Alum returns: Brandon Borges takes helm of Williston Northampton boys hockey

Brandon Borges is the new varsity boys ice hockey coach at Williston Northampton School after serving as an assistant coach with the Wildcats the past two seasons.

Borges replaces former head coach Derek Cunha, who had been behind the bench since 2006. Borges is a former Wildcat himself, starring for the Blue and Green for two seasons from 2012-14, making the promotion to bench boss even more special for the Providence, Rhode Island native.

“Honestly, it’s very humbling,” Borges said. “Williston was a place that took a chance on me as a teenager and they really provided me the foundation to be successful on the ice and off the ice. It was a great place for me to grow as a student and a human being. To be able to go back there and now be in the position that I’m in, I’m extremely grateful for it.”

Borges came aboard Cunha’s staff at Williston immediately following his college hockey playing career at Salve Regina. Borges, a right-winger, appeared in 13 career games for the Seahawks after transferring from Skidmore College, where he played from 2017-20.

Prior to that, Borges was a member of the Boston Junior Bruins of the United States Premier Hockey League (junior hockey) for three seasons where he totaled 64 points in 97 career games.

During his final season at Williston in 2013-14, Borges was more than a point-a-game player, tallying 41 points in 25 games. Now as the program’s leader, Borges will look to get the Wildcats back to a successful brand of hockey and its first winning season in three years, once the puck drops this winter.

“I think one of the things for us is, we closed the [competition] gap last season with the way that we played and the culture that we started to build,” Borges said. “I think that for us, we want to continue to show that that gap is shrinking or that we’ve arrived.”

Last season, Williston went 10-16-1 and failed to qualify for the NEPSAC Tournament. Hayden Hutner and Camden Tabb combined for 52 points as its two best players while goalies Fraser Smith and Zack Tremblay each saw time in between the pipes.

One of Borges’ goals as the new head coach is keying in on recruits that play hard and with passion.

“The way that we want to play is with a very blue-collar mentality,” Borges said. “We tell our players all the time and I will continue to tell my players that we when teams come to Williston, to Lossone [Rink], we don’t want them to have a good experience.

“I think that if we continue to recruit and bring in the right type of guys, guys that are gritty, guys that are really passionate about getting to the next level, getting guys like that and then teaching them how to play the game the right way is a good mix and that’s what we’re looking for,” Borges added.

Luckily for Borges, his experience as an assistant coach helped prepare him for the prep school recruiting landscape and more specifically, the importance of proper roster construction.

“We are going out and we are actively recruiting,” Borges said. “To be able to learn how to navigate the admission process and all of those things definitely taught me things that I needed to learn in order to recruit and build our team the way that we need to build it.”

Borges also mentioned how the consistent success of Williston’s girls hockey program — a New England power and regular contender for the Elite Chuck Vernon Division title — has given him a blueprint for how he wants to establish a winning culture on the boys side.

“The biggest thing in our industry that we’re in right now is, where are you sending your players? [Girls head coach Christa Talbot Syfu] has sent her players to Hockey East schools, ECAC schools, NESCAC schools, she really does a phenomenal job of placing her players,” Borges said. “Her culture that she’s established from day one is great. There’s so many things that I look at that Christa does that I want to take little things from her.”

Borges still has about four months until his players hit the ice for their first practice in November, but the 29-year-old skipper is eager to put his alma mater back on the map for boys prep school hockey.

“I think for us, it’s just showing that there’s a school in Western Massachusetts that you’re going to want to keep your eye on,” Borges said. “Because we are going to do everything we possibly can within the recruiting process and we’re going to provide our players with every resource possible to be successful. Hopefully those things can turn into wins.”