BCAT News

Burlington High School’s athletic programs will look a little different in the coming seasons as new coaches take the reins in girls basketball, girls indoor and outdoor track, girls softball, girls lacrosse and boys lacrosse.

Many of the faces will be familiar to the BHS athletics community: Neil Rebelo, who has worked with the boys basketball program for about five years, is stepping in as the girls head coach.

“Very lucky to not have to look far as a new hire for girls basketball, we had some great candidates that wanted to be part of the program, which I was really happy about,” said BHS Athletics Director Shaun Hart. “It’s not going to be a brand new introduction, it’s just going to be someone who is stepping over from our boys program into our girls program.”

BHS 2014 graduate Ryan Doherty will be taking the head coaching position for boys varsity lacrosse next spring. He worked as an assistant under former head coach Brenden Maney, and the two were inseparable, Hart said.

Former head coaches Kat Boyle of girls lacrosse and Brenden Maney of the boys program both left in a short period of time, and Hart commended them both on their contributions to the athletics community.

“Boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse has been phenomenal programming here. Kat was amazing for us and Brendan was amazing for us, they worked a lot of hours to get our programs in the same direction and again championships, league championships,” Hart said. “But we are hoping  that we have been able to have those expectations and have those conversations with our next generation of coaches so that we don’t have a lot of lag time.”

Kelly Pisciotti is taking over as head coach for the girls softball team. Pisciotti has worked closely with former head coach Kristen Farrell, who departed last school year after leading the team to a state championship two years ago.

One new face will be Granby, CT native Madison Skiff, who is joining the BHS athletics team as head coach for the girls lacrosse team. Skiff played lacrosse for four years at Framingham State University and was an assistant lacrosse coach while she pursued a Masters degree from La Salle University.

The hiring process is still underway to replace Jess Nelson as head coach of girls cross country and indoor and outdoor track. Nelson will step away from her duties after the fall season.

“We haven’t hired that position yet, but you know we appreciate all that Jess has did for our program,” Hart said.

BNEWS sports reporter Robert Parris contributed to this report.