Mark Samson leaving for Great Falls High

For the second straight year, the Havre High football team will have a new head coach. Mark Samson, who spent one season at the helm of the Blue Ponies, announced Thursday that he accepted an offer to take the same position at Great Falls High.

Samson, who led Helena Capital to three Class AA state titles before a stint at Montana State University-Northern, was offered the chance to return to the AA ranks Tuesday morning and he accepted it.

"I don't want the people of Havre to think this is me turning my back on them," Samson said. "It had nothing to do with that. I wasn't disappointed by anything. The people of Havre have been great to me. This administration really helped me get back on my feet after everything that happened at MSU-Northern and I can't thank them enough. But, a (Class) AA job opened up and it's one that I think is a pretty good one and I always wanted to coach at a AA school if the opportunity was there."

The Montana coaching legend will finish his career in Havre with just one season in the books, but it was the best season the Ponies have had in four years. Havre finished 8-3, won a playoff game and won the Central A Conference championship for the first time since 2011. After beating Columbia Falls in the quarterfinals of the Class A state playoffs, the Ponies went on the road and were beaten soundly by Dillon in the state semifinals.

"I think that we did some good things this year," Samson said. "We may not have won a championship. But I think we did some things that they can build off of. I think there is going to be a lot of interest in this position. There are good players here, this is a good junior class and a good sophomore class. Hopefully someone can come in here and build off the things that we accomplished last season."

The Great Falls High job is not the first that Samson showed interest in this winter, as he was a finalist for the head coaching job at Rocky Mountain College. Yet, when the offer to be the Bears head man never came, Great Falls High came calling and after much deliberation, Samson threw his hat in the ring.

"I really wanted to coach in the Frontier again," Samson said. "I just wanted to show people that I could do it. But, when it didn't happen, I wasn't that disappointed. I knew I had a good job here in Havre. But, then this opportunity came up. It was a tough decision, my wife and I discussed it for quite a while and on the last day that you could apply, I applied."

Samson said he would look back on his 12 total years of coaching in Havre fondly and that he would miss the people of Havre.

"There are so many great people in Havre that I have gotten the chance to meet and know personally and professionally," Samson said. "There are too many people to name, I could go on and on. It was just never the right time to leave and I guess now, maybe because of my age, I feel like it's the right time and maybe my last chance to do something like this."

What this means for the Ponies, is that a search for a new coach must be undertaken, yet according to Havre High activities director Dennis Murphy, there are things that still need to happen before that can be initiated.

"From everything I am hearing, Mark Samson has accepted the position at Great Falls High school," Murphy said. "But still, out of courtesy for us, we would have to have a resignation from our system before we can go out and look. So once we get a resignation, the process will be what we have done before."

Murphy said that because of Samson's possible departure to Rocky Mountain College, he had started preparing a list of names and has already spoken to a number of other athletic directors about possible candidates.

"The nice thing is I have been in contact with several ADs about candidates in the state of Montana and some out of state," Murphy said. "When Mark Samson applied for the Rocky job, I thought he may be leaving, so I started the process of talking to some people to see if there were possible coaches out there in our area."

And just like last year, when he was looking for candidates to replace the departed Jason Christenson, Murphy said he still believes the job he is offering is one of the best in the state.

"I think Havre High School is a very good coaching job," Murphy said. "For a number of reasons. I think we have a strong nucleus of kids that are coming back from a team that played in the semifinals. We graduated some really good seniors, but we have a good nucleus of juniors and sophomores coming back. We lost some great kids that will be hard to replace, but the cupboard isn't bare. We have some very capable kids, some very good skill kids. So I do think it will be an attractive job for somebody and it will be nice to get somebody who wants to be here for a while and build a program."