Rocco Fernandez hired as new Northampton football coach, looks to rebuild program

Rocco Fernandez has been hired as the new Northampton High School football coach after spending the past seven seasons as an assistant coach at Granby Memorial High School in Connecticut.

Fernandez, a Westfield native, returns to Western Massachusetts and replaces Joe Kocot, who had held the Blue Devils’ post since 2018. Kocot amassed a 34-32 record in seven seasons as head coach, including a pair of MIAA state tournament appearances (2021, 2022).

Fernandez briefly coached Westfield High School back in 2014 — his first head coaching position — but resigned after just four games due to “personal reasons.” Now back in the Pioneer Valley, Fernandez said he is eager to rebuild a Blue Devils program that hasn’t had a winning record since 2022. Northampton has gone just 4-15 in its past two seasons.

“I’ve been trying to get back into a head coaching position for a couple years now, it’s just been waiting for the right opportunity to show itself,” Fernandez said. “When I saw this come through for Northampton, I thought it was a great opportunity to take a program that’s kind of been on a downward trajectory the last few years and help turn them around.”

Last season, Northampton finished 3-6 and the year before the Blue Devils trudged through a 1-9 campaign. Fernandez has experience stepping into a program down on its luck as his tenure with the Bears began in similar fashion.

“I really learned how to build the program,” Fernandez said “You know what to expect. You know what the expectation should be for the parents and what the expectations are going to be from the parents, and just working to take a program that hasn’t had a lot of success and help push them to a level where now success is expected, about how we’re going to build on that year over year.

“At Granby, our biggest thing was trying to get out of the first round of the playoffs,” Fernandez continued “We’ve had some competitive games, we’ve had some not so competitive games, but we’ve always been there. We were just waiting to make that next step… [and] taking everything that I’ve learned over those seven years and pushing that to help me get Northampton to the point where we’re going to be competitive and the expectation every year is going to be that we’re making the state playoffs.”

Fernandez noted his experience with his alma mater back in 2014 was essentially the complete opposite. Taking over for his former coach in Bill Moore, coupled with the Bombers’ stellar 2013 season in which they competed for the Western Massachusetts Division 2 championship set some lofty expectations for Fernandez in the Whip City before he ever coached a single game.

“They were the number two team in Western Mass. at that point, right behind [Springfield] Central going into the preseason, so there was a lot of pressure and scrutiny on me at that point to take a team that was very senior heavy the year previously and replicate the results that they’ve had with a much younger team,” Fernandez said. “At least now I’m coming into a situation where it’s a younger team that I can grow and develop and I’m aware things aren’t going to happen overnight.”

While Fernandez won’t have the same pressure to immediately stack wins together with the Blue Devils, the former Iona College graduate (2008) understands Northampton contains a passionate sports community.

“Northampton is kind of that hidden gem,” Fernandez said. “My niece graduated from Northampton. She played field hockey there, she played lacrosse, there, she thrived her four years there and so I know when the programs [are] successful that helped bring the community [together] and they’ll start buying into the program. That’s what we need. Ultimately, that’s what I want, is to get the community behind me, get the community behind the program and start bringing Northampton back up to the level that it should be, where we’re competitive with everybody that we’re playing. We’re looked at, hopefully one day, we’re looked at at the same level of like Central, Longmeadow, Westfield, schools like that, who have had success and had a head coach in there for several years and working to build that program up right.”

Fernandez also brings some college coaching experience to the Blue Devils as the former Bombers lineman held positions at Westfield State, Post University and American International College.

With about a month before practices are set to officially start, Fernandez doesn’t have any illusions that Northampton will be state tournament contenders during his first season. The Blue Devils return 27 players this fall and will tack on a few more as freshmen additions.

If nothing else, Fernandez hopes Northampton will be a tough out in every game in 2025, starting on Sept. 12 against South Hadley.

“Conservatively, this year, my goal is to at least be above .500 and remain competitive in all games,” Fernandez said. “Just the numbers involved, it’s going to take some time. I got to build this program up. I got to get to the point where we’re coming out to camp on August 15 with 50-60 kids and it’s going to take time to get to that.”