Hollis Brookline has named former Westford (Mass.) Academy head coach Gary Gendron is its new head football coach. (X photo)

HOLLIS – Hollis Brookline has its third head football coach in just about a year’s time as the Cavaliers have hired former Westford Academy coach Patrick Gendron to lead their program.

Gendron coached Westford for a handful of seasons beginning in 2018 and stepped away for family reasons. When he was ready to return to coaching, Westford had someone already in place so Gendron, who teaches at WA and has been there since 2009, became the defensive coordinator at North Middlesex in Townsend, Mass.

He replaces Milt Robinson, the program’s founder who returned to fill in as an interim coach this past season after the coach HB hired last February, John Trisciani, resigned just three months later in May.

“We’re super excited,” HB athletic director Brian Bumpus said. “He brings a ton of energy, really positive. Some different ways of thinking. Definitely brings us away from the old school mindset.”

Gendron is set to meet with the players on Thursday. The job was on his radar as he lives just down the road in Pepperell, Mass., and right near the Hollis line.

It’s a fresh start for the Cavaliers, who won the state title in 2019 and have fallen on hard times since. They were competitive in the fall of 2020, but have struggled with their roster numbers and that in turn led to a struggle for wins – they went 0-9 in 2024. Living so close to Hollis, Gendron had watched what was going on “and when the job opened up, I jumped at it.”

“They won a state championship in 2019, and kind of had some rough years since COVID,” Gendron, who was part of a successful rebuild at North Middlesex, said. “Just talking to people as I’ve gathered more information and figure out what’s happened the past couple of years and how we can revive it back to that championship culture.”

Bumpus feels Gendron will be a presence in the local football community.

“I think he can do that,” he said. “That energy, and I think it’s going to be really good for our kids. I think they need this.”

A member of last year’s staff will be a presence for the football program in the building, and there’s a plan to improve the relationship with the youth program, which may provide an assistant coach.

“I think that will be another important piece to the puzzle,” Bumpus said. “That will give some sense of continuity for the incoming freshmen. We’ve got a big incoming freshmen class.”

“From what I’ve seen and heard, they’ve done a good job of reviving that youth program since COVID, and the numbers are pretty good,” Gendron said. “We have a good size freshmen class coming in.”

Bumpus has been told there may be upwards of 25 freshmen coming out, and the Cavs only lost five seniors.

“Numbers won’t be an issue,” he said. “It will be getting through the next year or two, and staying positive, celebrating the small victories to keep these kids engaged and excited about playing football. I think we’re about two years away from actually being competitive in games.”

Gendron is prepared for that.

“In the interview, a question that came up was ‘What would you consider a successful year?'” Gendron said. “Everybody wants to talk wins and losses, things like that. But honestly, if we can get happy, healthy kids who love football, we can generate more numbers than we started with, and have all those kinds come back and create a little buzz that things are trending in the right direction, if it’s a great experience and the kids make football the best part of their day, consider that a success and the wins will come.”

The candidate pool included one other current head coach, one staffer, a youth coach, and an assistant from another school. Bumpus, meanwhile, was grateful for Robinson and what he did to keep the program going in his brief return.

“Milt was pretty excited and if things went well, I think maybe we could have squeezed another year out of him,” Bumpus said.

But now, a new era begins for Cavalier football.