Former Rockville High assistant named football coach at Canton

The Canton High football program has a new coach — Chris Currier, a former coordinator at Rockville High.

CANTON, June 3 – Canton High has hired its next varsity football coach.

New Canton High coach Chris Currier.

Chris Currier, a former assistant coach at Rockville High in Vernon for the past two years, has been hired as the 12th head coach in school history. He will meet with the players on Friday and meet with officials from the Friends of Canton Football booster club later in the day.

Currier replaces Paul Philippon who coached the Warriors for three years, posting a record of 24-7. He led Canton to three straight winning seasons. Canton had one of their best seasons last fall, going 10-2, earning a spot in the CIAC Class S tournament for the first time and winning its first league championship since 1958.

Currier has also coached for one year with the Hartford Whalers semi-pro football team in the New England Football League, the largest minor league football conference in the nation. He owned and managed another semi-pro team called the Ohio Freedom in the United States Football Alliance in 2008.

He also played some semi-pro football in Connecticut, most notably with the Norwich-based Connecticut Thunder in the New England Football League. The Thunder won a league championship in 2004 and lost in the final by one point in 2005. He grew up in Montville and played football for Montville High.

Today, Currier is a student at Manchester Community College studying exercise science. He and his wife have a new six-week-old son. “I have the opportunity to chase a dream,” he said.

Currier wasn’t Canton’s first choice. After Philippon resigned in December, a six-person search committee was formed. The job was offered to one candidate this spring but the candidate couldn’t find a job in the school system.

“His passion for the game (sets him apart),” Canton athletic director Craig DeAngelis said of Currier. “He has a ton of experience in and around the game. His ability to relate to the kids is important and it will be important in the coming months.”

Canton had a season for the ages last fall but did it with a skeleton crew. They had just 26 players on the roster, including eight seniors. Excluding freshmen that will join the program in the fall, there were just 18 players left in the program – eight juniors, nine sophomores and one freshman.

It was one of the reasons that Philippon decided to return to Bristol Eastern, where he is a teacher in the school system. His goal was to increase the number of players in the program but it dropped in all three seasons he was at the helm.

Currier is thrilled to be joining the Warriors. He wants to establish a junior varsity program to give the kids more opportunities to play. Canton hasn’t fielded a junior varsity team over the past two years.

“It’s a tough thing,” Currier said. “Numbers are an issue. But I think there are some kids we can grab onto. And there is some good talent coming back.”

Currier is looking forward to leading strength and conditioning workouts this summer with the players. He is working on building his coaching staff.

Currier was asked what kind of program people will see from his leadership. He said they will see players who are passionate, committed and loyal to the cause. They’ll be good sportsmen but he wants his team to be fiery and passionate.

“I want to instill that throughout the team so we’re Warriors,” he said. “I want to establish this program and I want to be here for a good (amount of) time.”