-4 North, which will likely be in the Division I playoffs next Friday, they’ll have a month off until they finish with Methuen on Thanksgiving morning.

Some of the talent is senior running back Owen French, who is committed to Saint Anselm for lacrosse. Freshman Myles Lumsden is also a running back but leads the team in tackles as well. “A very good football player,” Knight said, adding senior receiver Nate Rom has gotten some college interest.

“This young group of kids is very positive, a good group of kids,” Knight said. “Anybody would love to coach this group of kids. It’s unfortunate we drew the schedule we did. If we had competed in our division, our record would definitely look a lot different. But the league is the league, we can’t really complain, we’ve got to play who’s on our schedule and give them the best effort we’ve got.”

Knight said that next fall he was preparing for the Middies to drop out of the MVC and play an independent schedule, but he’s not quite sure if it happens. “It’s a tough league to rebuild from the bottom,” he said, noting what he and his staff inherited should have kept them out of playing an MVC schedule. He had a lot of transfers his first season but this year, he said, that was not the case, as some plans were derailed.

So Knight has obstacles. But he loves the facilities and working with athletic director Thomas DiGeronimo. “Just a great human being, I love to work with him, I look forward to going in and seeing him every day,” Knight said. “That makes everything easy, I’ll say that.”

What does Knight, who also had a stint playing on a Grey Cup winning team in Winnipeg, know about being a head coach now that he he didn’t know before?

“Well I didn’t realize how much of your job has nothing to do with actual football,” he said. “Obviously I know there’s so much that goes into it that’s not football, there’s academics, but I guess I really didn’t understand the percentages of how little football I’d be doing and how much higher percentage I’d be doing of the other stuff. … That’s why any head coach I give a lot of credit too.”

But what he might lack in some experience, Knight has a media person on staff who takes photos, videos, etc.

Not bad. And tonight he gets to return to a place that has always been special for him.

“The cool thing is we’ll be in the South locker room and the side of the field that I’ve always warmed up on,” he said. “That’ll make me feel better.”