Before this season, Sean Hogan’s experience as a New Hampshire high school girls basketball coach has lasted three-and-a-half quarters.

He’s about to add quite a few quarters to that.

Hogan, who is best known as the girls and boys volleyball coach at Timberlane, was named the new varsity girls basketball coach at Campbell and is set to make his debut as the Cougars open their season tonight at 6 at home vs. Mascoma Valley.

“For three-and-a-half quarters I was the coach at Timberlane,” Hogan said with a chuckle, explaining that Owls varsity coach Julia Howe was out on maternity leave but came back surprisingly the night she came home from the hospital.

Hogan certainly is no stranger to the sport. He has been the boys JV coach at Timberlane and was coaching at the middle school in Plaistown when he was asked to briefly fill in for Howe. He’s used to big turnouts at the start of a season, as 60 came out for volleyball at Timberlane this past fall. So imagine his surprise when just 21 came out for basketball at Campbell.

“That’s OK, we have enough to have two rosters (varsity and JV), and I was able to talk to some of the girls who weren’t sure if they were coming out,” said Hogan, who has also been hired as a phys ed teacher at the school.

The coach of the last two seasons, Drew Gora, stepped down this fall to spend more time with his family.

Here’s a capsule look at the Cougars, who will be hard pressed to compete with powers like Monadnock, Conant, Fall Mountain, etc. but be athletic nontheless as they return four starters:

COACH: Sean Hogan (first year).

LAST SEASON: 8-10, lost to Fall Mountain in the tourney prelims.

RETURNING STARTERS: Caedran Sullivan, 5-10 sr. forward; Tori Allen, 5-10 jr. forward; Riley Gamache, 5-3 jr. guard; Karleigh Schultz, 5-10 jr. forward.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Alyssa Gonzalez, 5-6 jr. guard-forward; Bria Soule, 5-1 so. Guard; Tiana Boyson, 5-7 so.guard-forward; Bailey Bourque, 5-6 so.guard;

Hailey Anderson, 5-7 so.forward; Brooke Stoncius, 5-5 so.guard.

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Kristina Castellano, 5-5 fr. guard.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “I think there are enough pieces here where we should have some fun and be competitive,” Hogan said.

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