New year brings new phase in Knight’s football coaching career

Hearing the news that Scott Knight had resigned as Nashua High School South football coach after 36 years in the program, to become an assistant at Plymouth State University, had Jason Robie reminiscing about a chilly winter night back in 1996.

Robie remembers the first day he set foot on the Nashua High School campus like it was yesterday. He was just hired as an assistant on head coach Bill Hardy’s Nashua staff for that fall season. Hardy invited the young coach to campus for a tour of the facilities.

Robie was in awe of many things that night. First was what he saw on the basketball court as the duo took in part of a girls basketball game at the height of legendary coach John Fagula’s dynasty.

Then he was impressed with the old standalone weight room out behind the school. Most notable on this night though, was the figure he saw through a dispersing claw of Panthers football players. Robie caught a glimpse of then fellow-assistant coach Scott Knight pumping iron.

Hardy introduced the team’s new defensive backs coach to its offensive line/weight training coach, and a new friendship and admiration was born.

“He had just finished running the offseason stuff with the kids,” said Robie, who would coach with Knight for nine years at the unified Nashua High before being named head coach at the newly built Nashua North in 2004. “Here it is around 7:30 at night, and it’s Coach Knight getting his own workout in. I guess that’s how it should be, my first ever meeting with Scott and he’s getting a lift in.”

Knight, 60, was known for two things in coaching/teaching circles – dedication to the offseason-lifting regimen of his players, but most importantly to the success of all students in Nashua.

Former Nashua North head coach Dante Laurendi witnessed Knight’s dedication to both firsthand. Laurendi, who had previously coached against Knight at Manchester Central, Manchester Memorial, and Merrimack, reached out to Knight for assistance with weight lifting questions.

Because he wanted to see Nashua kids succeed, Knight would visit the North campus to aide the Titans program in perfecting its own offseason weight training regimen.

“I think what he’s done is unbelievable,” Laurendi said. “I don’t know that there’s anybody that has invested their heart and soul into a program like he has. First of all, the offseason stuff. He’s a tremendous weight room guy. Tremendous offseason builder of kids. He knows that teams are built in the offseason. He’s a strength guy. He power lifted. He can teach that, and they’ve always had a tremendous offseason culture.

“He’s always been completely vested in his students on and off the field. He’s taken kids to college games. Taken kids to college visits. If kids he coached ended up at a college, not only would he go see the kid play, but he’d bring half his current high school team with him to watch, too. He was all-in. He’s put in the time to make these kids the best they can be on the field and in the classroom. It was very admirable.”

Hearing the constant praise puts a big smile on the face of another Knight.

Scott’s son, Trevor Knight, a former South star athlete who played for and later coached with his dad, is proud of the family’s legacy in Nashua.

“I think the biggest thing I took from him as a player and coach is his mentorship abilities,” said Trevor, who just wrapped up his first season as a head coach at Dracut (Mass.) High School. “He doesn’t treat anyone differently. He’d give everyone the same respect and guidance. Whether it’s the equipment manager or a Division I scholarship player, he held everyone to the same high standards and expected the best of you on the field and in the classroom.

“That’s really important, because that carries over into the real world as well. That’s something that me personally, multiple times, I can look back on following my dad’s example and just being kind and doing the right thing by someone has all of a sudden came back around and helped me in the long run. He’s obviously wants to build kids into great athletes, but also wants them to be great humans in the community.”

The community of Nashua has always held a special place in Scott Knight’s heart. Mentoring the youth of the city wasn’t just part of his job. He took it personally.

A 1983 graduate of Nashua High School, Knight retired as a physical education teacher at Nashua South over the summer. He remained as football coach this fall, and through the majority of this season, he was considering to stay on a bit longer.

“It was hard on one side, but also easy on the other,” Scott Knight said of the decision to resign as head coach. “Hard because I have been there for so long and I really, really like this group of kids. They worked really hard, I would have liked to have seen them develop for one more year and kind of see where that would have gone. On the other hand it was easy because I know they’re in a good spot and I know I can walk away and they are going to be successful either way. So that made it easier for me.”

Leaving the next coach in good hands was important to Knight. He’s doing just that.

South was the most improved team statewide over the last two seasons, posting an 8-3 record and returning to the playoffs in 2024 following an abysmal 1-8 record in 2023. The Panthers won their 2024 Division I first round game 59-26 over Bishop Guertin, then fell to eventual runner-up Londonderry 28-13 in the quarterfinals.

“I knew after that loss to Londonderry,” Knight said of moving on. “I knew it was the right time. They’ll have a really nice team coming back, so it just solidified my decision that this was a good time to do it. That was always in my mind when evaluating this decision. I wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible for the next coach and ensure that I’m not leaving anybody with a disaster or in a bad spot. They’re pretty stacked for next year, so it’s a pretty nice job for somebody to be stepping into.”

Postseason prognostications point toward South being high on the list of Division I title contenders in 2025.

