Jake Eldridge named new Havre football coach

The Havre High football team will have a different look come this fall. That's because the Blue Ponies plan on heading in a new direction. This upcoming season, Jake Eldridge will take over the head coaching duties for the Blue Ponies and he is looking forward to the opportunity to build the program into a contender.

"I'm super excited," Eldridge who was officially hired last month, said. "It's something that I've always wanted to do. To have the ability to be able to grow a program and put things together the way that I think will help make it successful."

Eldridge takes over head coaching duties after serving as the defensive coordinator for the Ponies last season under former head coach Ryan Gatch. He has been coaching football for about 14 years after starting his coaching career at Montana State University-Northern under head coach Mark Samson. Eldridge served as the running backs coach for three years and then served as the defensive coordinator for seven years for the Lights. He also served as the strength and conditioning coach during his time at MSU-N. And he got to serve as an interim head coach on a couple occasions. Eldridge was also an All-American two-way player in his time at Northern under Samson, playing both defensive back and wide receiver.

After getting a job as a teacher in Box Elder, Eldridge served as the football and track and field coach for the Bears. He then came back to Havre last season to serve on the Ponies' coaching staff. Over his decade-plus of coaching football on the Hi-Line, Eldridge has learned plenty from Samson and other coaches that he hopes can help him build the Ponies.

"Just having that ability to learn from (Samson), teaching me how to do all the little things outside the X's and O's, it was more relationships with players and how to hold people accountable, setting the standard within the program," Eldridge said. "You take a little bit of something from everybody so I think all those things just led me to want to be a head coach at some point in time."

Now, he'll get the chance to put his stamp on the storied Havre High program.

"I want us to be a disciplined football team. I want us to do the right things on the field and off the field," Eldridge said. "The kids are going to play with great effort, they're going to have a team-first mentality and they're going to play with a lot of physical and mental toughness."

Eldridge is a native of Helena, but has now lived in Havre for a long time, and he knows how much the community loves football and other local sports. As the new head coach of the Ponies, Eldridge, who is also a Havre Northstars assistant coach, hopes to build a program that the rabid Havre High fans will be proud of.

"We're hoping to put together a football program that everybody can be proud of and this community can rally around," Eldridge said. "(We want) a football program that shows the identity of what Havre is about, what the Hi-Line is about and having pride in who we are and what we stand for."