by Sammi Gorman

Fitchburg State University’s football program is now under the command of Head Coach Patrick Haverty.
Haverty, after starting as head coach on July 1, led the Falcons to a 30-24 victory in their season opener against the Becker College Hawks. While their next several games saw the Falcons struggling, Haverty knows that the road to success is not always a straight line.
“It’s nice to win, it’s good,” Haverty said. “But your goal is to try to … get better every single day.”
While new to his position this season, Haverty is an accomplished veteran with the Fitchburg football program. During his time with the Falcons as head coach from 2002-2006, Haverty led them to Eastern College Athletic Conference bowls in 2004 and 2005, with an overall record of 30-20.
“We did a lot of great things the last time I was here. I really enjoyed it. I really love Fitchburg State, it’s a great place. I hope we have the same success we had last time,” Haverty said.
So just how will the new coach turn the team around from last year’s 1-9 season? By getting back to basics.
“My philosophy has always been the fundamentals of football,” Haverty said. “As long as they are taught the proper way and they execute, they’ll be just fine…I expect them to work hard, I expect them to be aggressive, I expect them to be fundamentally sound and I expect them to execute.”
Haverty stressed the need to continue pressing on during the season, and playing a solid game without becoming over- or under-confident.
“We like to always keep progressing and you never get too, too happy and you never get too, too sad. You just keep moving along and at the end of the season you can reflect on how it is. There is no time to reflect now, we just got to keep getting better.”
The Falcons play their next home game against Worcester State at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29th.