Newport High School hires new football and golf coaches

Newport High School Athletics named Kevin Pollari the new varsity football head coach and Ethan Houde the new varsity golf head coach as it moved to lock in leadership for the 2026-27 school year. The school announced the hires on July 9, and its athletics page framed them as part of the program’s preparation for the coming season.

The timing shows Newport is not waiting for fall practices to sort out its coaching roster. The district’s Frontline recruitment page listed both the football varsity coach and golf coach positions on June 25, alongside openings for field hockey, girls soccer, cross country, bass fishing and spirit. Newport High School also posted a section labeled “2026 Newport Athletics Important Dates,” a sign the school is already building out the next season’s calendar.

At Newport High School, those hires carry outsized weight because the school is small. NHIAA lists total enrollment at 292 students, which means one coaching change can affect participation numbers, offseason workouts and the day-to-day stability of a roster. For football, Pollari inherits a program with recent postseason relevance and visible community interest. Newport reached the 2025 NHIAA Division III quarterfinals before falling to Laconia, 21-6, and the year before that it played for a Division IV state title, losing to Somersworth, 21-7.

That kind of track record raises the stakes for the next coach. A football head coach in Newport is responsible not only for game-night decisions, but also for summer conditioning, roster development and keeping enough players engaged to field a competitive team throughout the season. With the Tigers already carrying recent playoff history, the job now is to sustain that level of expectation while keeping numbers strong in a district of Newport’s size.

The golf hire matters in a different way. NHIAA’s golf policy places a new program into the appropriate enrollment division and sets a season structure that includes a minimum of 12 events and a maximum of 30, which makes early organization important for any school trying to keep the sport healthy. Houde will be stepping into a role that can shape whether students stay involved and whether the program continues to draw enough interest to remain stable from one season to the next.

Newport High School’s athletic leadership, including athletic director Jeff Miller and principal Shannon Martin, is now in place to guide that push. In Newport, where the town has about 6,500 residents and serves as the county seat of Sullivan County, school sports remain one of the most visible parts of community life, and the football field and golf course are both heading into the new year with fresh leadership.