There is something to be said for longevity. Sometimes you can stay too long and wear out your welcome, and other times you can establish a lasting legacy.

We all know of coaches who were allowed to stay a year or two too long. We also have seen coaches who have become the face of a program through the excellence they have established during a long tenure. You need to look no farther than the sustained success in men’s basketball established by Stan Spirou at Southern New Hampshire University (28 years, 522 wins) and Keith Dickson at St. Anselm (27 years, 488 wins).

Longevity, in most cases, is based on success. Too many losing seasons will usually have a college coach looking for a new job. Colleges should feel fortunate to have one of two coaches who build a program, establish a winning environment and then stick around to be the caretaker.

Then there is Keene State.

As we head into a new academic year, the Owls have six coaches who have been there for 23 or more years.

Rob Colbert has been the men’s basketball coach for 14 years and Mark Theriault has been the men’s lacrosse coach for the same amount of time and they’re still like the new kids on the block.

Peter Thomas is in his 29th year as the cross country coach, Charlie Beach has been the softball coach for 28 years and Ken Howe heads into his 27th year as baseball coach. Keith Boucher enters his 24th season as women’s basketball coach, Amy Watson has been the field hockey coach for 23 years and Denise Lyons is in the midst of her 21st season as the women’s soccer coach.

And none of them are the senior member of the staff. Not even close.

That honor belongs to men’s soccer coach Ron Butcher, who started his 42nd year this fall.

If your looking for a time capsule perspective of that, the average cost of a house was less than $5,000, the Beatles just broke up and M*A*S*H the movie was released when Butcher became the head coach of the Owls in 1970.

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SPEAKING OF LONGEVITY: Rob Thompson is entering his 20th season with the University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team.

Thompson spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Wildcats before becoming head coach in 1995. Since then, he has become the program’s all-time winningest coach with 134 going into Wednesday’s game against Adelphi. The Cats have made to the America East conference tournament in eight of the past 10 years.

Not to be lost in the wins and losses is the fact that the program has received the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award for the past four years.

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SHIFTING LANDSCAPE: With Georgia State and Old Dominion passing through the Colonial Athletic Association and Rhode Island leaving for the Northeast Conference, the future of the CAA was not very bright.

UNH athletics director Marty Scarano said his school would have to look long and hard remaining in the CAA if it became too top heavy with teams from the south. Quite simply, the cost of travel may have become prohibitive.

That all changed when URI decided to stay and a pair of teams in New York, Stony Brook and Albany, joined the conference. Both teams will begin play in the CAA next year.

The unfriendly travel schedule that could have become standard if those events didn’t unfold is evident this season. Three of UNH’s first six games are road games requiring air transportation: Minnesota, Old Dominion and Georgia State.

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THE BEYOND THE BORDERS SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON: Beau Breton of Bedford (Manchester West). There may only be one player from New Hampshire on the Bowdoin College football team, but he has certainly made his mark on the program. Breton, a senior who plays defensive back and is also the team’s punter, led the Polar Bears into Saturday’s season opener at Middlebury as one of the team’s three captains, an honor voted on by the team’s players. Breton moved into the starting lineup last year and established himself as a solid tackler for a team that went 4-4 and retained the C-B-B (Colby-Bates-Bowdoin) Trophy for the sixth straight year. He also averaged 33.7 yards a punt, with a long of 52. Breton is a two-sport athlete at Bowdoin; the outfielder appeared in 30 games last year as a junior.

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NH College Notebook appears weekly in the New Hampshire Sunday News throughout the school year. Email Jim Fennell at jfennell@unionleader.com.