D2 championships caps fast rise for Hollis Brookline field hockey

BEDFORD - When Greg Cochrane was hired to coach the Hollis Brookline High School field hockey team before the start of the 2022, he had no idea it would take just three years for Cavaliers to reach the top of Division II.

But after that first season, when the team reached the semifinals for the first time in a long time, the first-time head coach could see there were building blocks. They just needed to be put in the right places to secure the foundation.

With everyone aligned in their third season together, HB completed its quick ascension Saturday, beating John Stark 2-0 in the D2 title game to win the program's first championship.

"Did I know we were going to win a championship three years ago?" Cochrane said after the win. "No, but I knew I had a special group that was united and in it."

After HB bowed out in the quarterfinals a year ago, he and his players had high hopes for this season.

"Knowing that we had basically our whole team coming back from last year ... I just knew we had something there," Cochrane said. "The commitment level that we had from the girls from the summer on, I could tell there was something special here."

The year before Cochrane's arrival, the Cavs won six games and lost at Kennett, in a shootout in the preliminary round. But it was just a few years before that, from 2018-19, that HB won a combined one game in those two seasons.

The group of seniors this year, led by captains Nyah Jernberg, Addison Marchant and Sabrina Hill, were too singularly focused to allow any thoughts about previous seasons creep into their heads.

HB outscored its opponents 69-5 this season, and trailed in just one game, its 1-0 loss to Bow on Sept. 20, which was the only setback for the Cavs.

"Ever since he’s been our coach, we knew it was going to be different," Jernberg said. "He’s always rooting for us, on the field, off the field. I think this is all credit to him. He’s the key to our success. We’re so lucky to have him."

Emily Tebbetts, another senior who scored what proved to be the game-winning goal against the Generals, echoed those sentiments.

"(Cochrane) cares so much about us and we have such a good connection with him," she said. "He cares so much about this team, he cares about field hockey, and he puts every single last effort into this. This is because of him. He really brought us together and we’re so thankful."

While the players bought into his philosophies and way of running things, Cochrane disagrees with them on who really deserves credit for the success.

"I believe in what I believe in, hard work, accountability, standards," Cochrane said. "It has given me some success in life, and I agree with it in sports, it’s just my philosophy. Knowing we could create a winning culture, a winning attitude, that was the game plan. The fact that it clicked, and it clicked in three years, is a blessing.

"To know we did it in this short amount of time, I can’t take credit for it. I feel like I just opened the door and showed them the way. They definitely kicked that door in and ran with it."