Samson takes over football at HHS (Updated)

The Havre High football team may have a new head coach, but when he's stalking the sidelines at Blue Pony Stadium, he'll be very familiar to HHS fans.

Sunday evening, Havre High Activities Director Dennis Murphy confirmed that former Montana State University-Northern and one-time Helena Capital High School head coach Mark Samson has been named the new head football coach at Havre High, pending Havre Public School Board approval.

Samson takes over for Jason Christensen, who resigned in December after six seasons with the Blue Ponies.

"We are very excited and very fortunate to have Mark come aboard," Murphy said. "The funny thing about coaching is, it's in your blood. And it's hard to get it out of your system. Mark was out of coaching for about six months, but he still has the passion and excitement for coaching and I know he's excited about this. I know I'm excited about it. We're looking very forward to working with him and having him be our head coach."

"I'm really very excited," Samson said Monday night. "The people in this town have always been great to myself and my wife and kids, and as time went on, I felt like they would like us to stay here. So we're very excited and very grateful for this opportunity. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it."

Samson took this season off from coaching after stepping down as the Lights' head coach in August. He was at the helm for Northern for 11 seasons, and guided the Lights to the most success they've had in football in the modern era, including taking them to the 2006 NAIA playoffs.

The veteran coach also enjoyed unparralled success at the high school level. Samson won numerous conference championship and several Class AA state championships with the Helena Capital Bruins during his tenure there. He left Helena to coach the Lights in 2004.

"To be able to hire somebody who has the proven success he does at the high school level, we're very fortunate," Murphy noted. "He's spent 26 years coaching football, so to find someone with the experience and football knowledge he has, that's very hard to come by. We're very, very lucky to have coach Samson come coach our program."

Samson was in the running for other high school jobs this winter, including the vacant head job at Capital. But at the end of the day, he felt like Havre was a great fit for him and his family. Samson is already very familiar with the Pony program, having spent the last 12 years in Havre. He also recently took a teaching position at Havre High, so he'll be able to hit the ground running with his new job.

"Mr. Murphy and Mr. Mueller, and everybody in the Havre High administration has been so great to me during this process," Samson said. "They knew I was exploring other jobs and they gave me the time to do that. But what it came down to were the positives of staying here. As time went on, the opportunity to coach this team started to feel better and better to me.

"There are a lot of positives to being here," he continued. "This program is very good and will continue to be for a number of years. The facilities at Havre High have improved a lot. The new weight room is tremendous and of course, our facilities for practices, and on game day (Blue Pony Stadium) are as good as anybody's out there. And of course, the community support here is second to none. I've been fortunate to be a part of that for a long time, and I'm looking forward to continuing to be a part of that."

"We're also very fortunate for a couple of different reasons," Murphy said. "One is, to be able to hire a new coach this early is a real positive. It's February, there's quite a bit of the school year left, and our kids don't have to wonder anymore who their coach is going to be next season. And the fact that we were able to hire someone local, and someone who's already working our system, that's a real bonus.

"We're just very excited about this," Murphy continued. "I feel like this is going to be great for our football program, our school and our student-athletes."

Samson takes over a Blue Pony program that finished third in the Central A Conference last fall, and one that returns a slew of talented juniors and seniors, many of which were All Conference and All State this past season. And he said that he's looking forward to assembling his coaching staff, meeting with the players and getting started working towards next season.

"I'm going to have a great staff around me," Samson said. "I want coaches who coach football because it's fun, who enjoy going to practice every day, just like we want the kids to enjoy coming to practice every day. And from there, we'll get to work. There's a lot of work to do but it's very exciting.

"And this program is going to be exciting," he continued. "Those Friday night's next fall, we want those to be the best time in these kids' lives. We want there to be excitement around this program, and I think this program, and the team we'll have next year can be as good as it wants to be. I'm just very excited about this opportunity and I can't wait to get started"