BG’s Cote savors first championship

Thursday, November 24, 2011

NASHUA – Before they accepted their championship trophy on Saturday at Stellos Stadium, Bishop Guertin head football coach Travis Cote gathered his players for a brief, emotional chat on the Motta Field turf.

Indeed, he was literally fighting back tears, and not too successfully.

After all, he had just captured his first championship as a coach, his Cards topping Dover 16-7 and he had every right to be, well, choked up.

“I can’t help but get emotional,” Cote told his players. “You brought it home to me, my first one.”

Later on, Cote, who graduated from Milford in 1991, reflected on that moment.

“People told me it never gets old,” he said. “And you never know how it feels. You don’t until it happens.”

It was extra special for Cote because he had his son, Trice, on the sideline as the water boy for the first time.

“He came to practice this week and he was real excited,” he said. “He wanted to meet the kids, and said ‘I want to do the water for you today.’ My kids (Saturday) morning, we got up and had breakfast, they were wishing me luck, gave me a kiss good-bye. When I saw them come onto the field, I gave them a hug.

“It’s hard to win a state championship. I gave them a hug, and that really kind of got me emotional, that’s what started it. I just couldn’t thank (his players) enough for bringing the state championship to me.”

Now Cote has his place in the Guertin books after one season, and the process begins for him to become even more entrenched and monitor his team in the off-season, with their weight room work, other sports, etc.

He teaches at Manchester West – where he spent six seasons as the head coach – but said he’ll be very visible at Guertin during the rest of the school year.

“I get a full year with these guys now,” Cote said. “It’s going to be tremendous to be able to get in the weight room with the kids, see them develop in the off-season, work with them, and really get our program put in place, and what we believe in, and the stuff we believe we need to do in the off-season. I’ll be making the trip down the highway, and I’ve got other coaches, so we’ll rotate in. But I’ll definitely be there, involved with the kids.”

There’s been no final determination as to where Guertin, or their former arch rival, Exeter, will end up next year. Ironically, they now can both claim championships after the Blue Hawks upset Pinkerton in Divison I. Early plans had Guertin and Exeter flip-flopping, but that may change.

“I haven’t gotten any final word, so I don’t know what’s going to happen with that,” Cote said. “Whatever happens, happens, and we’ll be up for the challenge no matter what happens, whether we stay here or do go up. It was good to get that last one here if we do move up and then the quest will be on to take the next step.”

Cote felt his backfield depth was a factor in this step. As the game went on, he could rest Blake Boudreau and save him for defense and insert Paul Lipari instead. Boudreau was a monster on the defensive end while Lipari scored the go-ahead touchdown during a series dominated by his hard runs.

“Having the ability to go to different kids in the backfield just gives you those options,” he said, “and keeps you fresh.”

He’ll say good-bye to some of those options. Lipari is a senior, as was sometimes back but mainly linebacker Nolan Cornell, and so is Zach Mailloux, who made the last run of his high school career his most memorable – a 64-yard, game-clinching jaunt off an option pitch.

“I took the ball and ran as fast as I could,” Mailloux said. “I knew if I got in the end zone the game would be over and we’d be champions. Best feeling in the world.”

An emotional Cote would definitely agree.

Next year

Pinkerton Academy in Division I wasn’t quite as dominant as Bishop Guertin in Division II over the last eight years, but the Astros were close.

Saturday’s title game was their seventh in eight years, including four titles.

What lies ahead for the Astros, in a potentially beefed up division that could include both Bishop Guertin and Exeter next year?

“We’re a senior team,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “We’ll be in the rebuilding stages next year, but, I’m not crying in poverty.

“We have a good program. Our freshmen team has gone unbeaten for six years.”

With 1,000-yard rushers Emmitt Smith and Kevin Davies gone, count on bigger roles next fall for sophomore running back Manny Latimore and junior quarterback Chris St. Onge.

Long time coming

A reporter asked Portsmouth head coach Bill Murphy if Saturday’s 41-6 win over Bedford was his first championship. Murphy gave a little laugh before answering that it was his first as a head coach.

Hard to believe for the long-time leader of the Clippers, but the Division III title is Portsmouth’s first in 30 years. The Clippers last won in 1981, beating Salem in the Division I final, and lost in the title game in 1984. Since dropping down to Division III in 2006, Portsmouth has been to the final five times, including the last four.

“They’ve gone through disappointment a number of times and they’ve worked hard for this,” Murphy said. “This is something that we’ve really wanted and we’ve come that close. I think the kids really wanted it.

“My assistant coaches did a tremendous job preparing them for Bedford and they executed. The ball got rolling and when the ball got rolling, everybody fed off each other. I think we had something to prove.”

Staff writers Gary Fitz and Joe Marchilena contributed to this story.