Hollis Brookline boys hoop coach Cole Etten has been named the new boys hoop coach at Windham. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Cole Etten has always been about challenges.

He won a Division II boys basketball championship in 2015 at Bishop Brady, but that didn’t stop him from moving on to the challenge of winning one at Hollis Brookline, which he did in his very first season in 2017-18.

And now? Etten is tackling the Division I challenge, announced early Wednesday evening as the new boys hoop coach at Windham High School.

The Jaguars athletic department sent out an illustrated tweet late yesterday afternoon, welcoming Etten as their new boys hoop coach.

“Windham High School is excited to announce the appointment of Cole Etten as our varsty boys basketball coach,” it said. “Coach Etten is an accomplished educator and coach who has established himself as one of the best young leaders in New Hampshire high schol sports, having led both Bishop Grady and Hollis Brookline to NHIAA Boys Basketball State Championships.”

Etten guided the Cavaliers to an undefeated title season, a year in which both the boys and girls won the state title. The Cavalier boys downed Oyster River 56-40 in the title game at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym. Etten took the job after previous longtime Cavs coach Mike Soucy left to become the athletic director at Merrimack High School.

The Cavaliers fell short in 2019, losing in the early rounds and again in 2021, falling 61-49 to Manchester West after a pandemic-shortened 5-4 regular season. They made the quarterfinals in 2020, but before they could play the rest of the tournament was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Windham, a relative newcomer to Division I, went 8-4 this past season and lost to Timberlane in the first round of the tournament, 58-55. Etten’s final HB team.

Etten, Windham’s tweet noted, is near completion of his Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

“A true educator and student of the game,” the school said.

And now a Jaguar.

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