This was important to Knight as he moved on from his Alma Mater after 36 years, 22 as the head coach, and 14 more previously as an assistant.

Following his 1988 graduation from Norwich University with a Bachelor’s in Recreation and Masters in Administration of Physical Education and Athletics, he landed a teaching job at Ledge Street Elementary School. It was a position he held for 14 years before transitioning to teaching physical education at the high school in 2003, the same year he would be named head coach of the football program.

His coaching career began with track in the Nashua school system, and as the freshman football coach at Bishop Guertin in 1988.

He joined the Nashua football staff in 1989 under Fagula, during his one-year stint as the interim head coach. Knight remained on staff as an offensive and defensive line assistant for the next two head coaches, Bob Aylward (five years) and Hardy (eight years), before taking the reins himself.

He’d guide the Panthers to three Division I title games, including in his first season at the helm in 2003, and a championship in 2008. South reached the final in back-to-back seasons in 2007 and 2008, facing Pinkerton Academy both times, avenging a 14-2 loss to Brian O’Reilly’s Astros in ‘07 with a 33-32 win the next year, snapping PA’s consecutive title streak at three.

There were many memorable games for Knight, who could wax poetic for hours on end about the many wins and losses that included upsets and eye-popping accomplishments.

“Looking back, there are just so many of those games that stand out,” Knight said. “Us just getting to that 2007 final was special. We beat Londonderry in a game that ended up in Sports Illustrated because the teams combined for 1,000 yards of offense.

“I’ll remember a lot of our upset victories. It’s always great when kids do the things they don’t think they can do.”

Now 37 years after graduating college, Knight is preparing for a return to campus life. Well, just the roaming the sidelines portion of that.

He had turned down an opportunity to be a graduate assistant in his final year at Norwich because he had his sights focused squarely on a teaching job and coaching high school. That “nomad” college coaching lifestyle wasn’t for him.

Now in retirement from his high school teaching and coaching positions, he’s set to join Paul Castonia’s staff at PSU. It’s a staff that includes former Nashua High School standout Devin Zemon, who is the co-head coach/defensive coordinator for PSU.

Knight’s position on staff is still unclear, but he’s ready and excited for the changes this new year will bring.

“We really haven’t ironed out everything as far as what side of the ball I’ll be coaching, or even special teams,” Knight said. “I really don’t care. I’ll do whatever they ask of me. I’ve coached many positions and I’m willing to work with whatever group they want me to. I’m just ready for this new experience and I’m going to have a lot of fun doing it.”

Although the hour-long commute from Ashland – where Scott and his wife, Trisha, relocated after selling their Amherst home – wasn’t a major factor in not remaining at Nashua a little longer, a 10-minute trip from driveway to PSU’s athletic facilities did make the new coaching role even more appealing.

“I really didn’t mind the commute to Nashua,” Knight said. “It gives you time to think and game plan. So it really had no impact on my final decision of should I stay or should I go.

“The commute was not a problem at all. It was the not being in the building any more. The vibe wasn’t the same and I felt more disconnected this year.”

There were just too many good memories, friendships and connections made in the Gate City over the years to walk away based on a long car ride.

“When he tells you that the commute wasn’t a factor in the decision I believe him,” said Robie, the current physical education department head for the Nashua school system. “He is an amazing person. A great teacher and coach. It’s a big loss for Nashua in so many ways.”

As a physical education teacher and coach in the same school system along with Knight all these years, Robie is witness to all that his colleague has accomplished.

“He was always a student of the game,” Robie said. “Always trying to find new and current ways to keep kids interested in the sport, whether it’d be going to clinics or tapping into his college connections, he was always trying to find new ways to make the program better. I think he wanted keep the hard-nosed integrity of Nashua there, but also wanted to implement new ideas. And he was groundbreaking in a lot of ways from the standpoint of weight room activities.

“I worked with him a few years, but only had an opportunity to work for him that one year he was head coach in 2003 and we went to the state title game and lost to a very talented Manchester Central team. You can really see the growth from that first year, all the way to when he retired. He just did a great job advocating for kids. I think that’s the biggest thing I took from his time here in Nashua. Everything he did, was about the program and the kids in the program. He always cared about what was life after football going to be like for those kids that played for him.”

In the end, Knight stuck to his belief that what was best for the Nashua South football program, and the current roster of student athletes, was a smooth transition to the next coach and leaving that individual with a solid footing with which to continue building the program up.

Now was the time to say good-bye.

“It was an honor to be able to coach basically my whole career at my Alma Mater,” Knight said. “It was an honor doing that. To be mentioned in the same sentence as Ken Parady, who I played for, is special. To have coached for Coach Hardy and Coach Aylward was an honor along with all the guys I came up through the system with under them.

“And all the assistants I’ve had over the years on my staff like Al Neville and Kip Jackson – just too many people to name them all from my first season through this current staff – and just being able to do it at the place that I went to high school was pretty awesome.”