Years back, when the Goffstown Screamin’ Eagles youth football program participated at the Pop Warner Division 1 level, the coaches and players learned the Nashua Elks Crusaders program wrote the book on winning – literally.

After one of Nashua’s teams won a state championship, the coach of that team would write in the “book of winning,” said Mark Hurley, the Goffstown Junior Pee Wee coach. The book was then passed around for all the program’s coaches to see. Year after year, more people would add more information, and the mentors from that season would learn from their predecessors.

Using the same concept of a closeknit coaching network in AYF, Goffstown intends to write its own chapter of success. So far, it looks like a bestseller.

A year after three football teams made state final appearances and a cheer squad earned a national championship, the Screamin’ Eagles are enjoying arguably the finest year in their 13-year history, said president David Gagne.

Three Goffstown teams claimed Conference 2B titles, with two – the Junior Pee Wee team under Hurley and the Junior Midget team under Phil St. John – rolling to Division 2 state titles and berths in the regional quarterfinals.

Goffstown is the only program among all 26 in New Hampshire to boast dual state champions.

A fourth team, the Mitey Mite squad, also capped its season with a second-place finish at the New Hampshire Mitey Mite Super Bowl.

The cheerleading squads, too, are building upon last season’s Division 14 national title. Thus far, Screamin’ Eagles squads have been named Division 15 Small Blue State champions and Division 12 Small Blue State champs, and earned third place among the Division 10 Large Red squads.

Lisa Roy, coach of the Division 12 team, was also named coach of the year, and all three teams are now preparing for the regional competition on Nov. 25 at the Verizon Wireless Arena. “From top to bottom,” St. John said, “the organization is really starting to flourish.”

Poised to move up to Division 1 football next season, Goffstown’s rise has its roots in many things – talented athletes, committed parents, a proactive board.

Yet, building off a trend former president Carl Braley started in the 2002 offseason, David Gagne has helped make one of the biggest differences with coaching clinics.

Besides the obvious benefit of improving the coaches’ technical knowledge, the clinics helped foster a bond among all the teams’ staffs, Hurley said.

Though he added that Goffstown hasn’t created a book like Nashua’s to pass on information, the word-of-mouth method has worked just as well in spreading what works well throughout the entire program.

And it’s obviously spread fast and wide. The cheer program has followed a similar model, with devoted coaches and parents sharing successes under coordinator Tammy Gagne.

“I see (coaches) going to different practices and they’re helping each other,” David Gagne said. “We have parents and coaches from the other teams going to these playoff games.

There’s been so much excitement, and it’s constant, constant, constant. But it’s also constant work to keep it going.”

Hard work, though, has become a hallmark of some of Goffstown’s most successful teams this year. The Junior Midget team won the state title over Manchester South with a Mal Shea touchdown as time expired.

The Junior Pee Wee squad didn’t come close to matching the firepower of Hurley’s last state championship team – the 2002 Pee Wee team that outscored its opponents, 319-12, in 10 games. But it didn’t need to as it shocked the state and even its own fans and coaches.

“One of the guy’s fathers emailed me after the (state) championship game, and I think he summed it up best,” Hurley said.

“He said, ‘You know, I was on the sidelines and I don’t know a lot about football, but I do know about athletes. And I was watching after a couple weeks in August, and I realized that you didn’t have any. I said to myself, well, there’s always next year.’”

The e-mail concluded with these words: “It’s just amazing to win it, looking back.”