Family, different challenges led Matthews to find new football home in Virginia

When the final buzzer sounded on last fall’s Division I football championship game, and Zach Matthews and his son, Bennett, embraced on the sideline, they knew it was the culmination of their time spent together as coach and player at Bedford High School.

With Bennett Matthews, a senior, going off the play lacrosse at Duke University next year, his days playing as a Bulldog for his father, and on the gridiron in general, were done.

What they didn’t know was that it would also be the last game for Zach Matthews as the team’s head coach.

On Feb. 2, Matthews resigned his position, a move that even he didn’t know would be coming when Bedford won its third D1 football title in four years just 10 weeks prior.

But with two of his three children soon to be playing college lacrosse more than a nine-hour drive away – his oldest daughter, Olivia, just finished her sophomore year at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. – Matthews had started to think about moving on to something closer to them.

“We’ve talked about (moving),” Matthews said. “We’ve become less enthusiatic about the length of winters here. Nothing drastic, but if an opportunity comes up where we can get a place where spring comes a little bit sooner, we wouldn’t mind.”

Matthews kept his eyes open for something, knowing that it would have to be the right fit, and that fit would have to come within the next two years.

“My youngest (Finley) is in seventh grade,” he said. “If she had gotten to high school, we would be here for her to finish because we don’t want to move her around. If something pops up, I’ll throw my name in. If nothing pops up that fits that demographic, then I won’t.”

In early December, there was a pop: Episcopal High School, a boarding school in Alexandria, Va., was looking for someone to fill both its athletic director and football head coach positions.

After a few rounds of online interviews, Matthews went down to Virginia for an all-day session, and a few weeks later, was offered both positions, and wasted no time accepting.

“My hobbies are coaching football and watching my kids play sports,” he said. “Those are the two things that bring me the most joy in my life. And I was also looking for an opportunity to push myself a little bit professionally.

“I think we all get to that point in time in our career where it’s like maybe it’s time for something else. Maybe it’s time to see how this works in a different environment.”

Matthews took over as the Bulldogs’ head coach before the 2019, after serving as the head coach at Kearsarge, where he also coached boys lacrosse, for the previous eight seasons. Prior to that, he’d spent time as both an assistant on offense and defense, and that versatility is one reason why other coaches in the state believe Matthews will do well at Episcopal.

“I think I saw Zach grow a lot,” Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. “He was able to lead on the defense early on, but the last two years, their offense was the strength of the team more than their defense.

“They adapted to what they have personnel-wise. If they didn’t have a tight end, they ran different formations and stuff to make up for that. I think the new age way of thinking is you’ve got to adapt, but it’s not easy.”

Nashua North coach Chad Zibolis has known Matthews since they played football together at Plymouth State University in the early 2000s. Although they were a few years apart, they formed a relationship and would talk at times about the different things that came with being a coach.

“He was the quarterback and I was the right tackle (at PSU),” Zibolis said. “We talked a lot when we wanted to pick each others’ brains. He always worked hard at the craft even before coaching.”

Episcopal will present some new challenges, both on and off the field for Matthews. The school, which was founded in 1839, is 100 percent boarding for its almost five hundred students.

Unlike when he started at Bedford, taking over a team that was coming off a D1 championship, Matthews starts with an Episocpal team that went 3-6 last season. That including a 52-12 loss to Woodberry Forest, the school’s biggest rival, dating back to 1901; this fall, Episcopal will host the 125th meeting between the two teams.

“You’re kind of inheriting pieces of somebody else’s recruting class that they were building,” Matthews said. “You’re trying to salvage that a little bt, and also trying to make relationships with the kids who are there. It was certainly hitting the ground running as far as trying to get new kids coming in, trying to keep the roster together as much as I can.”

And there was also the process of filling out the coaching staff. The challenges of completing that and the roster will make getting on the field and working on football feel like a treat.

“That’s my comfort zone,” Matthews said. “That’s the fun part. The other pieces, those different adjustments are going to be the challenges as we get ready to start in the fall.”

While coaching, and his responsibilities as athletic director will keep him busy, Matthews knows there will be one thing he’ll keep doing on Saturdays in the fall, even just for a few minutes.

“I am still going to be checking to see how Bedford did the night before,” Matthews said. “I think the state of the game in New Hampshire has never been better. There are people, even with teams that maybe have struggled, when I look at the film, and you look at some of the coaches and what they’re doing, I think people are doing great things with the kids.

“I’ve been lucky enough to build so many relationships with great coaches in the state and our players here. I think the game of football in New Hampshire is in a really good place, and I’m excited to see where it goes.”