New North-Souhegan hockey coach Bill Kotsifas is ready to take on the rigors of high school coaching.

NASHUA – It was a simple formula, really.

After years at the youth level, Bill Kotsifas was eagerly looking to see if he could coach hockey at the high school level. The North-Souhegan job was open, and it was a match.

The fact that he’s the local co-op program’s fifth coach in the last five seasons is, to him, irrelevant, but he’s made sure to relate his thoughts to his players.

“I did address it with the kids in a Zoom meeting,” he said. “I told them, ‘There’s nothing I can say in this meeting that’s going to make you think anything of me, that I’m going to stay here or know what I’m doing.

“It’s time to build up that trust, right? I’m not looking to be a college coach, to go to a higher level, I don’t need another school. This is something I want to do. I like the idea of taking a team and building it.”

And build at the high school level, as he said.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Kotsifas said. “I love working with older kids, I love the thought of being a big factor in their life. I look back at my time in high school as being the best time of my life. We still talk about our coach fondly, and the things that he did or said and we still laugh about it.

“I want to be that guy. I want to have an influence on kids.”

Kotsifas, who grew up in Billerica, Mass., played high school hockey at Shawsheen Tech, and coached his three sons from 2004 to now. He’s coached anywhere from Learn To Play, to PeeWees, to Squirts, “and now high school,” he said. “A lot of coaching of youth hockey. I’ve coached everywhere under the sun around here since my kids were old enough to skate.”

New England Bulldogs. The Cyclones, The New England Edge, the Islanders. All the youth/junior programs around have had Kotsifas on their coaching list.

Now at the high school level, he’s ready for the challenge.

“The commitment’s much more,” he said. “It’s coaching every day, instead of three or four days a week. When you shut it down in the rec league, you shut it down. But I noticed I haven’t shut it down here since they said ‘You’re hired.'”

He spent the off season watching some youth games that his prospective players were competing in, and also read some books on different coaching philosophies as “I’m a little more in depth in trying to learn the craft, if you will.”

“I can’t say there’s more preparation because I’m a preparation junkie, anyway,” he said. “I feel more of a sense of purpose. … For me it’s all about trying to make the kids first. I’m not trying to get into the Hockey Hall of Fame or anything.”

Kotsifas was used to picking his team, playing with the same players through March. Now he has to deal with all the rules and regulations of high school coaching, but also all the COVID protocols – no locker room use, etc.

And Kotsifas also has to start under a bit of a handicap. North players were set to take the ice on Tuesday for the first time but they weren’t going to be joined by their Souhegan teammates as athletics are on pause at the Amherst school until mid January. Thus, as of now, the first three games of the season were cancelled and the team won’t play its first game until likely Feb. 1.

“We’ll have four practices and then come back on (Jan. 3 or 4),” Kotsifas said. “We’re hoping the Amherst kids can join us then but right now they’re not supposed to come back til Jan. 16.

“There’s a season. And some schools don’t have one. Whatever we get, we’ll take.”

The North-Souhegan program has been said to be one of those programs where the parental involvement is strong enough to pose issues with a coach. Kotsifas said he’s ready to smooth over that road.

“I’m hoping I can bring some value in that area,” he said. “I’m a communications guy. I’m not afraid to talk to the parents. I’ve told them I’ll be happy to talk to you. But I don’t want to talk about playing time.

“I can’t say I’ll bring in a different culture, because I don’t know what was here before. … I only know why I’m here. … And I know I’m not planning on leaving.”

Kotsifas said he won’t overwhelm his players.

“What I want you to do is work hard,” he said. “And take to the coaching and the philosophy that what I’m telling you will make our team a better team. I’m not doing it for me, I’m doing it for you. That’s kind of my philosophy.”

Kotsifas didn’t play hockey in college, but played baseball in college as a catcher first at a small school in Lowell and then UMass-Lowell.

But hockey is his game,and he’s kept his players updated throughout the days leading up to the first practice.

“We’re ready to go,” Kotsifas said. “We’re itching to go.”

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