Scott Harmon has always had Meade football in his blood. He attended school there in the 1980s, played nose guard there under hall of fame coach Jerry Mears and was an assistant coach there for seven years from 1990-1997. Even when he left the Anne Arundel County school -- for college at Delaware State and for other assistant jobs at Old Mill (1998 and 2001-2002), Montgomery College ('99-'00) and Hereford ('03-'09) - Harmon was never truly gone. He always looked for avenues to return, hoping one day he'd have an opportunity to take over as head coach, just like his mentor Mears.

Two years ago Harmon almost fulfilled that dream when Meade opened up a coaching search. But new athletic director Dave Lanham chose Lance Clelland over Harmon. But earlier this month Clelland, who compiled a 7-13 record in two seasons, resigned his position. He and his family are moving to Lake Wales, Fla., where he will be a teacher and assistant coach at The Vanguard School.

Clelland's departure opened the door for Harmon. With two-a-day practices set to start in 48 hours, Lanham quickly contacted the man who finished second the last time Meade needed a coach. Harmon, who had been the offensive coordinator at Hereford for the last seven years, didn't hesitate. He's back at the program he never wanted to leave.

But now that Harmon's achieved his coaching goal, he's charged with the task of turning around a program that hasn't had a winning season since 2001. He got a late start and there are plenty of challenges ahead, but Harmon insists he's ready.

MdHigh Publisher Dave Lomonico spoke with Harmon earlier this week about his new job.

Actually, I don't have a problem with it, to be honest. This is my dream job, the head-coaching job I always wanted. I went to school here, I coached here from 1990 to 1997, both my children went here. I coached at Hereford for the last eight years and I told [Hereford] Coach [Steve] Turnbaugh the day he hired me, 'I'm going to stay here until they hire me for the Meade job.'

It was bad the way it came up literally two days before the season, but I wouldn't change it if I could. It's the job I always wanted and the only job I would leave Hereford for. It's unfortunate that this is the way it happened, but I'm not giving the job back (laughs).

Yes I did. In fact we were both in the running the last time Meade needed a head coach in 2008. Obviously I was No. 2 on the list and he was No. 1 (laughs). But we always got along.

Coach Clelland and I talked on several occasions since then. He even invited me onto his staff after he was hired. Then he invited me down to Meade to do the pregame speech before the Arundel game when they played for the Jerry Mears Cup. Mears coached at Arundel in the late '60s and early '70s before coming to Meade. So when the two schools played each other they named the game in his honor. I felt honored that Coach Clelland had me down to talk about Jerry Mears and what he meant to the Meade program. So we've had a close relationship.

And Coach Clelland really took care of the program. He put the discipline back in it, we don't have many ineligible kids academically and he organized everything. So it's not like I'm walking into a nightmare. I'm very appreciative of that.

Oh it was the toughest decision I ever had to make. Coach Turnbaugh and I were such great friends. Meade was the job I wanted, but I had such a great relationship with the Herford community. I never would have left it for any other program but Meade.

Two words: Jerry Mears. Dealing with him on a day-to-day basis as a student and football player at Meade in the '80s made me want to be a coach and, more specifically, to be a coach at Meade. There is no doubt he had an impact on me.

This is where I wanted to stay my whole career. I started here in 1986 and the only reason I left was because they hired a coach in 1997 that I thought would take the program in the wrong direction, which he did. But I always wanted to come back because of Coach Mears.

Talk a little more about Coach Mears and what made him so influential.

I refer to him as the Little Giant. He was small in stature but had the heart of a lion. He was like Coach Turnbaugh - very detail-oriented, very prepared, very vocal in praising people, very disciplined and a terrific teacher. He always encouraged kids in a positive way, never downing them after a bad play.

Coach Mears is a hall of famer in the Maryland High School Football Coaches Association and he was instrumental in getting the Big 33 Game in Maryland. There are so many coaches in Maryland who learned from him, it's unbelievable. You have Chuck Markeiwicz over at Arundel, Jeff Herrick at Broadneck, Brad Wilson at Westminster … and pretty much any school you can think of has people on the staff who played for Jerry Mears.

But the last time I saw Coach Mears was 1988 when he was dying of renal cancer. I went to see him up at Johns Hopkins and he couldn't speak, he had tubes down his throat and he was down to 75 pounds. He knew I was coaching little league football, so when he saw me - remember he couldn't even talk - he wrote me a message that said, 'How's your team?'

That's just the kind of coach he was. He didn't want you to feel sorry for him. He just wanted to know how you were and how your team was doing. It was all about the kids, never about the ego. I'm tearing up just thinking about that story.

He was just an unbelievable guy - a special guy.

