New boss in Dracut

Ex-assistant Houston excited about running the show

All signs pointed to the fact that the Jason Houston era officially began at Dracut High School yesterday, the first day Massachusetts schools could start practicing for the fall football season. SUN PHOTOS/DAVID H. BROW

DRACUT -- As if on cue, Mother Nature supplied the Bay State with cool, damp weather that had the feel of fall on the opening day of high school football practice in Massachusetts.

The beginning of a new season at Dracut High also began Jason Houston's tenure as the new man in charge of the Middies' program.

Houston may be a varsity head coach for the first time, but he is quite familiar with Dracut's players and the school's recent history of success, having served on the staff of Middie coaches Pat Murphy and Jeff Moore, the new head coach at Lowell High.

Houston looked very much at ease during his first morning calling the shots. Houston helped his assistants run drills, performed some hands-on coaching and made sure everything went according to schedule.

"It's just great to get the helmets on and actually start being able to coach them and put them through some drills," said Houston, a former Lowell High standout who played at the University of Richmond. "It's been awesome so far, practice is going phenomenal."

This is Houston's sixth season at Dracut. He was the defensive coordinator the past three seasons. In 2008, Dracut won the EMass. Division 1A Super Bowl title. Last fall, the Middies posted a 9-3 record, won the MVC Small School crown and made the EMass. Division 2 playoffs.

"Being the head coach, there's a lot more work on my shoulders, but I feel I'm up to the challenge," said Houston. "The guys are loving it. They know who I am. They know our coaches. The kids are very comfortable with us so they will adapt to the change pretty good. The way we practice and the scheme stuff will change a little bit, but with the kids knowing us things should go very well."

Dracut was hit hard by graduation. However, the Middies do return one of the top quarterbacks in the region in Matt Silva, who threw 22 touchdown passes and scored 14 touchdowns last season. Silva was named the MVC Small Offensive Player of the Year.

"We're going to try and put together another good season with what we have," said Silva. "We have a lot of young kids this year. But we feel we can make it work.

"Coach Houston knows everybody, and everybody likes him. He's done a lot of work in the past under coach Moore. He's been around this program since Pat Murphy first started out. It's good to have a familiar face running things. I feel coach Houston is one of the best coaches in our league."

According to Houston, Dracut only has two full-time starters returning on offense, and three full-time starters back on defense. So the Middies will be learning on the job in the early going this fall. Still, Dracut fully expects to be in the thick of the MVC Small title chase come November.

"We're probably considered underdogs this year," said Silva. "How well we do is all up to us. We just have to go out and play our game."

Dracut will play its non-league regular season opener at perennial EMass. power Marshfield on Saturday, Sept. 11.

This will be the third straight season the Middies have played Marshfield. Dracut beat Marshfield in the 2008 Div. 1A Super Bowl (27-0), and in last year's opener (20-13).

"I'm excited," said Houston. "I'm looking forward to the Marshfield game. They are very familiar to us over the past couple years. We played them in the Super Bowl two years ago. Then we played them last year. So it's nice that we're familiar with their system and what they do.

"It makes it a little easier as opposed to playing a team we've never seen before. It's a good test right off the bat to see what we have. This team has a lot of talented players, they're just inexperienced. Once our guys get some game experience I think we'll be all right."

Let the games begin.