Laconia's new football coach is program's rushing leader

LACONIA — Nick Ford, when he wore the jersey for Laconia High School’s football team, was a rusher of historic measure. He set school records for yards rushing in a single game (386), rushing yards in a season (1,956) and career rushing yards (4,176), and in the 18 years since he graduated, those records still stand.

Yet, Ford, who is now in his first year as head coach for his alma mater, downplays the significance of his own statistics. For him, football was about something bigger. And he wants the same for the young athletes now looking up to him.

In fact, Ford, part of the class of 2005, didn’t even play football in his first year at Laconia High. He was lucky, though, to have the team’s coach at the time, Craig Kozens, as his math teacher.

“Going through high school, with Craig as my algebra teacher first year, he was like a father figure to me,” said Ford, who is now the physical education teacher at Woodland Heights Elementary, the same school he attended as a child. “Even after high school, I could reach out to him for advice, that’s something I’d love to do for the kids. If they need guidance, I’d love to [provide] that guidance for them, let them know I’m something they can lean on.”

Guidance and advice are things that cost nothing for the giver, but can mean the world for the receiver. Ford was someone who needed advice in various points in his life, and Kozens could be counted on for a few words.

After high school — in his senior year, Ford scored more points for Laconia than the rest of the team combined — he took his speed, strength and vision to Springfield College, where the plan was to play football while earning a degree in business.

Sounds like a good plan, right? But it wasn’t right for Ford.

“I couldn’t see myself sitting in a chair in an office all day,” said Ford, speaking on the phone during his lunch break at Woodland Heights. So he left and took a few years off of school to figure out what he wanted to do.

There was one thing he didn’t need to think about, though. In 2006, he joined Kozens’ coaching staff, and he’s been part of the Sachem nation ever since. On one track of his life, he figured out education would be more rewarding than a desk job, and he attended Plymouth State University before landing his first teaching job, with the Laconia School District. On another track, he was progressing and maturing as a coach, filling roles such as offensive coordinator and, for the past 10 years, junior varsity coach.

Now he finds himself as only the third head coach for the LHS football team in the past 50 years. He succeeds Kozens, who is still at LHS as athletic director and dean of students, a living legend in Laconia coaching. Kozens took the job after Jim Fitzgerald stepped down, and if anyone was wondering how Fitzgerald is viewed by the school community, they might get a hint by noting the field the team plays on is named after him.

Ford, who said he has “been around the program my entire life,” knows as well as anyone the size of the shoes he’s trying to fill.

“It’s special, it’s something amazing,” Ford said. “My goal is to be here to give back for the next 20 to 25 years, as long as they want me.”

There are some strong traditions in the program Ford intends to keep, such as the captains’ meeting, which allows players to just talk. He’s also going to make his own mark on the team, befitting his own personality and leadership style, which he said is more about quiet one-on-ones with players rather than screaming from the sideline.

Above all, though, he plans to continue with the coaching philosophy Kozens established, best described with the saying, “Good people first, good players second.”

“I’ve tried to live that way. That’s something I do not want to change,” Ford said. “You’re going to have your ups and downs. At the end of the day, if we can come together, be a family, improve each week and get better, that’s what matters in life.”

His goals for his first season are in line with that philosophy. The team finished with three wins last year, and he wants to improve on that this year. Though, he also admitted that he’d like to get to the playoffs, so that his seniors can have that experience before they graduate.

Ford said he has a great group of player-leaders, especially in the four captains: Keaton Beck and Alex Richardson, who are already showing an aptitude for coaching, and Logan Sanchez and Rowan Jones, who lead by showing younger players what exemplary conduct looks like.

“You can have passion for the game, but you can show it in a positive way,” Ford said. “Make good life choices.”

Coach Kozens’ view

It was a mix of increasing professional responsibilities and personal health issues that led Kozens to start thinking about stepping down, he said, explaining that he “needed to find some time. While giving up something that I love so much was extremely difficult, I had to do what was best.” This move was on his mind for a couple of years, and when he saw the group of student-athletes coming up, who are now seniors, he figured this would make for the easiest transition for a new head coach.

Ford’s name was picked from a pool of applicants by a committee of former players who are now local professionals, who saw in Ford the kind of person who could continue the traditions that came before — including coaches that served for 20-plus years.

“Nick was a standout athlete here who is a great example of a former player that size doesn’t matter,” Kozens said. Ford is 5’8” and was 140 pounds in high school, when he set school rushing records that still stand today. “He also worked extremely hard to get his education and come back to his hometown and teach and coach.”

“I feel he will put the time into making relationships with his players that will lead this program into decades of continued pride and tradition,” Kozens said. He said his advice to Ford is to continue the traditions that he likes, but to also create his own brand of leadership.

“Nick gets Sachem Pride,” Kozens said. “He lives for Friday night lights. He cares about the program, the players and the community. I couldn’t be any more proud or happy to see him lead the Sachems.”