By Jack Ward, Metrowest Daily News

HOLLISTON – For the Holliston girls soccer team this week marked the beginning of a new season, one that will inevitably feel different than the past eight years have felt.
Now former coach Kristina Kern has accepted the head women’s soccer coach job at her alma mater – Framingham State – leaving behind a Panthers program she led to four Tri-Valley League titles from 2006 through 2013.

Kern is going back to the place where her four years in goal landed her a spot in the Framingham State Athletic Hall of Fame. But she still has a soft spot for Holliston and had time to visit varsity soccer tryouts at the Holliston Youth Soccer Complex Thursday afternoon.

"I’m very excited about (getting hired at Framingham State). I’ve always wanted to coach in college and it’s a fantastic opportunity for me. I love the school and I couldn’t be happier about going back. It was a great start in college for me to go there."As a Ram goalie, Kern was 53-17-3. She also played basketball and softball. She was named All-Conference in both soccer and softball.

"It was a great school for me to be able to continue what I did in high school," Kern said. "The reason I went there was I able to be a three-sport athlete, which I loved for two years. And then I continued with just soccer and softball after that. I loved the team atmosphere, the education was great and just the overall athletic mindset and administrators were very supportive and now to be able to work for those people is a great feeling."

Kern graduated from Framingham State in 2003 and went on to play soccer in the Gold Coast League in Australia. It wasn’t too long before she took over at Holliston. Under her, the Panthers achieved excellence, winning three TVL titles in a row from 2008 to 2010 before winning it again last year.

Holliston will move ahead without Kern this year, but she is not far away in Framingham and as Thursday showed, she is still there for support.

"These kids are overachievers in a very good way," Kern said when asked about the talent Holliston has produced in recent years. During her time with the Panthers, she coached future college players at all three levels. "If they put a goal in front of themselves, I think they work very hard. I know this offseason, (Holliston has) worked the hardest I’ve ever seen them work. And they have very high hopes for their season this year and I have no doubt that they’ll achieve those.

"I just think that the parents are great role models for their kids and I think this town just breeds really hardworking, talented student-athletes."