Hollis Brookline's Alyssa Hill, shown during last year's title game vs. Portsmouth, will be back with the Cavs this spring but with a new coach, Linda Haytayan. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

HOLLIS — She was once the proud parent of Nashua High School girls lacrosse.

And while being the first coach of the Panthers lacrosse program back in the late 1990s, Linda Haytayan – then known as Linda Nelson – won two state championships and had teams in three other finals when the sport in New Hampshire was, for high school girls, in its infancy.

And now? Haytayan is preparing for her first season since 2003 as a head high school varsity coach. She assisted behind the scenes at Nashua South a few years later, and the former UMass player has coached the Hollis Middle School program to a championship as well. Last spring Haytayan was an assistant at Souhegan.

This time, Haytayan doesn’t have to start from scratch as former Cavs coach Jim Maxwell, who moved away from the area, has left Haytayan with a solid program that has been a contender the past few years. HB also made the Division II finals in 2018.

“A very good program, very well-established,” she said. “Not having to invent things from the grass roots up, like we did in Nashua.”

Back then, everyone around the state was pretty much doing the same thing. And now she takes over a team that lost in a hotly contested 8-7 Division II state title game to Portsmouth last June. Two of this years players, Abigail Ogren (Fla. Tech) and Alyssa Hill (Saint Anselm) are already committed to play in college.

“I am excited,” she said back when she took the job in August. “Excited to have a new broadened brand, leveling up expectations.”

Haytayan back then was speaking about getting players for off-season strength and conditioning, etc., indoor play, etc.

“I told the kids I’m going to treat them like it’s a Division I program, because that’s what I’m used to,” she said. “That’s what they can do.”

Indeed, she said this past week that the key to HB’s success will be, among other things, “staying healthy physically.”

That came into play most recently when key defender and senior captain Morgan Broadhurst tore her ACL one week before practices started, a tough loss.

COACH TO BE OFFICIAL TONIGHT?

The Nashua North football job will be vacant no longer after tonight, if things go according to plan.

The Nashua Board of Education is expected to vote on the nomination of the candidate referred to it by the Nashua Athletic Department.

Again, the favorite for the position going into the hiring process was Titans offensive coordinator Chad Zibolis and, according to several onlookers, and that hasn’t changed. We’ll see.

COLD WEATHER ARRIVES

If you’re expecting to take in a high school scrimmage early this week, check with the school because a few have been moved due to the winter temperatures with bitter wind chills expected today and tomorrow.

This is the final week without no official high school events as tennis and track begins next week with a light schedule, and then all the remaining spring sports join them to start their seasons the week of April 11.