Hollis Brookline is bringing back Milt Robinson, shown here as the Cavs head coach some 20 years ago, after the coach they hired in February, John Trisciiani, left to take the Pelham head job. (Facebook photo)

HOLLIS – Four months ago Hollis Brookline High School thought it had its man to revive its floundering football program.

Now it knows for sure that it does.

The Cavaliers have named Milt Robinson, who founded the program back in 2003 and stepped down some 12 years ago, as its new coach. He replaces John Trisciani, whom the school hired in February, after Trisciani shocked many be recently resigning so he could take over the highly successful program at Pelham High School.

“I thought it was a better fit for me,” said Trisciani, the father of former Bishop Guertin head coach John Trisciani the younger. “I wish Hollis Brookline nothing but the best, great staff, great kids. And that’s the truth.”

Word began to spread in the last couple of weeks, and last Friday Trisciani ended the month of May by meeting with his new team to make it official.

Two weeks earlier Trisciani knew he was going to leave HB and contacted Cavs AD Brian Bumpus. Bumpus then immediately began talking to Robinson, who is a case manager at the high school, about returning for at least a year.

“When we got the news Trish was heading over to Pelham, the wheels were kind of spinning a bit,” Bumpus said. “Milt obviously works in the building, he’s been around, he started the program here. We talked, we talked through it all, how he could make it work.

“Obviously he cares about the program, doesn’t want to see it completely fall off the map. We had some great conversations and he agreed to give it a go here.”

How difficult was this for Trisciani to do? And how does he think it’ll be perceived?

Trisciani bypassed those questions, but says he’ll enjoy the challenge of continuing the Python dynasty, which will begin the 2024 season with a 41-game winning streak. Its architect, Tom Babaian, stepped down in February after the team won its fourth straight title, the first two in Division III and the next two in Division II.

“Oh yeah, I met with (the players) and enjoyed it,” Trisciani said. “I met with them for the first time and they didn’t even know my name before I walked in there – which was interesting. They didn’t even know who I was.”

That may be because Pelham is in a state of transition in its athletic department. Current AD Todd Kress is taking another administrative job in the same district, and there hasn’t been a new athletic director officially named. But sources around the football community have indicated the job will be going to current Goffstown AD Justin Hufft, and he and Trisciani, sources say, are close. Usually AD contracts begin on July 1.

Trisciani said no one from Pelham reached out to him initially, but that he saw the job was still open and applied. “They called me in for an interview right away,” he said, adding he was impressed with the administration and interview committee, that did included among others Kress and other administrators. “They asked the questions and I answered the questions,” Trisciani said.

Meanwhile, for HB, Robinson was the perfect choice, given that the program he founded the program that 20 years later was suddenly in tatters after winning the Division II title back in 2019. COVID hit the program hard, numbers dwindling all the way from the youth program on up to the varsity. It was a winless 2023 and the title-winning coach, Chris Lones, stepped down after a decade long run.

“Having someone in the building, someone that’s familiar not only with the school but the history of the program, it’s huge,” said Bumpus, who at one time was on Robinson’s Cavalier coaching staff.

Bumpus said he was completely caught off guard when Trisciani called him to give him the news.

“It was a tough pill to swallow,” Bumpus said. “We were excited to have (Trisciani) on board. He had done a lot of work in the building with recruiting and was all set to start running some off season skills and drills. It kind of came out of nowhere, I didn’t have much time to react to it. Just kind of went into panic mode.

“We weren’t thrilled about it, but what could we do? We had to kind of pivot and figure out a way to keep things on track. Our staff that is still here has done a great job of continuing what was already set in motion.”

That would be the Skills Nights that have been advertised on social media on Sunday nights at the school field at HB. Bumpus said they will continue through the end of June.

Bishop Guertin asssitant coach John Trisciani talks to the defensive players during a timeout at a game earlier this season. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

John Trisciani, shown two years ago during his time as an assistant at Bishop Guertin, is the new coach at Pelham after leaving the head job at Hollis Brookline after four months. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

Trisciani said that four coaches on the staff were holdovers and were staying with HB, and one assistant he had brought from the outside was going with him to Pelham. Triciani last year was coaching as an assistant at Manchester Central, and the year prior to that he was with his son as an assistant at BG. He’s more known for a longtime stint as an assistant at Saint Anselm College.

Will Robinson just take it for the year? It will take at least two or three years to get the program back on track. The school was denied a petition by the NHIAA in November to drop down to Division III, and it likely would still have had a hard time there.

“We’re all aware of (the time needed),” Bumpus said. “That’s something I think we’ll take it as it comes. We’ll see how this year goes, and (Robinson) may come back next year and say ‘Give me another year’. For us the most important thing is we’ve got something in place so we don’t lose a season.”

Bumpus was asked how the players reacted to the initial news of Trisciani’s departure, and said, “They were bothered, you know? But they’re a resilient group of kids. They’re motivated, they want to play football. I hope when this (news of Robinson) comes out, hopefully it regenerates some of that excitement that we had when we first hired Trish.”