Nashua North's Aaralyn Lopez was a steady leader during a rebuilding season for the Titans, and she'll play college softball for Rivier next spring. (Courtesy photo)

You’re playing for a high school softball program that hasn’t won a game all season long, and it’s your final season.

How can you turn a negative into a positive?

Easy, if you’re Aaralyn Lopez, the now former Nashua North third baseman. Lopez was a leader not only with her influence but also her play, and she set the best example by playing well enough to be recruited by Rivier University. She’ll follow in her father’s footsteps, as Aaron Lopez was a basketball standout for the Raiders.

“Aaralyn is a leader on the North team,” Titans coach Jen Hall said late in the campaign. “She was voted as captain by her fellow athletes, and stays positive and helps motivate her team no matter how discouraging it can be at times.

“Nashua North softball ‘s goal is to be better than your last bestand Aaralyn does this continuously.”

Her goal going into the season was to not strike out, and she had less than 10 strikeouts during the Titans rebuilding season.

She’ll be joining a program that had some success under former North coach Mike Holloran until he did not return for last season when Rivier switched to full time coaches, and then went 15-18 but 8-8 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference under first year head coach Noelle Sass but lost 3-1 to New England College in postseason play-in game.

Lopez will be right at home at Riv, as she’s played on Raider Field a few times for the annual North-South game.

NEW COACHES IN MILFORD, SOUHEGAN

It was a busy spring and early summer for Milford athletic director Don Gutterson, some of which was of his own doing.

Gutterson has been the Spartans boys head basketball coach the last three years, but was in the dual role as athletic director as well for the last two seasons.

But Gutterson found that he’d have to make a move.

“The AD job and basketball got to be too much,” he admitted. “The AD job is the one that puts food on the table. Maybe I will get back to basketball when I retire, as I will definitely miss it.”

With that in mind, Gutterson set out to hire his boys basketball replacement, and just a couple of weeks ago came up with former Alvirne head coach Leo Gershgorin.

In some ways, it was a surprise hire as Gershgorin had resigned from Alvirne citing personal reasons with just a couple of weeks to go in the regular season. That was stunning in itself – the Broncos were a Division I tournament team and had made steady progress with him at the helm – and it was thought he might either take a year off or a lesser role somewhere as an assistant instead. That would give him a bit less pressure to recharge his batteries.

But he jumped right back into it, and hopes to guide the Spartans, who won only five games last winter, back to the postseason.

“Grateful to be part of the championship tradition and Milford community,” Gershgorin said in a social media post. “Let’s get to work.”

He’s the second straight former Alvirne boys hoop coach to leave the Broncos and take over a local Division II post. Marty Edwards left a successful run at Alvirne a few years ago and spent two years coaching at Hollis Brookline before the Cavs made a change a year ago. Edwards always said a big part of the job was trying to learn Division II, as he had been an assistant at Bishop Guertin for several years as well. But Gershgorin was the former coach at ConVal and while he may have to get updated on the current crop of players in the division, he certainly knows the better progams.

Besides hiring Gershgorin, Gutterson had to hire a new girls soccer coach as longtime Spartans head coach and his assistant, Betsy Hansen, both stepped down.

So stepping in as the new coach will beMilford decided on Scott Locasto. Locasto is a well-known figure in the state soccer community, has worked for the New Hampshire Soccer Association, and also has the post of the Merrimack Youth Association (MYA) soccer director on his resume as well.

Now, over to Souhegan, as the Sabers made a big move with girls basketball. They grabbed well-known, well-respected coach Greg Cotreau from Manchester Memorial as their new coach, replacing Michael Vetack.

Cotreau has had some good years in his eight at Memorial with a 103-71 record as the Crusaders were a perennial tourney team with two Final Four appearances and three quarterfinal seasons, and had also made the semis before Manchester’s city wide athletic decline took place. He worked extremely hard to promote his program, and with that in mind has always been very visible in New Hampshire girls basketball circles. He also has done a great job promoting his program on social media as well.

Of course, some of those good years were with a player Rivier University fans know all too well – Lyric Grumblatt, a Great Northeast Athletic Conference Player of the Year who is returning for one more season in a Raider uniform this coming year. Cotreau has also had other Crusaders move on to play at the collegiate level. One of his former point guards, Jess Carrier, is also at Riv.

“Memorial will always be a special place to me,” added Cotreau, who had a meet and greet with players, parents, and community the last week in June. “Lots of memories and lots of successes and some failures. I love the Memorial community and will be forever grateful (too many thank you’s to give) to them.”

At the same time, in taking the Souhegan job, Cotreau, who lives in the Amherst area, in his post added he is “so excited that I get to try to build some of the same magic and environment at home and to be at the same school my kids will eventually attend. … Can’t wait to get started.”

