Nashua South assistant Josh Porter is now the new Nashua South head football coach. (Courtesy photo)

NASHUA – Josh Porter took his wife out to dinner on Wednesday night, and he was in a celebratory mood so what the heck, time for a steak.

What were the Porters celebrating? The fact that the Dracut (Mass.) High School alum was officially named as the new Nashua High School South head varsity football coach.

Porter, who has been a Panthers assistant the last four years, succeeds his former boss, the now-retired Scott Knight, who stepped way last month.

“It feels incredible,” Porter said Wednesday. “I’m really honored to have the opportunity for the next chapter, and build off what Coach Knight has built for the last 20-plus years. Put my own spin on it, and look to build it into a year after year powerhouse in the state of New Hampshire. That’s the ultimate goal, right?”

Porter beat out a field of roughly, according to Nashua Athletic Director Lisa Gingras, 20 candidates. Knight confided to some when he stepped down that he had hoped Porter, who had been the secondary and offensive line coach but whose duties had expanded to game planning, etc. over the last year, would be able to succeed him.

It worked out that way.

“There was a lot of interest in the position for obvious reasons,” Gingras said. “Josh just bubbled right to the top as the person who’s going to be the next person here for a long time leading our program to success.”

A full committee that included a couple of current South players interviewed and deliberated during the last week.

Porter runs the Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union branch that is actually located inside Nashua South, working with students on how to handle finances, etc. He also works doing the same with Nashua area community groups, and lives in the area.

As for football, he played at Dracut (Mass.) High School and was actually the interim coach at his alma mater during the pandemic, including the spring season that was played in Massachusetts back in 2021. But he didn’t get the nod for the permanent coaching job there, so he approached Knight to see if he needed another coach on his staff. He was a volunteer assistant for his first year.

But that’s not all. Porter was the head coach and later became the owner of the semi-pro Mill City Eagles out of the Lowell, Mass. area. Once he got heavily involved with Nashua, he became less involved there and is now just a consultant.

Porter said that he and the rest of the South football staff were somewhat stunned when Knight stepped away after 22 years as head coach and 37 years in the overall Nashua football program, figuring with a lot of talented returning players he’d give it one last year.

But what was important was he knew he had the support of the current staff, which most likely will stay in place.

“Right away the rest of the staff supported me and backed me,” Porter said.

Knight was happy that Porter will succeed him, as he had hoped.

“He’s got a pretty good understanding of the game, and he’s in the building,” Knight said. “He’s a football junkie, and he’s done a lot for us. He has real good demeanor with the kids, and he’s real thorough in everything he does. And thing with him is he puts a ton of time in.”

It just seems like a perfect fit.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Porter said. “The city, the support, the resources that are there, everything just seems right. It’s go time now.”

FORMER PANTHER ASSISTANT DUQUETTE HAS PASSED

While the program at South celebrates the anointing of Porter, a former Nashua High School assistant coach and player has passed on. The city sports community is mourning the loss of Paul Duquette, a member of the Nashua Athletics Hall of Fame who played at Nashua during the legendary Buzz Harvey era, went on to play at the University of Cincinnati, and became a fixture on the staff of longtime Panthers coach, the late Ken Parady.

Duquette retired along with Parady in 1989, but was briefly coaxed out of retirement by then-Panthers coach Bill Hardy in the mid-1990s. He passed away just over a week ago after what was described as a period of declining health.