Johnson & Wales University women's soccer coach Chris Flint, a Bishop Guertin alum, checks out some of the local high school talent at Stellos Stadium. Flint's team will be at Rivier in a GNAC contest next weekend. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – He was standing along the fence at Stellos Stadium at a high school girls soccer team recently, blending in with the spectators here and there, or moving down the line to an area all to himself to make a call or check a text.

But still, it’s hard not to notice Chris Flint, the former Bishop Guertin standout in baseball and soccer from the late 1980s who has been a career college coach, mainly women’s soccer, since the mid to late 1990s, spanning some 26 years.

The current Johnson&Wales University (Providence, R.I.) women’s soccer coach was visiting his mother, who still lives in Brookline, and figured why not stop in at Stellos and check out the local talent?

“This place is great,” Flint said, remembering the difference when he used to play games at BG’s Elliott Field or in the mud at Holman Stadium. Flint will be back in the area again next Saturday when his J&W squad takes on Rivier at the refurbished Joanne Merrill Field, part of the school’s new Linda Robinson Pavilion.

It’s just another game in a lifelong journey. Flint was at Bryant University for 15 seasons, and coached soccer and softball at MCLA in the late 1990s, (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts,formerly North Adams State), a good starter job.

A career coach.

“It’s been a while,” said Flint, who has never been an assistant coach at any college job.

This will be his sixth season for JW, but it would have been his seventh were it not for COVID. His team won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in 2019, part of a rise in Johnson& Wales becoming a conference power in multiple sports.

How did all that happen?

“The administration just wanted to put an emphasis on having a quality program,” Flint said, noting an improvement in facilities, etc., including a turf field. “We were driving off campus to play on a bad grass field for all those (rectangular) sports. On-campus baseball field, on-campus softball. That’s a game-changer when you can actually show them the facility that’s right there for them and they can use it.

“And I think athletics is such a huge part of every institution as an admission tool. If (administrators) embrace it, then it goes to the next level.”

Flint has been at various levels in his career, all with success. He’s come, as he said, “full cycle”, from a small school, to Division II Bryant which then was elevated to Divison I, and now he’s at the Division III level. He led Bryant to three NCAA Tournament appearances (2001, 2006, 2007) and was twice named Northeast 10 Conference and NSCAA Region Coach of the Year (2001 & 2007). During the 2007 season, the Bulldogs won a school-record 17 matches.

“I was there when we went D-I, I was taking teams to Colorado, all over creation and flying, gone for four days at a time to play two games, the whole routine,” he said. “I think coaching is coaching, and it’s a matter of just being in a situation where you feel like you can have success, no matter what division.”

He also now has over 200 wins at J&W, and has no sense of slowing down. Flint cited Colby-Sawyer men’s soccer coach Bob Riasso, won of the winningest coaches in NCAA history from his success at Division I Rutgers University.

“He loves it,” Flint said. “He retired to New Hampshire and now he’s back in the game. … We have some experienced coaches at our school, and I think you gain perspective over time as well.”

The reward? Certainly the progress of a young student athlete, but also the chance to take them to the level of the NCAA tournament.

“It’s great, it’s what you try to get to,” Flint said.

He’s still seeking that first career NCAA tourney win. In 2007 at Bryant, his team got a first round bye but lost to Franklin Pierce in the second round of the Division II tourney.

And it’s even tougher to do now that he’s at J&W in Division III.

“The GNAC isn’t going to get the best draw,” Flint said. “In 2019 we had to play MIT, who was in the top 10 in the country.”

Yet Flint’s teams can play with those squads, as the Wildcats just lost to MIT recently in a regular season contest.

“We were pretty happy with that,” Flint said.

Like most coaches around the region, Flint said, he was thrilled to get back to regular action after a year off from COVID. But there was another impact.

“It’s interesting the dynamics of the rosters,” he said. “We had kids who held over, who wanted to play their final year. I have 18 players on my roster that I call first-year players because my sophomores are in that class. So some schools didn’t do as well with retention, because they didn’t have that huge class. Some schools did well with retention, so their rosters are bloated.

