Anthony Nalen Hired as New Football Head Coach
NASHUA, N.H. - Bishop Guertin High School Athletic Director Ryan Brown has announced Anthony Nalen as the football program’s newest head coach.
Nalen was selected to lead the Cardinals after an exhaustive candidate search and interview process. He comes to BG after most recently leading the Lunenburg (MA) program since 2020. In his time there, he led the team to an 18-9 overall record and a 2022 Midland Wachusett D League Championship.
“We are excited to have Coach Nalen join our Bishop Guertin community,” Brown said. “In all of our communications with him and in conversations with those who have worked closely with him over the years, Coach Nalen’s commitment to creating strong relationships with his student-athletes and their families was clearly evident. His track record of winning at the high school level across several programs in the last decade demonstrates an ability to adapt and thrive in new settings.
“We are so pleased Coach Nalen has accepted the offer to lead our football program,” Brown continued. “There is no doubt that his ideals around culture and vision align with the school’s mission as well as our commitment to achieve success on the field, produce strong students in the classroom and facilitate a whole-person formation in our community.”
A 2010 graduate of Springfield College, Nalen earned a master's of education from Endicott in 2018. He is also currently pursuing his doctoral degree in educational leadership from Endicott, demonstrating his own commitment to strong educational values.
A veteran head coach across New England, Nalen has led programs from Matignon High School, Bishop Connolly, Randolph, Saugus, Epping-Newmarket and Lunenburg.
In those stints, his teams have been named MIAA Football Sportsmanship Award recipients twice (2017, 2019) as well as the 2021 CMASS Officials Sportsmanship Award honorees. Nalen was named the Mayflower Athletic Conference 2015 Coach of the Year at Bishop Connolly after posting the best record in school history and leading his team to the league title with a 5-0 record, while outscoring opponents, 184-20, in those games.
A former quarterback at Springfield, he helped his team to the 2006 Empire 8 Championship and was one of the conference’s top players during his career. Following an outstanding playing career at Pope John XXIII High School in Everett, Massachusetts, he was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame.
In 2022, Bishop Guertin posted a 7-2 regular season record and earned the No. 5 seed in the state playoffs. The Cardinals would defeat Dover, 42-14, in the preliminary round, before coming up just short at Pinkerton in the quarterfinals, 14-12.
“The bedrock of our football team is strong,” Brown said. “We look forward to welcoming Coach Nalen to Bishop Guertin to continue to build on that foundation of excellence.”
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