Gaudreau ready to continue legacy of Pinkerton boys lacrosse, whenever it may be

Steve Gaudreau wasn’t thinking about lacrosse when he took a teaching job at Pinkerton Academy.

It had been almost three years since he’d stepped down as the men’s lacrosse coach at Saint Anselm College when he arrived in Derry, and although he’d been coaching at the youth level, the desire to return to a high school or college sideline hadn’t resurfaced.

But not long after the school year started, the Astros’ junior varsity coaching position opened up, and the lure was too much. Before Gaudreau knew it, he was meeting with Brian O’Reilly, who along with being Pinkerton’s boys lacrosse and football coach had been the athletic director for a little more than a year.

“He didn’t know I was on campus,” Gaudreau said. “I wasn’t looking to rush into a big commitment. Coaching with Brian O’Reilly was the best, getting to see how he runs things.”

Gaudreau served as the JV coach for a year and then became a varsity assistant, focusing on the defense, last season, as Pinkerton won back-to-back Division I championships.

The next time the team gets to take the field, he’ll become only the second head coach to lead the Astros in a game in program history. After last season, O’Reilly stepped down after 38 years as head coach, and Gaudreau was tabbed to replace him.

“It’s certainly surreal,” Gaudreau said. “I never would have thought I’d be in this position. For me, it blends multiple worlds, having coached in high school and college. Pinkerton is such a large entity, it operates like a small college.”

While his time in the program has been short, he’s certainly familiar with it.

A graduate of Nashua High School, Gaudreau grew up playing lacrosse in the Gate City, and from afar, admiring what Pinkerton was to the lacrosse landscape in the region.

“Growing up, everything we did was about trying to beat Pinkerton, to try to become what they were,” Gaudreau said. “Brian was this lacrosse god. He was the guy that you looked over there, looked at his teams, the way they played, it was everything you wanted to be.”

As a junior, Gaudreau was a part of the Nashua team that became the first New Hampshire opponent to beat Pinkerton, as the Panthers won their only boys lacrosse championship in 1998 against the Astros.

After graduating in 1999, Gaudreau played four years at Saint Anselm and then took over as the coach at Bow, leading the Falcons to three Division II titles in his five-plus years in charge. Then it was a return to Saint Anselm, this time as the program’s head coach for five more years.

“I’ve had the benefit of learning from some really good lacrosse minds,” Gaudreau said. “Rick Goodhand, Gordy Webb, Brian O’Reilly, I’ve learned a lot from others. What Brian has done here and created, I feel like I can continue that success and tradition.”

Although Gaudreau never got the opportunity to coach this year’s group of seniors, they believed he would have been a great fit for them.

“I was excited to play for him this year,” Pinkerton senior Mason Drouin said. “He had such an impact on the way our defense was last year. Everyone was comfortable with him.”

Gaudreau, who started out teaching in the social studies department and is now the department head, feels he’s grown comfortable with Pinkerton.

“As a community, it is awesome and a great place to be a part of,” Gaudreau said. “It’s a tremendous place to be. I’ve just really enjoyed it and I wanted to be a bigger part of it.”