Matt Softich has coached about every age imaginable in the football spectrum.

From Little Grizzly pee wees still learning which end zone to run for, to middle-aged men holding on to the game they love for one more day, Softich has been there calling plays and blowing the whistle.

His newest task lies somewhere in between as the head football coach of the Missoula Hellgate Knights. The Anaconda native and former Montana Grizzly assistant takes over a program desperate for good news on the gridiron. The Knights were winless a year ago.

None of the current players was even born the last time Hellgate made the playoffs in 1994.

“The biggest challenge right now is getting everybody refocused on football,” said Softich, 55, whose day job is as a computer consultant. “If everybody’s focused and pulling in the same direction, we can see what this program can do.”

Softich – who also coached on staffs at Montana Tech and at the community college level in Minnesota, and most recently led the Missoula Phoenix semi-pro team from their inception in 2005 to 2007 – chatted with the Missoulian this week following his first full practice at the helm of the Hellgate program.

Q. You’re a bit of a football lifer, so what’s it like to be back on the field after a few years off?

A. Oh it’s great. You forget sometimes how much fun it is, and you forget maybe why you’re out there. You can watch it all you want, watch it on TV or go to the games, but until you’re right in the middle of it again you don’t get that feeling. I had feelings today like I did back in the 80s in my first year with the Grizzlies.

Q. You’ve got such a vast array of coaching experience. How different is it coaching these different teams?

A. Football players are football players. Fundamentals are still important regardless of what level they’re at. There’s just a mindset to being a football guy, the guys that are real football players stand out.

Q. But this is your first stop as a high school head coach. What can you take from those other gigs to apply to this job?

A. Organization is the main thing. It’s big at any level and I was lucky enough to learn that at the University with coach (Larry) Donovan. When I first talked to him he said, ‘What you will learn is we are just as prepared as Oklahoma is this weekend or Alabama will be this weekend. We just don’t have the players.’

Q. What kind of challenges come with the high school age level?

A. At high school? Sometimes these guys don’t live and breathe for football. At the semi-pro level, those guys had jobs and everything and they cut out a part of their life to come do this they wanted it so bad. Or they’re on scholarship with a university. They wanted it.

Q. Unfortunately, Hellgate football has drawn the reputation of, well, having tough seasons basically. How can you change that perception?

A. We can’t change what happened last year. We can’t change what happened 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago when our last winning season was. But I told our seniors, what you’re going to do starting today will continue on. You can be the guy who comes back here in six years for homecoming and sees a program that’s thriving and think, ‘I started that.’ ... So far, they’re starting to realize that. They can be part of something bigger than themselves.

Q. I know you’re an Anaconda guy. Recently they announced they’re dropping down (from Class A) to B. What do you think of that move?

A. Well for the kids, in three or four years they won’t know any different. They’ll have always been B, those kids in junior high school. They’ll hear from their grandparents that they were AA at one time, from their parents that they were A one time.

Q. So you’re in favor?

A. I think they’ll be able to compete more at the Class B level and have some success. Aside from a couple years there with the girls’ basketball team (Anaconda won back-to-back State A titles in 2008-09) and volleyball team, we’ve really been struggling. When I was (coaching) there in ’92 to like ’94, ’95, we made the playoffs once (in football) and that was the first time since the ’80s I think.

Q. It’s just a shifting landscape I guess.

A. It is weird, but it’ll be good for the kids and it’ll be good for the community once they can be competitive. Because football is such a big thing thing in Anaconda. Butte and Anaconda.

Q. Well lastly because I feel like we need something more fun to end on, what’s your favorite football memory across this football life for ya?

A. That’s a really good question [pauses]. It’s not the championships – at Tech or the division we won at Anaconda or the Big Sky (with the Griz). I think it’s just the people you work with, they make the memories. That’s what I used to miss the most, the people you work with day in and day out and the kids, getting to know the kids. ... But as far as memories go, I don’t know. Getting hurt, that was a good one [smiles]. Those stand out for the wrong reasons, though.