BELFAST — For the second consecutive summer, change is occurring at the helm of the Belfast Area High School varsity football program and the school, once again, is handing the reigns to an alumnus. 

When the Lions take the gridiron in the fall, Brian Goff, who graduated from the school in 1990, will be at the helm of the program as head coach and will work to turn the program around. 

Gregg Bouchard, a Belfast alumnus, spent the 2018 season at the helm of the Belfast program and posted a 2-6 record. The eighth-seeded Lions were bounced from the playoffs in the regional quarterfinals with a 50-6 loss to top-seeded Maine Central Institute. 

Bouchard took over the Lions gridiron program from Chris Bartlett, who stepped down from atop the football program ahead of the 2018 season and recently stepped down from leading the school’s softball program. 

The Lions finished the 2017 season with an 0-8 record and a 3-5 record in 2016, missing the playoffs both seasons. 

Belfast won state championships in 1967, 1968, 1996, 1999 and 2003, and finished as state-runner-ups in 1995, 1997 and 2002. 

Goff was a quarterback for the Lions and played college football at Chowan College in North Carolina. 

He was Belfast’s first player to participate in the annual Kora Shriners Maine Lobster Bowl all-star game for high school seniors. 

Goff was a volunteer assistant coach with the team this past season and jumped at the chance to be the team’s new head coach since it has been a long time dream, he said, to coach the Lions. 

“My goals for the program moving forward are to have as many kids come out and play for the Lions as possible,” he said. “I want each kid to reach their true potential, learn the value of hard work, being good people off the field, and also winning games.”

Football and coaching run in Goff’s blood as he grew up in a football family with his father being a football coach at the high school and collegiate level for over 30 years, including a stint as the Belfast head coach from 1987 to 1990. 

“I think it's safe to say I was the [assistant] head coach [to my father] for as long as the two of us were alive together,” he stated. 

After playing for Chowan, he spent time as a graduate assistant working with the team’s quarterbacks. Since then, he has had a variety of assistant and volunteer coaching positions in Alabama and Florida, a pair of states with rich football traditions. 

Belfast will open the regular season Sept. 6 on the road against John Bapst at 7 p.m.

This story was originally published June 25. 

Reach George Harvey and the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.