Entering his eighth year at the helm of the Sacred Heart football team, head coach Paul Gorham has put his stamp on the Pioneer program. The offensive minded coach has the Pioneers positioned as a team on the rise in the Northeast Conference.

When he was introduced as Sacred Heart’s seventh football coach in July of 2004, Gorham brought with him a wealth of experience and accomplishments in his inaugural season as a collegiate head coach. He compiled 18 years of experience in the trenches as an assistant at the Division I-AA and Division II levels, developing an innovative and exciting offensive philosophy.

Coach Gorham got the Pioneers back on track in 2008, bouncing back from three losing seasons with an 8-3 overall mark and a 4-3 record in the NEC. The Pioneers shot out to a 6-0 start to the season and won eight of their first nine games to post their highest win total since the 2001 season.  In 2011, Gorham made Sacred Heart history as the Pioneers defeated two Ivy League programs (Columbia and Dartmouth) in the same season.

Under his tutelage, the Pioneer offense has thrived producing the program’s all-time leading passer and receiver in Dale Fink and Steve Tedesco. Fink holds 13 SHU passing records and is also tops in the Northeast Conference annals breaking the conference marks in career passing yards and touchdown throws. Tedesco holds 11 Sacred Heart receiving records. Both finished their careers by earning places on the FCS All-New England team.

Prior to joining the Pioneers, Gorham spent five years on the University of Massachusetts coaching staff as recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach. Gorham helped the offense average 380.4 yards and 28.3 points per game in 2003, including 231.6 passing yards per contest.

Prior to his time at UMass, Gorham worked on the staff at Brown University for five seasons. He served as the offensive coordinator on Phil Estes’ staff in 1998, after spending the previous four years as the offensive line coach under Mark Whipple. In 1998, Gorham directed a Brown offense that led the Ivy League with an average of 433.8 yards per game. In addition, Brown’s 1998 offense established 25 team or individual records and five Ivy League team or individual marks. in 1997, the Brown offense set Ivy League and school records for total offense (474.3 yards per game), and the school single game record for total offense (629 yards against Yale).

During his stint at Brown, Gorham helped develop the Bears’ offensive line into one of the top units in I-AA. He produced three first-team All-Ivy League offensive linemen in his five seasons. The Bears had an overall record of 31-19 during Gorham’s five years on the staff.

Prior to going to Brown, Gorham served for six years under Whipple as the recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach at the University of New Haven. The Chargers achieved national rankings on four occasions with an offense that led all NCAA Divisions in total offense (587.7 yards per game) and scoring offense (52.5 points per game) in 1992. Gorham also served as an assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire for two seasons when Whipple was the offensive coordinator.

A 1984 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Gorham was an All-Yankee Conference tight end in 1983 for the Wildcats.

Gorham’s Collegiate Coaching File