Nashua South's Caleb Rich slides into third during the Panthers' Divison I prelim at Bedford last June. Spring practices start today all over the area for high school teams. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Nashua High School South baseball coach James Gaj was busy on Sunday hitting the phones.

It’s that time of year. The calendar says the first day of spring is Tuesday, but for most local high school teams, it starts today.

Gaj was checking to find out exactly where his practice/tryout location would be for today as the Panthers and countless other area high school spring sports teams are starting practices and tryouts. It’ll be in the 40s to start, and when things wrap up it’ll likely be 40 degrees warmer in June. But incredibly, there’s no snow, at least for now.

“We always wait after the last out of the season and look forward to the third Monday in March every year,” Gaj said. “And this is nice. The fields aren’t clear just yet. I was trying to let parents know where (the kids) are going.”

A lot of teams begin the season practicing inside, especially if they have evening practices. But one thing that has helped spring teams in Nashua get outside quicker than normal is Stellos Stadium, with its field turf. While a few city lacrosse teams will be likely be there on Monday, Gaj says baseball and South softball likely will get time at Stellos on Tuesday.

Several teams will have new coaches around the area. At Alvirne, Colton Houle, a former assistant, takes over the baseball program while Becky Radziewicz is the new softball coach. That’s because former Broncos coach Dakota Bilodeau is now the head coach at Bishop Guertin, a natural fit once the job opened up as she works there and was also the field hockey coach this past fall. Nashua North softball has a new coach as well, Jennifer Hall. Hollis Brookline’s gain is Merrimack’s loss, as former Tomahawks coach Greg Cochrane, who also coaches field hockey at HB, is now the Cavs’ head coach. Meanwhile Stephen Yabroudy takes over the softball program.

Nashua North has a new girls lax coach, Jennifer Dyer, while Katie Todd is the new Merrimack girls lacrosse coach. Nashua South tennis has been overhauled; the tandem of Brice Miller and Sam Holdsworth will coach the boys while Karen Cullison is the new girls coach. And these are just a clump of the changes for this spring compared to last year.

Gaj’s South team has only four seniors coming back, and numbers are in the 40s instead of in the 50s. “It’s a rebuilding year, but maybe we’ll get some surprises, I don’t know,” he said. “But we do the open gyms in the winter and they are very well attended.”

Those open gyms, now allowed the last few years, have been a godsend for local spring coaches. “We get at least 20 kids per session,” Gaj said. “We started implementing our stuff then. Little things. Once (today) comes, we’re going to be OK.”

While fields may be still be soft and not quite ready, they can’t be that far away.

Spring has sprung.

Newsletter