SOUTH PARIS — Paul Withee has spent the last 18 months in one of the nation’s football hotbeds, but he can’t wait to return to Maine to get back into the game he loves.

Withee, a three-time state champion at Foxcroft Academy, was named the new varsity football coach at Oxford Hills on Monday night.

He replaces Nate Danforth, who was not asked to return as head coach after three seasons. The Vikings went winless his first season and 1-7 each of the last two seasons.

“When I think of Oxford Hills football, I always think of really tough, hard-nosed kids who really understood the game and were very proud of their program,” Withee said. “They’ve fallen on some tough times and I hope to get back to that.”

In 19 years at Foxcroft, Withee compiled a 150-56 record while guiding the Ponies to seven Eastern Maine Class C championships and three state titles, in 1996, 2003 and 2007.

His last season at Foxcroft was 2008, when the Ponies finished 6-4 and reached the Little Ten Conference semifinals. The following spring, the private school’s board of trustees decided not to renew his annual teaching contract. Withee taught math.

“You don’t realize how much you have a love and passion for something until it’s taken away from you,” Withee said. “It’s been very, very difficult. I really haven’t watched much (football). I did watch my nephew, Devin, two falls ago play at Skowhegan when he was a senior.”

Ironically, the Vikings will open their Pine Tree Conference schedule next fall with Skowhegan.

After leaving Foxcroft, Withee taught at Dexter High School for a year and moved to Florida, where he has lived off-and-on for the last 18 months. Looking to get back into coaching, he said he read about the Oxford Hills’ opening online and contacted athletic director Jeff Benson to express interest. He was interviewed on Feb. 14 and offered the job on Feb. 16, pending Monday night’s approval by the SAD 17 school board.

“We are very excited to have a coach with a wealth of experience both on the field and in education as well,”  Benson said. “We were anxious to get him started with our program and our athletes. He has an excellent coaching background and we are looking forward to working with him.”

Withee said he hopes to find a math teaching position in the district for the next school year.

At Foxcroft, Withee virtually built the football program from the ground up, developing a feeder system by creating youth leagues and getting kids interested in and excited about football early on.

Oxford Hills already has the feeder system in place, and Withee believes it will play an important part in getting Oxford Hills, which has played for a state title just once, in 1999, back into contention.

“The great thing in that community is they already have everything set up,” he said. “I think it’s important as the head coach in a program which will eventually get all of those players to be seen and have a presence, to go to some of those games and watch those kids play.”

“I think it’s important that kids really learn and understand the basics of football,” he said. “I don’t necessarily have to implement my program or what I do at the varsity level for us to be successful. I just think kids need to have fun and play hard.”

A Madison native, Withee played for John Wolfgram at Madison High School and counts the legendary coach among his many influences.

“He was a great role model for me, a real inspiration,” said Withee, 51. “Him and a guy named Buddy White, John Krasnavage. I just had some great people who were very inspirational for me to go into coaching.”

Prior to taking his first head coaching job at Foxcroft, he worked as an assistant coach at Sanford for eight years. After being turned down for the vacant head coaching job there, he went to Foxcroft in 1990, going 2-6 in his first year, one of just three losing seasons in his tenure there.

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