Tracy High’s new football coach won’t waste any time getting started at his new job.

Matthew Shrout learned Wednesday that he will take over for former coach Mark Stroup, who resigned from the varsity head coach’s job at the end of the 2009 season. Shrout said the team and coaches have plenty to do, from scheduling games and summer camps to organizing equipment, long before the fall 2010 season gets under way.

“I totally believe that football has become a 12-month-a-year deal,” Shrout said. “It’s not just the football season. A lot of that’s due to all of us coaches pushing for that.”

Shrout, 35, brings a coaching style he learned in six years at Logan High School in Union City, where he was a head sophomore football coach and a head freshman football coach, and then developed during six years working under Stroup as the varsity Bulldogs’ linemen and special-teams coach.

“I never set out to be a head coach. I always liked being an assistant,” he said, adding that Stroup’s decision to step away from the job opened an opportunity he thought would be right for him.

“I thoroughly enjoy coaching,” Shrout said. “I not only enjoy the on-the-field stuff, I enjoy the community and the people that are involved in it. To be able to do that on a bigger scale was interesting to me.”

Stroup, who was on the committee that interviewed coach candidates, said Shrout’s experience with the present team and coaching staff was a big factor in the decision to recommend him for the job.

“It’s important that we keep our core group of coaches together. That will be a big part of helping Matt succeed,” Stroup said.

“Initially, he will be in a fairly comfortable position, because he will have a familiar group of coaches and staff, and the kids will be familiar with him,” he added. “As time goes on, there is turnover in these positions, and he will have to bring in quality people to keep the momentum going.”

Shrout said one challenge is to live up to the accomplishments of the most recent Bulldog teams. Even if the 2010 squad doesn’t match the 10-0 regular-season record of the 2009 team, he knows he will be under a microscope for his first season.

“We’re going to be young, but we’re not going to be young like a bunch of juniors. We had a lot of seniors last year, and the juniors that were behind them, they’re good players, too,” he said.

Shrout, a native of San Lorenzo, attended San Lorenzo High School and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology from Cal State Hayward. While there, he also studied athletic training and physical education with a minor in history and earned his teaching credential.

Shrout hopes the connections he’s created over the past six years solidify his identity as a local coach.

“There’s a lot of old Tracy here, and they’re going to expect certain things, and hopefully I can satisfy their expectations,” he said.

“I just want the community to know that I’m approachable. I’m going to ask a lot of them, and in turn I know they’ll ask a lot of me,” he said. “I live here. I know enough of the older guys that I know their aspect of what football should be about.”