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Goffstown goes with Hammond

The 2020 high school football season will likely be an interesting one for Nick Hammond. Not only did Hammond land his first head coaching job when he was announced as Goffstown’s varsity head coach on Friday, he’ll also be in charge of what figures to be one of the better teams in the state.

Goffstown was the Division I North conference champion last season, and the Grizzlies return eight starters on each side of the ball from that team.

Hammond, 30, was the offensive coordinator for Goffstown last season. He replaces Justin Hufft, who resigned as the program’s head coach earlier this year. Hufft is still employed as Goffstown High School’s athletic director.

“The foundation is there for a solid football program for a long time,” Hammond said. “There’s unbelievable administrative support. The players are unbelievable to coach. The families are awesome and the overall community is a very special place. It was definitely something I was interested in when I heard the job was gonna be open. The community support is something I value. It’s definitely a great situation.”

Hammond is a Milford resident who graduated from Milford High School in 2008. He served as an assistant coach at Nashua North from 2013 to 2015, and spent one season as an assistant Goffstown before he joined the Saint Anselm College coaching staff in 2017. He returned to Goffstown last year.

Hammond said most of last year’s coaching staff will return, and left the door open for Hufft to remain with the program in some type of coaching capacity as well. 

“That’s completely up to him,” Hammond said. “I know he wants to give me the freedom to run the program without his direct oversight other than him being the athletic director, but obviously I think very highly of Coach Hufft and anything he can give to myself in terms of input to benefit the program we would take with open arms.

“I’ve been in contact with the other coaches and they all plan on coming back. We are going to have a couple new guys, but there really wasn’t much of a need to shake things up. From a program standpoint we’re in really good shape as a staff. I’m comfortable with them and they’re comfortable with me, so I think we’re in a pretty good spot there.

“There are gonna be some small tweaks. Structurally we’re gonna stay the same, so we’re gonna be no-huddle, spread offense, and then we’re gonna play an odd front on defense, but there will definitely be some differences in the way we do things.”

Hammond said he interviewed for the job on April 16 and was offered the position that night, but the COVID-19 situation prevented an official announcement until Friday.

“I thought I fit the mold of what they were looking for based on my conversations with both Justin and other members of the administration,” he said. “Obviously it’s really exciting. The opportunity to have learned from some really good guys going back to my time with (former Nashua North head coach) Jason Robie or Dante (current North head coach Dante Laurendi), and then obviously working with Coach Hufft has been awesome. I’ve picked up so much stuff from them and we’ll be able to integrate that stuff into our version of the Goffstown program I guess is the best way to put it.”

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