When Nate Danforth began his football coaching career as a lowly volunteer assistant in 1999, Oxford Hills went to the state championship game.

Now that he’s worked his way up the coaching ladder and is now running the program, Danforth is hoping to get the Vikings back on top.

Danforth, a 1993 graduate of Oxford Hills, has been named school’s new varsity football coach. He replaces Bob Austin, who retired after 30 years with the program, the last three as head coach.

“I’m extremely excited. It’s a dream come true. I never thought it would happen at this point in my career,” said the 33-year-old former two-way lineman.

Danforth worked for Ted Moccia on that 1999 team that lost to South Portland in the Class A title game and has witnessed the decline of the Oxford Hills program from all levels ever since.

He served as coach of the junior varsity before being promoted by Austin to defensive coordinator last year, when the Vikings finished 3-5. They were 0-8 in 2006 and have not qualified for the Pine Tree Conference playoffs since 2005.

“I really want to try to bring the love of football back to ‘the Hills.’ It’s been some down years,” he said. “I know it’s not going to be instantaneous. Having Bob and Ted and Bick (previous head coach Paul Bickford) as a resource is going to be quite an advantage for me.”

Athletic director Jeff Benson said Danforth’s background with the football program, plus his physical presence at the high school, were important factors in the selection.

“He’s been involved with the program for nine years,” Benson said. “He’s an ed tech, and he’s in the building, and he’s in touch with kid on a daily basis, and those are all important.”

Oxford Hills will graduate 10 seniors from their 2007 squad, including QB Justin Frechette and all-PTC defensive second-teamers Ian Monzo and Caleb Flanders. Tailback D.J. Drew, one of the top rushers in the conference before breaking an ankle late in the season, will return to the backfield, with Jake Hall taking over under center.

Danforth has coached the boys’ track team for 11 years, serving as the head coach for the last five, and admits he’s been using his new position to get more athletes on the track team and his position on the track team to improve some of the athletes he’ll have at his disposal for football.

“That’s what Ted (Moccia) used to do,” said Danforth, who has the distinction of playing and coaching in the Lobster Bowl. “I talked (Drew) into coming out for track. He’s trying to strengthen up his ankle. Jake Hall gave up baseball and wasn’t planning on doing anything, so I talked him into coming out for track. He’s a talented kid, so we’re going to spread things out a little bit more and try to get him the ball as much as we can.”

Danforth said the Vikings will move away from the I-formation offense they’ve traditionally featured and take more chances when they have the ball.

“I think we have to be a little more dynamic offensively and open things up,” he said. “We’re either going to score 40 points a game or put five fumbles on the ground, but we’ve got to do something. We’ve been an I-team for so long, we just don’t have the guys to move the nine (defenders) they park in the box against us. We’ve got to do something to get the ball to these guys that can run and get them in space.

“That will help defensively, too, because what happened last year was those kids just wore down on defense. They never came off the field,” he added. “Towards the end of the year, they just didn’t have anything left.”

Danforth said he will serve as the team’s offensive coordinator, and Cimeron Colby will return to the coaching staff to replace him as defensive coordinator. Assistants Joe Oufiero and Mike Mowatt will be retained, and a fourth assistant will be named soon.