“It’s going to be an interesting year; it will take awhile to play itself out. And there’s still games being cancelled because of COVID protocols.”

Flint of course played soccer at BG back in the late 1980s and in his 26 years coaching has noticed the vast change:

“Everybody’s better,” he said. “There’s just so much more opportunity. I look at this field (Stellos) compared to 20 years ago. These kids who really love the game have as much opportunity to play as much as they possibly can. Because of that fact everybody’s gotten better.

“I think back 26 years ago to my team at the Division III level (at Colby) that doesn’t compare, really.”

Plus, there are more opportunities for players at the Division III level.

“There’s 80 Division III schools right now that are playing women’s soccer,” Flint said. “I’m not sure if that encaptures everyone, but think about all those opportunities across all the sports, it’s pretty awesome.”

So seeing new times, Flint as a coach changes with the times. He portrays a calm demeanor, but don’t let that fool you.

“Still pretty intense,” he said when asked how he’s evolved as a coach. “Just more knowledgeable about how to do things, and what we’re going to be able to accomplish, different from unreasonable expectations early on. I was like, ‘Why can’t we be this?’

“The game has changed in terms of the skill and techniques so we’re doing different things. As a coach you have to evolve. I love it.”

He sees a big coaching turnover with young coaches being hired in the GNAC. Flint, now a veteran coach, hasn’t coached yet against any of his former players but has coached against former players who were on opposing teams. “Twenty-something years ago,” Flint said with a grin. “It’s nuts.”

Flint some may remember was a playing disciple of legendary baseball coach Bill Dod at Bishop Guertin. He was back in Amherst last spring at a youth game at Souhegan High School and saw some high school players in the crowd wearing the cap with Dod’s number on it.

“I saw the ‘4’ on the hat which was awesome to think about,” Flint said, “some 33 years out. It’s 33 years since I was in high school, and then you see ‘4’ on a hat at a game I was at. And Souhegan didn’t even exist (when he was playing at BG). Half the friends I have in Amherst would’ve gone to Souhegan instead of Guertin back then.”

Remember, Flint was a pretty good power hitting first baseman at Guertin in the late 1980s, and does miss the game but has relived it through his two sons, one who played and another who is playing in college. And their old school teams a Bishop Hendricken played BG. “That was good stuff,” he said with a grin.

Flint’s looking forward to seeing Rivier’s new Linda Robinson Pavilion when he brings the Wildcats there next Saturday.

“It was under construction when we were last there,” he said. “Partially completed.”

He’s got a team this year that went 4-3-1 in its first eight games overall but started out 2-0-1 in the GNAC as of midweek with only one senior in the starting lineup, returning GNAC Offensive Player of Year (2019) Olivia Ciarrao.

“We’re youthful with 18 out of our 28 being only freshmen and sophomores, so we have the potential of being pretty good if we can stay healthy,” Flint said. “As long as we don’t have any major injuries … It’s an ebb and flow. You lose two kids, you get two kids back. It just depends on which kids at what time.”

He likes the strength of the GNAC, a conference which Rivier helped start way back in the early 1990s.

“We’ve got 14 teams in women’s soccer, it’s almost like a super conference,” Flint said. “It’s crazy.”

Flint has also dabbled in athletic administration, as he was an assistant athletic director at one point at Bryant, but when the school elevated to Division I that role was understandably taken away “because that wasn’t the D-I model,” he said. “So I’ve one that.”

He was also a sports information director at MCLA. “I’ve done almost everything except being a common athletic director.”

Which he’s not looking to do anytime soon.

“I prefer going to the field every day,” he said. “That’s my release, to get out there and have that. It’s such a confined season, so you just cherish the 13 weeks you get. COVID (losing a season to it) was brutal.”

Flint never thought he’d be a career coach.

“It wasn’t on the horizon,” he said. “Obviously things happen for a reason, it’s been great. College athletics are awesome. It’s been a great ride.”