And he has, with a couple of open gyms already and there will also be summer and fall league work to do. But he’s certainly no stranger to that.

“He has a great track record with building numbers in programs at the high school level,” the Souhegan athletic department posted, “and is committed to helping each player get the most out of their athletic experience.”

Greg Croteau has left Manchester Memorial to take over the girls basketball program at Souhegan. (Courtesy photo)

Greg Cotreau has left Manchester Memorial to take over the girls basketball program at Souhegan. (Courtesy photo)

AN ERA ENDS FOR NASHUA SCHOOLS

While their business, Performance Rehab, Inc. will still be open, etc., owners Jerry and Michelle Holland have chosen after an incredible 35 years not to renew their contract to provide athletic training services to both Nashua High School North and South. They wished to reduce their workload, plain and simple.

“There are no words to express the gratitude all coaches, administration, students and families of the Nashua School District have for Jerry, Michele, their family and all staff (past and present),” Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras said in an email statement. “Their dedication and commitment to the students and coaches for the past 35 years is commendable. Though they will not be providing formal AT (athletic training) services for the district anymore, we know they will still be near and dear in many people’s hearts and lives, and we know we will still see them at events.”

Jerry Holland issued a statement that was also part of the announcement, calling the news “bittersweet.”

“It was an honor and a privilege to be associated with the Nashua community,” Holland said. “While I am confident this is the right decision, it was not an easy one.”

Holland thanked all the current and former student athletes, coaches, administrators, parents, etc. and gave a special thanks to the athletic director who hired him back in 1989, Al Harrington, as well as Gingras.

“The Nashua High school athletics community has been a constant in our life as our professional practice and our family grew over the years,” Holland said. “While ending such a momentous chapter can feel sad, we know the friendships we were fortunate enough to make over the years will remain.”

Gingras told the Nashua athletic community that she and school official will work to secure new athletic training services for the district before fall practices begin in August.

Holland, of course, is the father of former Nashua South QB and former Fordham/UCLA football player Sean Holland. There will be more on these pages on Holland and his memories in the coming weeks.

FALL PRACTICES

Speaking of those practices, they’ll begin for football around the area generally on August 16 and then for the other sports on August 19.

The first football games will be Friday-Saturday Sept. 6-7. The premier area game will be Nashua South vs. Bishop Guertin at 6 p.m. at Stellos Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 7.

Nashua North opens up against two-time defending champion Bedford at Stellos on Friday the 6th. Alvirne will be at Manchester Central for the second straight year, this time on that Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Gill Stadium. The area’s other Division I team, Merrimack, will be at Hingham (Mass.) on that Friday, no time set yet.

In Division II, Milt Robinson’s official return as the Hollis Brookline head coach will be that Friday at home vs. Kingswood at 7 p.m. Also on that Friday, Souhegan will be home vs. St. Thomas (7 p.m.)

On Saturday the 7th, Max Morelli makes his debut as the new head Milford coach at a 1 p.m. game at Plymouth. Campbell, meanwhile, will also open on Saturday vs. Laconia at home at 11 a.m.

Make your plans now.

NEW ATHLETICS COORDINATOR SOON AT NORTH

Nashua North athletics coordinator Dante Laurendi – the Titans former head football coach – is stepping down from the position and going back to a regular teaching load beginning in the fall. There’s been no official word as to his replacement but a couple of names have been in the rumor mill, mainly from outside the system – including former Merrimack athletic director Mike Soucy. Soucy was seen working the gate for the NHIAA baseball semifinals at Holman Stadium early last month – not that that means a whole lot. Stay tuned.

TOURNEY VENUES

There will be a little bit of a change in some soccer tourney venues. While Division I boys soccer semis/finals have either been at Stellos or Exeter’s Bill Ball Stadium in recent years, this year they’ll be at Manchester Memorial. Division II will be in Exeter, and Division III will be at Bedford High School’s Bulldog Stadium (last year they were at Bank of NH Stadium in Laconia; Memorial the year before). It’s the same for girls soccer , Memorial for Division I, Exeter for Division II and Bedford for Division III. Laconia has both Division IV finals.

Division I, as of now, will be a boys-girls final doubleheader at Memorial, 1 p.m. (girls), 5 p.m. (boys) on Nov. 9. Division II has a Friday Nov. 8 girls-boys twinbill at Bill Ball, 5 and 7:15.

Bedford remains the field hockey tripleheader site on Saturday, Nov. 2; Pinkerton the same for girls volleyball during the day of Saturday, Nov. 9. Manchester’s Derryfield Park this year will also be the site of the New England Cross Country championships, also on Nov. 9.

There is one thing that stands out as one goes through the tourney schedules: No Sunday games in any rounds. That is a complete change from years past.

The complete fall tourney slate is at nhiaa.org.