ABILENE – Abilene Christian head women's basketball coach
Julie Goodenough today announced the addition of
Drew Cole to the Wildcats' 2018-19 coaching staff. The former Austin Peay Director of Basketball Operations joins a coaching roster composed of Goodenough (seventh season at ACU) in addition to fourth-year associate head coach
Erika Lambert and third-year assistant coach
Erik DeRoo.
Cole primarily will serve the team as its travel and facilities coordinator and academic liaison. He also will assist Coach Lambert with post development, plus scouting and recruiting.
"I'm thrilled to add Coach Cole to our staff," said Goodenough. "He's had the opportunity to work under two head coaches who entrusted him to assist, manage, and coordinate many of the day-to-day operations of their respective programs. His work experience will allow him to make a seamless transition into his new position for us, and his perspective as a former college athlete also gives him great insight on the demands of our student-athletes."
Drew Cole
Cole joined the Austin Peay women's basketball staff in 2016 serving as the Governors' graduate assistant for the 2016-17 season before being promoted to the Director of Basketball Operations position for the 2017-18 season.
As the APU women's basketball Director of Basketball Operations, Cole was responsible for planning recruiting and travel. In addition, he was responsible for managing the student-athlete's daily calendars and supervised the team's film exchange and breakdown.
He first aided the coaching staff with film exchange and editing as part of preparing scouting reports throughout his graduate assistantship. He later helped develop offseason workout plans for the players in preparation for the start of the 2017-18 season.
A 2016 graduate of Aurora (Ill.) University, Cole began his coaching career as a student assistant coach for the Spartans women's basketball team. During his time with the NCAA DIII Spartans, he was part of a staff that helped the program reach the conference championship for the first time in 14 seasons. He also was responsible for compiling the team's scoring reports and worked with individual players on skill development.
A native of Monmouth, Illinois, Cole joins a program that has posted six consecutive winning seasons and competed in the postseason each of the last three years. Last year's Wildcats went 16-14 and won their first-round Southland Conference Championship game vs. New Orleans, 88-66.
The 2017-18 Wildcats also defeated Idaho (W, 82-72) and Old Dominion (W, 74-60) prior to finishing seventh in the Southland Conference with a 9-9 record. ACU will return all but three players from last year's team, including all-conference honoree and junior point guard
Breanna Wright who led the league (18th in the nation) with a .874 free-throw percentage.
Wright will be one of five juniors on next fall's team along with guards
Dominique Golightly and
Pamela Herrera and post players
Lexi Kirgan and
Lexie Ducat (Rice transfer). ACU also brings back senior
Sara Williamson and the sophomore class of
Josie Larson,
Kayla Galindo,
Makayla Mabry and
Alyssa Adams.
This season's crop of newcomers include freshmen Jenna Cooper, Kam Mraz, Diamond Wilcot and Madi Miller and transfers Anna McLeod (Louisiana Tech) and Jazz Taylor (Collin County Community College).
The 2017-18 Wildcats once again ranked first in the Southland Conference in all 3-point shooting categories and were tops with 125 blocked shots. They also ranked third with a 3.1 rebound margin and 69.3 points per game.
