Ernie Adams ’71 will be serving as Interim Head Football Coach for the 2026 season, marking the beginning of a broader restructuring of the football program and the head coaching role. The search for a full-time head football coach for the 2027 season onwards is underway.
In an email to Football players, Director of Athletics Lisa Joel, Dean of Faculty Ben Temple, and Assistant Head of School for Admission and Financial Aid Jim Ventre announced that the Head Football Coach position will be restructured into a full-time role with a “comprehensive focus on the football program, including year-round player development, practice and game preparation, strength and conditioning coordination, prospective player recruitment and support for college recruitment.”
The role moves away from the traditional “triple threat” approach, in which head coaches also served as instructors, house counselors, or admissions officers. Ventre explained that Football’s demands have grown beyond what that approach allows.
“It’s very time consuming to coach Football because there are elements of it that are unrelated to what happens in the game. Football requires a very steady and consistent recruiting strategy to get football players to come to Andover. Then they come and they play here with good coaching, and then they would like to play in college. And so, you need someone who can spend time recruiting, manage the day-to-day of the football’s actual operations and coaching, and then someone who can help our players move on to college. [Football is] unique unto itself, [which] doesn’t allow for someone who does multiple things at the school to have the same focus on what is required for football. And other schools that we play in our league, if you will, have moved to this model. And so, why should those student-athletes who come to Andover not have the same benefit of being recruited to come focus here?” said Ventre.
Football Co-Captain Thane McCormick ’27 said he views the shift to a full-time head coaching model as a positive step for the program.
“It definitely steps up the program to another level where we’re able to bring in a coach who is nationally recognized and who’s going to come to Andover and see how Andover can be on the national level as a competitor,” said McCormick.
Assistant Football Coach Christopher Powers pointed to similar leadership models already in place in other Andover athletic programs.
“In my opinion, what the school is thinking about is they already have done this with a couple other sports. There’s a Director of Squash, right? And our Squash program has seen some really great success. There’s a Director of Swimming, there’s a Director of Rowing. And I think it’s kind of the way independent schools are kind of shifting in [how] they look at their head coaching roles. So I think what this will allow the Director of Football and Head Coach to be able to do is spend more time developing the systems and the recruiting and then the college placement of our players,” said Powers.
Ventre elaborated on the cultural and institutional significance of football on campus.
“I think all of us care deeply about the way our football program is perceived and the fact that we are embedded in developing a culture that is about character and strength of friendships… I will say there has been real success with the way our football program has evolved, where the students and their families care deeply about our program. And so, it goes to kind of the emphasis on football right now. It becomes important. It becomes important to those families and those students, and it’s important to the school and the administration and athletics,” said Ventre.
Prior to his appointment as Interim Head Coach, Adams served as football research director for the New England Patriots, contributing to six Super Bowl championships. He has worked with the Andover football program in the last four years, and served as linebackers coach last season. Adams reflected on both his time as a four-year student and his return to campus.
“[When I was here], I was the good kid who tried hard. I [wasn’t] a real good player. But I was extremely interested in football. My senior year we had a PG who I ended up playing next to on the offensive line, Bill Belichick [’71]. So that’s where we started our fifty five year friendship. I had a chance to learn from a great coach at Andover, Steve Sorota. Andover football was very important to me and I got blue blood flowing through my arteries,” said Adams.
He continued, “[Being back has] been great. I always have a warm spot in my heart for anything Andover. Largely because students are wonderful to deal with. It’s a lot of fun for me being on campus working with students. A lot of alumni do volunteer work for the school but I get to do the fun stuff: I actually get to work with a bunch of guys who are trying to do something hard and I try to help them.”
Former Football Head Coach Trey Brown PG ’12 will remain with the program as Assistant Coach. Football Co-Captain Scott Carmichael ’27 reflected on Brown’s legacy.
“Brown brought me to Andover. He’s opened an immense amount of doors and he’s coached me everyday with passion, integrity, and graciousness. He’s really an amazing guy. He has an amazing reputation on campus. He leaves a reputation and a culture at Andover that is built upon pillars of family, strength, hard work, and integrity,” said Carmichael.
The team and captains met with Adams earlier this week. Football Co-Captain Jun An ’27 said Adams’ familiarity with the program helped ease concerns about the transition.
“The most important thing is that the kids that have played on the team know who he is because he’s been on the staff. A lot of the worries regarding the coaching change was that [the school] would bring someone that we didn’t know. There’s [anyway] going to be a new dynamic to the team but I really like the fact that it’s someone that we all knew. And Coach Adams, is one of the most respected coaches in football. He worked with the Patriots. He knows what he’s talking about,” said An.
Adams shared that he is currently working on the scouting and recruitment process for next year’s team, along with ensuring that the football team gets access to the turf field everyday during the fall for practice. Adams also discussed his views on his role as a head coach.
“My role as a coach is to give the players a good plan, and teach them how to execute it. My number one goal is to get the Andover team to play as close as possible to our maximum potential,” said Adams.
Joel explained the search for a permanent head coach will follow a standard hiring timeline.
“The person who will step into the head coaching role for 2027, that’s a long ways’ away. So this is not something that people are going to see in the next couple of months. We’ll put that out there and I expect there’ll be a deep, deep amount of interest in this job. So we’ll want to do a thorough job of vetting applicants and hopefully to name someone by the winter of [2026],” said Joel.
