CLICK HERE to read original article, written by NESJ Staff Writer Jonathan Sigal

For most of his life, Adrian Dubois and soccer in northern New England have gone hand in hand.

A native of Acworth, N.H., he was named New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year in 2005 and went on to become a four-year starting midfielder at the University of New Hampshire.

So when the head coach job at Saint Joseph's College of Maine opened up, Dubois naturally gravitated to it. Previous stints as an assistant at UMass Boston and the University of California San Diego had prepared him.

"At the time, I was just looking for an opportunity to take over a program and lead a program," Dubois said. "I knew they had a decent tradition of success and had won two championship before me, but when I got here I had work to do."

Fast forward to the 2018 season and the 31-year-old has turned the Monks into one of New England's top Division 3 programs. They've won back-to-back GNAC titles and made the past two NCAA Tournaments, going a combined 34-2-8 across that span.

For a private college in southern Maine of around 1,000 students, that's an unprecedented level of success.

"Every staff or team is looking for culture-changers and we're fortunate to have some on our staff," athletic director Brian Curtin said via email. "Adrian is one of those culture-changers; he's a creative, hard-working recruiter, he shares ideas, he seeks knowledge and input from others and he is professional."

However, getting to this point wasn't always rosy, Dubois stresses. The Monks had some talented players when he took over in 2014, but the collective wasn't up to his standard on or off the field.

CLICK HERE to continue reading (subscription required)