New Alvirne AD Justin Hufft will also be the school's new head football coach this fall. (File photo)

HUDSON – When the Alvirne High School football head coaching applications were coming in, school principal Steve Beals would forward them to the new athletic director who is starting in July, Justin Hufft.

But after a few of those forwardings, Beals then called Hufft to see what type of process the school should use with the candidates at hand. Hufft took that moment to say something to the effect of “You know, if you think we can work out the details, I’d really like the opportunity to be the new head football coach.”

And, a few weeks later that is exactly what has happened, as Hufft was approved by the Hudson school board on Monday night as the Broncos new head man, in addition to his upcoming athletic director duties. Beals basically interviewed Hufft, then talked it over with Hudson Superintendent of Schools Daniel Moulis, and the two were aligned about 10 days ago that they had their man – again. Thus Hufft’s name was forwarded to the board over a week ago.

The dual role certainly isn’t something Hufft shies away from. He had to take over Pelham a day or two before the start of the season this past fall when new Pythons head coach John Trisciani abruptly resigned. And Hufft did it for two years at Goffstown after becoming the AD there.

But after those two years, Hufft wanted to spend more time with his family and also had a health issue, so he figured it would be better to step away from football and focus on being AD only.

But this past fall at Pelham, where he took the Pythons to the Division II finals vs. Souhegan, rekindled what has always been his passion – coaching football.

“Yes,” Hufft said Monday night. “It certainly wasn’t something I was expecting, but it really was an enjoyable experience. Interacting with the kids again, and the other coaches, was very rewarding. It always had been, but I guess I had lost touch with it. Doing it again was re-invigorating.”

Hufft spent seven years as just the Goffstown head coach, then two more years in the dual role, before four years as solely the AD. He’d reconnect with football as a CHaD East-West All-Star Game assistant in late June for a couple of weeks, but that was it.

Hufft would have been the leading candidate for any football opening. He was an assistant at Saint Anselm before a 10-year assistant stint at Souhegan, his alma mater. He then took the Goffstown head job, and built the Grizzlies to contender status which culminated in a Division I title in 2015, beating Exeter 42-14.

“The initial conversation I had with Justin was surrounding the athletic director position,” Beals said. “And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we had a football opening as well.

“So while I tried to very professionally keep separations between the two, I’m not naïve enough to say I didn’t talk about football through that process.”

And that was about what was it like, Beals said, going to a new school (Pelham) and right before the first game becoming the new football coach. And what was that experience like doing it at a new school, because his Goffstown experience was different than that.”

The key obviously is administrative support for the department, as in the fall Hufft will need help with daily game coverage, etc. while he’s at practice. But as Beals said, administrators, including him, are very often at games, as well as coaches of sports in other seasons. For example, boys basketball coach Mitchell Roy was often a game director during the fall.

The last time the area had an AD/Football coach was at Bishop Guertin when Tony Johnson had both roles. However, he gave up football after a few years of doing both. Milford athletic director Don Gutterson was both the AD and boys basketball coach the last couple of years, but opted after the 2023-24 season to give up basketball to focus solely on being AD. And former Campbell AD Josh Knight coached boys lacrosse in the spring and won a Division III title before leaving the school altogether to be new AD at Dover beginning this past fall.

Hufft expects to have strong support at both ends – both with the Broncos athletic program but also with the football team in case he’s needed elsewhere.

“I’ll have a strong staff at Alvirne in terms of the game management with the people in the building, but also football coaching wise,” he said. “I expect to have a staff that’s going to have some former head coaches on it, and will really be able to do a lot of stuff there.

“I’m very confident I’ll be able to be in both worlds. All athletics are important and my first job is going to be as athletic director. That’s really the thing. In my first year, I take that seriously and want to get off on the right foot with all fall sports. I’m committed to doing that.”

Hufft watched Alvirne from afar and saw the job Matt Lee, who left to take the head job at Windham, did in his two years, leading the Broncos to the playoffs in both seasons.

“I think ideally, that would be the goal,” Hufft said. “I was super impressed with what Matt did there. Their first game vs. Central a couple of years ago, I watched it. He really kind of got that program (going), I really admired what he did there.

“They lost a lot in that senior class, and the program, the goal is always to get them to their ceiling. Whatever that is for this team, we will see.”

Hufft, who officially takes over as AD at Alvirne on July 1, will be introduced as the new Broncos football coach at a meet and greet Thursday night hosted by the Alvirne Touchdown Club (the program’s boosters). And a new era begins.

“I’m excited about it,” he said.