Unlike the military, the captains must lead the Generals at John Stark High School.

Last season, the John Stark girls basketball team was knocked out of the playoffs by Souhegan in the quarterfinal round, and now head coach Wayne Thomson turns to Brittany Purington and Olivia Cray, his two seniors, to fill leadership roles.

“They’re going to have to step up,” said Thomson, the long-time mentor. “They aren’t in a supporting role. They are going to have to take charge. They’ll have to play like captains and play like seniors.”

Stark opened the 2008-09 season with a 52-40 win on the road vs. Milford on Tuesday, Dec. 2, and next play at Lebanon on Friday, Dec. 5.

Still, the chemistry of Thomson’s team – four juniors and six sophomores in addition to the two seniors – will require time to capture.

“Sometimes it takes a while,” he said. “We lost our center and our point guard. We lost one of our best bench players. We have to fill in the scoring, fill in the defense with whatever we can.”

Stepping in at center is junior Megan Titcomb, while Thomson said sophomore point guard Erica Vaillancourt may be asked to run the offense. “Megan has really improved on the offensive side of the ball, and she’ll have to anchor us in the middle,” said Thomson. “It’s always nice not to lose a ton of seniors, but it’s nice to have some.

“It’s a fine line,” he added. “If you’re looking for the future, it’s definitely nice to have the younger kids in there.” Besides, he’s happy with the depth of his squad. “They’ve come along pretty quick,” said Thomson. “My top seven or eight players are pretty interchangeable.”

With the preseason wrapped up, Thomson said he’s excited to see his young team on the floor when it counts. “We want to keep working and peak right around tournament time,” he said. “We’ve been going hard for two weeks, so it’ll be nice to get out and do it for real.”