Players charging past him onto the court in celebration, John Fagula stood still, staring at the Southern New Hampshire University scoreboard in disbelief, reflecting on 32 years of coaching girls basketball. He was soaking it all in.

His Londonderry High School girls pulled off what many in local circles might consider the biggest upset in those 32 years.

Sure, the Lancers were a No. 2, but the undefeated, top-seeded Bedford Bulldogs were considered unbeatable this winter. They had a 39-game winning streak heading into the March 16 title game in Manchester. They had a bench full of girls who would be starting on any other team statewide.

However, on this Sunday in March, it was Fagula’s day to shine – hoisting his 12th Class L/Division I title above his head to dot the last period in the final chapter of a storybook career.

It was a career that began in Nashua, a city he still calls home despite taking a coaching job with the Panthers’ biggest rival during Nashua High School’s heyday.

The 66-year-old Gate City resident spent the first 20 years of his basketball coaching career in Nashua, running one of the nation’s best schoolgirl programs ever. His Purple Panthers went 432-72, including a 108-game win streak (120 straight against New Hampshire teams), 11 Class L titles (1982, ’85, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’92, ’93, ’95, ’96, ’99) and five nationally ranked teams – highlighted by the USA Today national title in 1987.

After taking off four seasons, he has spent the last 12 seasons in Londonderry with a Lancers program that his Panthers squared off with in seven title games from 1985-96. Nashua won all but one of those finals.

Knowing for the last year that this would be his farewell campaign, Fagula connected his two stops. Prior to the start of the Division I tournament, he pulled out his 1987 national champions ring for the first time since accepting the Londonderry job 12 years ago.

Perhaps there was a little magic in that ring, or it was simply the never-say-die attitude he instilled in his Lancers, emphasized through the leadership of senior Aliza Simpson, the first player he hugged in celebration.

The University of New Hampshire-bound Simpson, who missed eight games this season because of a hairline fracture just below her right kneecap, wasn’t about to miss out on her final opportunity to win a championship. After three years of reaching the final four, including two trips to the title game, as a freshman in 2011 (55-46 loss to Winnacunnet) and sophomore in 2012 (46-43 loss to Bishop Guertin), she wanted to complete her high school career with a title. More important, to do the same for her coach.

“Just to win it for him and in my senior year,” Simpson said after the Lancers’ semifinal win over Pinkerton Academy, “it would be unbelievable.”

Fagula’s embrace of Simpson, one of many Division I scholarship players he has coached over the years, was followed by a celebration of hugs with other players and coaches. Then he made his way to the fans, where he spotted a familiar face and another memorable embrace.

Missy Ayotte was waiting with open arms, and it was like a flashback to the ’80s for coach and player. The point guard for those national champion Panthers was in shock, as well.

“The fact that he won that last game was outrageous,” said Ayotte, who graduated from Nashua High School in 1989. “The deck was supposedly stacked against them. They beat all the odds and he finished up a storybook career with another title.”

It was a career in which she played a major role for Fagula on those 1986-89 title teams.

What she stresses is the major role he played in making girls basketball what it is today throughout the Granite State. In a time when Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube weren’t yet available, Fagula handled getting his kids into college – Division I programs such as Duke, Stanford and Iowa – the old-school way: personal connections.

“It’s very hard for people to conceptualize,” said Ayotte, 42, who resides in New Boston, where she also owns and operates Ayotte Glass Studio. “What basketball was at the time is nothing like it is today. Coach Fagula was able to create relationships with coaches on a grand scale from one end of the country to the other. He worked tirelessly to make sure we had the best opportunities to continue our playing careers at the highest level possible.

“He was always dedicated to his players, and he would give you the same respect, loyalty and dedication you offered him. That’s something that’s never changed.”

What has changed is his old-school coaching techniques – little things he carried over from his 15 years as an assistant baseball coach in Nashua under Charlie Mellen prior to coaching the girls. Those in-your-face techniques certainly helped him when the late Ken Parady stepped down as coach of Nashua’s football team. Fagula stepped in for the 1989 season.

In his more than 40 years of coaching high school athletes, Fagula has seen a change. He has also changed.

A triple bypass in October 2007, followed in March 2008 with a broken nose caused by a face plant during the Lancers’ 37-35 Class L quarterfinal win over Salem because of his diabetes, surely mellowed the once fiery coach.

Of course, the change in players’ mentality also played a role in his transformation. He has had to change with the times. His biggest change has been flexibility. He has put away the bulldog mentality and taken on more of a finesse style of coaching.

In the ’80s, those Nashua teams were stacked from top to bottom with Division I and II talent. While he has had players like Simpson and Stefanie Murphy in the last 12 seasons, it doesn’t compare with the talent pool he had over the 20 in Nashua.

“For the most part back then, I was a little harder and a little more demanding,” Fagula said. “Those kind of kids, you can be a little more aggressive and demanding of as opposed to the kid that’s just finishing high school and that’s all they’re going to play.

“It’s not like all the kids are scholarship kids. And you can’t treat them that way. So I’ve been a little more mellow – not all the time, but more than I was – and I think understanding of the fact that there are other things in their lives other than basketball.”

Londonderry sophomore Jackie Luckhardt poked fun at the legendary coach and his having to hold back when he appeared ready to burst.

“On the inside,” she said after the semifinal win over Pinkerton, “sometimes he just wants to scream.”

He has come a long way since posting a 4-16 record as a 30-year-old, first-year coach of Nashua’s girls basketball squad.

He heard all the chatter about not being able to get it done away from Nashua and with all that talent.

His 12th title for career win 624 put all of that to rest.

“The best part about it for me is that I don’t have to think about ‘What ifs?’?” said Fagula, who will celebrate his 67th birthday on March 31. “That’s the kind of thing that’s frustrating when you get close and you don’t win it. Now I don’t have to do that. I can just kind of ride off into the sunset.”