Tom King

Good coaches come, and when that happens, it’s great. You can sense a change, a newfound feeling of enthusiasm with whatever team they take over, be it high school or beyond.

Good coaches also go. When that happens, there’s often a sense of loss, a sense of fearing change.

They are probably feeling that in Nashua High School North football circles right now, because make no mistake about it, Dante Laurendi is a good coach.

He’s just not the Titans’ good coach any more, which is certainly a shame.

Laurendi had put Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras on alert a couple of years ago when he snagged the North athletics coordinator position that at some point he’d give up the football job. That point came last week when he officially resigned.

It’s too bad. Laurendi is a born coach, and son of a very successful coach. He’s New York tough, knows all the tricks kids try to pull, and there’s no doubt who is in charge when he’s around.

But he also made things fun, for his players and his coaching staff. His assistants all got along, a great group, always a riot to be around. He delegated and everything fit like a glove.

Yet coaching takes its toll. Laurendi admitted he just didn’t have the energy and enthusiasm to do all the things away from the sidelines that a coach has to do to make a program successful. To be successful, you’re either all in, or you better get all out. Laurendi realized it was time for the latter. Every coach comes to that point with a program, and that’s the point Laurendi after seven seasons had finally reached. It’s the same point his predecessor Jason Robie reached before him. Robie had done it for 11 years but he had a young family so it was time for that phase of his life.

It’s too bad, but good coaches eventually will someday coach again because it’s not only what they do, it’s who they are. North is blessed with many of them, and Gingras will likely tell you one of the hardest parts of that administrative job is to replace good coaches with good coaches.

Laurendi leaves the program – remember, he’s not leaving the school – with five playoff appearances and a championship in seven years. Any high school head coach in any sport will take that, especially in the ultra-competitive football world. He coached arguably the best player in program history thus far in Curtis Harris Lopez.

When a football season ends, yours truly’s wheels start turning, who is going to stay, who is going to go? We had Laurendi in the former, not the latter. Not yet.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for North football, as another era will begin. But one thing is definitely for certain, the last two eras were pretty darn good. Lot of memorable moments.

But, coaching these days also has its moments, it’s tough moments, it’s frantic moments, it’s time-encompassing moments.

So the good ones come, and eventually, yes, they go. One just went a week ago.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.