Hail to the Chief

Antrim High's Ed Coughlan, December 1965...more than a force on the court.

Perhaps it’s a rural New Hampshire thing, but the nine towns that send students to Conval High—the Contoocook River bending its way around several of them—have long been interconnected. Each town is unique in its own way, and yet there is this sense that when you cross the town line from, say, New Boston to Francestown, you have entered Cougar Country as much as you’ve entered one of its nine towns.

Last year’s boys’ basketball starting five, for example, represented five different towns.

And when you explore our region’s hoop history, those interconnections keep popping up. In 1964, for example, when Antrim High was alive and well, little would Conval fans realize that Antrim’s long-time basketball coach, Chick Hamel, would one day become CV’s first assistant principal. (See “Paving the Way”). And one of Chick’s star players in 1964 would one day become a legend in Hancock for many years.

“You don’t have players like Ed very often,” said coach Hamel of his 6’2” hoop captain, Ed Coughlan. Born in Concord, Ed moved to Antrim as a boy to live with his grandmother where he reportedly often cooked up supper on her wood stove. (Over the years, it’s said he collected more than 500 cookbooks!) But at Antrim High, Ed was known for cooking up basketball. He scored 211 points in a relatively brief 1963-’64 regular season, and according to the Peterborough Transcript, was “the envy of area coaches, who in most instances are lacking the big man for their attack.” 

"He was as passionate in teaching kids sports as he was a police chief; he was always available to both players and officers, and was known as a mentor to many.”

The Conval interconnection continued after graduation from Antrim when Ed became a decorated Vietnam veteran and later chose Hancock as the town in which to raise his family. And so much more. In 1977, he became chief of police, serving the community he loved with grace and patience until 1999. Along the way, his love for basketball and other sports developed at Antrim High became part of his personality as chief of police, winning the accolades and respect of townspeople in every generation.

Coughlan “transitioned his love of sports into coaching and umpiring both Little League and all-star baseball and basketball teams. He was as passionate in teaching kids sports as he was a police chief; he was always available to both players and officers, and was known as a mentor to many,” wrote Monadnock Ledger reporter Nicholas Handy following Ed’s passing in February 2015 at the age of 68.

Four of Ed’s Hancock officers became chiefs in area towns.

“There were many times where you could find him down at the baseball field, umpiring Little League games while he was on duty and in uniform,” said former chief Scott Baldwin in the article. “Ed had to be one of the most respected and beloved police chiefs in all of the Monadnock Region.”

Coach Hamel was right, in more ways than one… “You don’t have players like Ed very often.”