STA’s Brown steps down

By rbrown
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Updated: July 3, 2019

St. Thomas Aquinas High School football coach Ryan Brown has resigned, and will be replaced by Dave Bryant, who served as the program’s defensive coordinator two years ago. Bryant was the head coach at Traip Academy in Kittery, Maine, last season.

Brown, who will remain as the school’s athletic director — a position he’s held since 2012 — cited “personal reasons” when asked about his decision to step down.

“Things are good,” Brown said. “Workouts are going on and Dave was coming back to the program anyway. We’ll be fine.”

The Saints went 19-4 and qualified for the Division II playoffs in each of Brown’s two seasons as head coach. St. Thomas lost to Plymouth in the 2017 semifinals, and to Alvirne in last year’s semifinals.

St. Thomas became the second NHIAA school to make a coaching change this week. Former Monadnock head coach Linwood Patnode was hired to replace Bill Hope at Keene on Monday.

Patnode was an assistant coach at Keene from 2006-08, and guided the Monadnock program from 2009 to 2016. He led the Huskies to the Division V title in 2013.

Keene went 1-18 in Hope’s two seasons as head coach. The victory came against Manchester Memorial in Week 1 last season.

Patnode also applied for the Keene job two years ago, but said he withdrew his application to devote more time to his construction business.