High School Sports

February 15. 2013 10:35PM

Lochman lands Souhegan football job

By ROGER BROWN
New Hampshire Union Leader

Mike Lochman has coached against Souhegan of Amherst in each of his 15 years as an assistant coach at the high school level, but that streak will end next season.

Lochman, a 37-year-old New Boston resident, has been selected to be Souhegan's head coach.

Lochman will replace Mike Beliveau, who guided the Sabers to four state championships in 18 seasons as the program's head coach. Souhegan has qualified for the playoffs in 15 of the last 16 seasons.

"I'm extremely excited and humbled to be given this opportunity," said Lochman, who was the offensive coordinator at Hollis/Brookline from 2008 to 2012. "It's certainly an outstanding place from a sports perspective and an academic perspective. I have some familiarity, at least from an outsider's perspective, of the history and tradition at Souhegan."

Lochman, who is a human resources officer for BAE Systems in Nashua, played running back and safety for Joe Raycraft at Merrimack High School. He began coaching Pop Warner football while he was attending Southern New Hampshire University, and has also served as an assistant coach at Milford (1997) and at Merrimack (1998 to 2006).

Lochman said he also applied for the head coaching position at Hollis/Brookline, but Rich Bergskaug - who was also an assistant on the Hollis/Brookline staff last season -- landed that position.

"They really wanted an educator, which I can understand," Lochman said. "I wasn't really even eyeballing Souhegan until my wife told me, 'You really ought to apply for that job.'"

Lochman said he will run a pro-style offense and a multiple 3-4 defense at Souhegan.

"I met with Mike (Beliveau) this week and he gave me a ton of information," Lochman said. "He couldn't have been more helpful.

"I have my core systems on offense and defense that I believe in strongly, but the good thing is they're flexible enough to adapt to talent."

Hollis/Brookline will compete in Division II next season. The Cavaliers will be in a conference that includes Milford, John Stark of Weare, Trinity of Manchester and Windham.

"We're building a staff and I've been in the weight room a couple times," Lochman said. "I've already dug in."