The many connections Spencer Emerson has made in various Maine football circles have helped open the door to a new opportunity outside of the state for the former Poland Regional High School varsity football coach and Bates College assistant.

Emerson, 27, learned on Friday that he has been hired as an offensive assistant for Georgetown University football. He was introduced to the Hoyas’ coaching staff via a Zoom meeting on Tuesday and will be introduced to the team Thursday.

The Hoyas, who play in the Football Championship Series (FCS) Division I, and their conference, the Patriot League, canceled their fall schedule with hopes of playing a six-game schedule in the spring. The school, which has an enrollment of 4,500 and has its campus in Washington, D.C., is conducting the fall semester online only.

That includes team and coaches’ meetings, which means Emerson won’t have to move south until January.

“It’s one of those things where if they told me we need you here tomorrow, I’d sleep in my car if I had to,” Emerson, and Edward Little High School graduate, said.

Emerson will be working with the offense’s skill position players (quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers) under offensive coordinator Rob Spence, whose served in that role at major Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools such as Clemson and Syracuse, and receivers coach Steve Thames Jr.

Thames was a University of New Hampshire defensive back when Emerson was just starting out in coaching as a student assistant at Maine eight years ago. The two kept in touch as Thames went into coaching with another of Maine’s Colonial Athletic Association rivals, James Madison.

After seeing Georgetown’s post for the position on footballscoop.com, Emerson emailed Thames expressing interest in June and, after a waiting period caused by uncertainty surrounding college football’s immediate future, interviewed with head coach Rob Sgarlata.

The position is part-time, but Emerson, who has taught mathematics in Lewiston and Poland middle schools while working as director of football operations and wide receivers coach at Bates — his second stint with the Bobcats —  knows climbing the ladder to his dream of coaching major Division I or professional football takes patience.

“I’ve always wanted to coach at the highest level possible since I was a student assistant at Maine,” said Emerson, who coached was Poland head coach in 2018 and 2019.

“At that level, it’s get in and make an impact so you can get promoted to a full-time position coach,” he said. “This is something that fell in line with my career goals. Now is when the work starts. Now is when you double down on everything you’ve been doing your whole life.”

Georgetown finished 5-6 in 2019 and last won its conference in 1998. But the Hoyas have a brand new football stadium and upgraded athletic facilities on campus and plenty of other evidence to convince Emerson the program is on the upswing.

“It’s trending upward,” he said. “The Patriot League as a whole is super competitive.”

Emerson is the second Mainer to take a coaching position at Georgetown in the last six weeks. Edwin Thompson, formerly of Jay and a one-time Bates College baseball coach, was named the Hoyas’ head baseball coach last month after spending the previous five years at Eastern Kentucky University.

Emerson said he hasn’t met Thompson but is eager to make another connection.

“Two guys whose hometowns in Maine are 40 minutes from one another end up coaching at the same school down in D.C. — it’s a small world,” he said.

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