I've worked for some very, very good coaches. I've been blessed. For the last eight years I had the pleasure of working for Coach Turnbaugh at Hereford. I worked for Coach [Jerry] Hartman when he was at Meade in the '90s. I worked for Phil Martin up at Montgomery for a couple years. Those guys, like all successful coaches, all had that same type of mentality - working on the little things to make the big things better.

But the one I'll always remember is Coach Mears and how he handled himself and his team.

I've learned from some great coaches and I'm going to take a little bit from each of them. I'm going to take the intensity from Coach Mears, the preparation from Coach Turnbaugh, the discipline from Coach Phil Martin, the demeanor from Coach Hartman.

I'm going to take it all and instill it into these kids here at Meade. I'm going to let them know they have a great football heritage here and we're going to have at it and see what we can do. I like the Navy saying, 'Tradition never graduates.' So that's kind of what we're talking to the kids about now.

That's absolutely correct. This was a very hard start for me. I didn't meet any players until 7 a.m. on the first day of two-a-day practice. But not only am I coaching players, but I'm coaching coaches (laughs). I changed the entire offense and defense 24 hours before the season started! All the coaches had to learn it right alongside the kids!

To be honest, at first I wasn't going to do it. I was going to go with the offense they had last year and tweak the defense. But when I looked at the numbers - we only had two guys on offense coming back. So everyone was pretty much brand-new so they all had to learn the system anyway. I figured it was the perfect time to put my system in.

And on defense, my system really isn't too different from what they were running, so that's not a huge change.

On offense we're running the Navy flex-bone. Defensively, we're going to be a multiple-40 team.

They took it hard. There's no doubt Coach Clelland was well-liked here. He had great relationships with the kids. But the first thing I did was I had a bag and took out my high school jersey from Meade.

I said, 'Look I've never met you before but let me tell you about me. I went to school here, my kids went here, my ex-wife went here. I lived in the community and I coached here before.' Then I said, 'I looked through my drawers today for my old Meade gear and I found my old game jersey. I'm one of you.'

So that reinforced that I knew where they came from, where they lived and what they were going through. I'm one of them; I'm from here, too. I think they really took to that. Each one of them shook my hand and welcomed me. We're all on board together, I think.

Part of the reason it's been a smooth transition is I have everyone from the previous staff working for me. The day I came into this building to meet with them, all the coaches were in the equipment room filing paperwork, sorting out equipment and getting information on players. They never stopped working even though they had no idea who their boss was going to be. That meant so much to me. They've really helped make it easy for me.

It's interesting, I really haven't changed my coaching style. I'm still very vocal, I'm still very discipline-oriented and I still hold players and coaches accountable for their actions. And I've always believed in teaching football more than playing football. I've never changed that and I won't now that I'm a head coach.

I realize that assistants are different then head coaches. A lot of times they act as that go-between guy between the head coach and the players. They play the 'nice-guy' role. But because I'm so new to the coaches and players here, I have to be a mentor to all of them. I have to build the program from the bottom up and I'm not changing the way I go about it.

The real challenge here is going to be consistency and getting everyone on board with my system right now. That's the No. 1 challenge - getting the system in place from the discipline to the accountability to the offense and defense.

But as I said before, Lance built the program and you can tell they're really good kids academically and athletically. He did a great job getting out all the bad attitudes, but I told my coaches, 'I'll keep a ninth grader on this team rather than a senior who's going to be a cancer.' That's just the way it's going to be.

I really can't tell you. We're behind because of what happened with the late hiring and all that. But it is what it is and we have to make the best of it. Everyone has to coach 100 percent and we have to get the kids learning everything. My saving grace is we have a lot of returners on defense, so I think I can do something with that (laughs).

There have always been two goals at Meade when I coached here. One is to win the Jerry Mears Cup and beat Arundel. Two is to make it into the playoffs.

That's my goal right now. I want to beat Arundel and I want to make the postseason. Is it possible this year? I don't know - I'll let you know in Week 3. Maybe if things break right, yeah, it's possible. But I have to get the kids in the right spots, I have a very young line, a new system, the kids have to adjust to me…

Anyway, the point is that that's always the goal at Meade and will be a goal at Meade forever.

I have to be realistic with the kids. Those two goals I talked about are enough to reinforce to the kids what's important. The problem with a school that hasn't won for a long time is that they don't know how to win. That's the mindset you have to change.

At Hereford, we didn't have great athletes no matter what people say. But the kids knew how to win and they expected to win. But when you haven't been in the playoffs since 2001, the kids come up not expecting to win. They don't know how to win tough games; they don't know how to close out in the fourth quarter with the game on the line; they don't know how to come from behind. That's the kind of stuff I have to reinforce and build up.