Mark Phillips, a longtime assistant football coach at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, has been hired as the head football coach at Alvirne High School in Hudson.

Phillips, 50, was an assistant coach on Tony Johnson's staff at BG from 1994 to 2010. The Cardinals won six Division II championships under Johnson, who was forced to resign after the 2010 season.

Phillips, who is a teacher at BG, will take over an Alvirne program that finished 3-7 overall and 3-5 in Division III last season. The Broncos dropped from Division II to Division III after the 2011 season. Alvirne will move to Division I this year, and will compete in a conference with Nashua North, Nashua South, BG and Keene.

"It's fresh start for Alvirne and a fresh start for me," Phillips said. "I'll have a lot of the assistants that were at BG, so we'll see if we can work some magic."

Phillips replaces Bob Nimblett, who resigned in November after serving as the program's head coach for nine season. The Broncos made one playoff appearance in those nine years (2009).