Of all the places Kevin Kelly’s coached football throughout his career, from high schools in the Northeast to the NCAA Division I level at Georgetown to the New York Guardians of the XFL, New England College in Henniker might be his greatest challenge.

Actually, it will almost assuredly be his greatest challenge.

The school announced last June that it was resurrecting its football program that had been dormant since 1972, and Kelly was hired as the new head coach in August. He comes in with over three decades of football coaching on his resume, but when he took the job, he had no staff, no players and no recent program history to point to. 

New coaches always have the opportunity to put their unique stamp on a program. Kelly’s stamp will be larger and more profound than most.

With 12 players currently on the team and another 50 or so verbally committed but stuck in limbo because of delays with FAFSA, the program will begin full practices in August before playing a pre-varsity schedule this fall. They’ll then become an associate member of the Commonwealth Coast Conference and play a full schedule beginning in the fall of 2025.

But between now and then, there’s much work to be done.

“Some people are going to embrace this. Some people are going to want no part of it, and that’s fine,” Kelly said. “The ones that want to embrace it are the ones that I want here anyways. It’s selling a vision and convincing folks that this is going to be a first-class operation.”

Part of Kelly’s pitch includes the fact that NEC is now another option to play Division III football in New Hampshire, joining Plymouth State as the only other program at that level. Their addition has excited high school coaches in the area, Kelly said, providing more chances for players to continue their careers.

Particularly early on at NEC, there will be ample opportunities to see the field.

“Everybody’s going to be new, so everybody’s going to have an opportunity to play,” Kelly said. “The first year is going to be development — development of the football players and the program.”

One of the biggest challenges, though, is for Kelly and his staff to spread the word to people outside of the state about what NEC has to offer.

“For parents, what I tell them is that a college education is an investment, and with their investment, there are four things I can guarantee in the program they’re going to have: Academic success, career and professional development, positive football experience and reaching their potential,” Kelly said. “That’s a big piece in terms of what I’m selling right now because I don’t have a record here, we haven’t played football here, but that’s something that, for a family, that vision is ultimately very important.”

Kaevryel Madison is one of the dozen players already on campus at NEC eager to start working toward that vision. A 2022 Concord High graduate, he played at Castleton University in Vermont, but he became intrigued by what NEC’s new program had to offer.

Between Kelly’s breadth of experience, the chance to lay the bedrock for what the program will become and the ability to play in front of friends and family from the Concord area more regularly, Madison saw it as a worthwhile path to pursue.

The players on campus currently meet three times a week for morning weight training. They’ll also add in speed and agility work later this spring as they wait for the rest of the team to make its way to Henniker this summer.

“I’m hoping that we can establish a hard-working group that knows we have to work for everything and that nothing’s going to be given to us,” Madison said. “We are a new program, and we’re going to be starting from the bottom.”

All of the pieces might not be in place until the summer, but Madison, Kelly and the rest of the program remain eager, after months of anticipation, to start moving full steam ahead.

“The thing I’m really excited about is coming in August, when I’m recruiting these young men and we start the program,” Kelly said. “Really it’s something where you can build a legacy, put your name on it. 

“So far, so good.”