Hufft, new Pelham AD, is patrolling football sidelines again

Only two months into his new role as athletic director at Pelham High School and Justin Hufft was forced into handling one of his biggest challenges in six years as an AD.

Pelham thought it already had its football coach in place for the foreseeable future. John Trisciani was hired by Pelham in June, a month before Hufft even slid into his job. Following the retirement of six-time state champion coach Tom Babaian, the 63-year-old Trisciani was brought in by longtime AD Todd Kress.

On July 1, Kress passed the AD baton to Hufft with most of the fall schedule in place and a new football coach secured for a program that was coming off its fourth-straight title - second in Division II - and looking to extend one of the nations longest gridiron winning streaks.

That all changed on Sept. 5, when Trisciani resigned, effective immediately.

“This was definitely not something I saw coming,” said Hufft, who was an assistant coach along with Trisciani during a stint at Saint Anselm College. “It’s put a lot of strain on a lot of people.”

The resignation left the Pythons football program in limbo just two days prior to the season opener against Bow. Ready to make another title defense and set to expand on its 41-game winning streak, the perennial power just lost its second head coach in a seven-month span.

Enter Hufft.

“It was just a lot happening in a short period of time,” Hufft said. “We just figured that in the short term, with the game coming up the next day, that the best way to keep things intact was to keep all the assistants there and just have me take over as the acting head coach.”

Acting may be the title Hufft has given himself, but there’s certainly nothing fake about his credentials on the sideline.

Prior to taking over as Goffstown AD for the last six years, Hufft was built a strong Grizzlies football program, compiling a record of 64-29 and hoisting a Division I title (2015) as head coach from 2011-19.

Even with his strong background as a football coach and the support of Pelham’s fellow administrators, there was still one more step to take before the 47-year-old officially returned to the sidelines. Hufft needed to discuss the situation with his wife, Lisa, and son, 10-year-old Nicholas.

“I shot her a text during the day as it was breaking and just kind of said we’ll discuss it that night,” Hufft said. “Dawn Mead, the principal at Pelham, insisted that I talk to my family first. Got home that night and made sure they were on board. She’s always been supportive. She knows it’s something I’ve done before and have some familiarity with. So we figured we could make it work.”

It’s not just coaching hours that need to be accounted for as was the case the last time Hufft patrolled the sideline for Goffstown back in 2019. He still has his administrative duties on top of that. All of this can cut deeply into family time. Hufft knows this, and the trio are working together to handle the time commitment due to this additional work load.

“There’s a lot of hours in the AD job. There’s a lot of hours in the coaching job,” Hufft said. “It does take me away a little more on the weekends than we were expecting, but I have a very supportive wife and a great son that have my back and we’re making it work. We’re making the most of it. My son helps me out at games and I pick him up from his football practices during the week. We make it a family thing and make it fun.”

The first two weeks of the high school football season have certainly been fun. Under Hufft, Pelham is now 2-0.

The Pythons opened up with a 34-13 win at Bow on Sept. 7, and followed that up with a 23-12 win over John Stark in their home opener on Sept. 13.

Oh yeah, and that extends Pelham football’s winning streak to 43 games.

“The streak itself has not been a focus,” Hufft said. “It’s just different. It’s a different group of kids. Things are on a different track right now. So we’re just trying to give these kids the best possible experience they could have as football players.”

Coach speak aside, Hufft understands that his players are proud of the winning streak. His job as coach is to prepare his team for that week’s opponent and celebrate the wins as they come - not to fall back on past success or get ahead of themselves.

“They have had a lot of success here,” Hufft said. “They’ve won a lot of games. They take a lot of pride in that, and understandably so, but right now we’re just trying to write the next chapter. It’s a new story. It’s a new team this year and we’re really just taking it one game at a time. We haven’t had the ability to do any more than that.

“So yeah, it’s kind of kept the focus really short term. It’s almost been forced on us to operate this way. Let’s just do a good job in preparation for today and see what tomorrow brings.”

For the undefeated Pythons, today is all about their road trip to Hanover (1-1) for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday with Hufft still running the show.

For continuity sake, Hufft will remain head coach for the rest of this season.

“At this point the plan is to continue forward with what we’re doing,” Hufft said. “So I’ll be acting head coach with the assistants keeping the positions they all had. Then, after the season is complete, we’ll open the search up.”

Is Hufft, having scratched that coaching itch again, considering himself to fill the head coaching role further than just this season?

“Honestly, we are not looking that far ahead,” Hufft said. “So no idea what it brings. My first focus is giving these kids the best experience, but I am the athletic director. That is my primary job. So I’m trying to do a great job with that this year in a new school. Moving forward, I want to be the best athletic director I can be. That will be the first goal, and then we’ll kind of see what makes the most sense around that.”

Hufft off and running in dual roles

Being athletic director and head football coach is not exactly what Hufft was expecting as the first fall in his new job began.

He’s somehow making it all work.

“It’s been busy. It’s a blur,” Hufft said. “It’s just a blur. It’s that way for every coach. You put a lot of time into it. I try to get in there and do my AD stuff - manage the day and make sure everything is taken care of - and then get to practice  with the kids and try to get them ready.”

Hufft took the AD reins from Kress in July.

Kress, now an assistant principal at Pelham Middle School, served as Pelham’s athletic director from 2010-24 following an outstanding run as the Pythons boys basketball coach from 1998-2010 that included three trips to the Class I title game and one championship in 2006.

Hufft knows he has big shoes to fill in this administrative position, especially now that he’s coaching football again. Getting things off to a good start has been a team effort.

“The administration at Pelham has been outstanding,” Hufft said. “It’s been a group effort. With me sliding into that last-second coaching vacancy I needed more support with the AD role, especially being my first year here. So really you’re talking about the principal and assistant principals all stepping up and kind of making this a group effort so that we can give the kids - and really this is all about the kids - the best experience they can have.”

This added support has leaked over to the football field as well.

“I credit what we’ve done over the first two weeks to having a lot of great people around me,” Hufft said. “The administration, the principals have been fantastic, and the assistant coaches have done a lot of heavy lifting on their part to make sure the kids have what they need. And we’ve been leaning on the captains quite a bit too. The kids have really stepped up so I’ve been really impressed with that.”

Trisciani resigns twice in six-month period

Trisciani has a substantial football coaching resume. The 45-year coaching veteran has filled various roles at the high school level at Manchester Memorial, Bishop Guertin and Manchester Central. He also has college experience as an assistant on the same Saint Anselm College staff as Hufft for the 2010-11 seasons.

Hired just three-plus months ago, what led to Trisciani’s resigning within 48 hours of Pelham’s season-opening kickoff?

Hufft stressed school policy does not allow him to talk about Trisciani’s decision to step down as head coach.

“I cannot comment on personnel matters,” Hufft said.

It’s not even his first resignation this year. Trisciani was previously named head coach at Hollis Brookline High School, accepting that job in February. He’d abandon that post to take the Pelham opening just five months later when Babaian hung up his whistle.

With Trisciani gone and Hufft thrust in to fill that void, the latter wasn’t sure how the players would react. It’s been all positivity.

“I met with the team, and they were ready to play,” Hufft said of that first practice with his team. “These kids have a positive attitude and they are resilient. I think that shows on the field in practice and definitely at gametime.”