Annitra Cole joins the Norfolk State women’s basketball coaching staff ahead of the 2022-23 season with over 18 years of coaching experience under her belt.
Cole served as an assistant coach at Virginia State from 2019-22, where she coached and developed two all-conference performers and an Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award recipient. She helped guide the Trojans to a pair of victories over Shaw and Bowie State in the 2022 CIAA Basketball Tournament.
Cole spent a year at Kentucky State prior to her time at Virginia State as an assistant coach for the 2018-19 season, becoming the team’s acting head coach for the final 13 games of the season. She guided the team to finish the season 16-14, its most successful season in over three years. She played a pivotal role in the development of Brooke Wallace, who earned All-SIAC second team honors.
Before joining Kentucky State, Cole spent four years as an assistant coach at Winston-Salem State from 2014-18. In her final season with the program, the team compiled its first winning record since 2013-14, going 6-1 during one dominant stretch of the campaign.
Cole coached two conference all-rookie team performers with the Rams and helped develop star Kandace Tate. Tate landed on the CIAA All-Conference team for the second straight season in 2017-18 after averaging 14.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game.
Cole received her first collegiate head coaching job in September of 2011, leading the Washington Adventist women’s basketball program until 2014. She navigated the Lady Shock to a 6-17 record in her first season at the helm, the team’s most wins since the 2007-08 campaign. The team continued to improve, eventually winning nine games in the 2013-14 slate.
As the leader of the Washington Adventist program, Cole helped the team succeed off the court as well as on it. She coached four All-Independent Collegiate Athletic Association award recipients, an All-American United State Collegiate Athletic Association honorable mention, and a United State Collegiate Athletic Association Winter Sport All-Academic Team selection.
In addition to her head coaching duties, she served as the athletic department’s compliance coordinator, maintaining accurate student-athlete and department files and conducting continuing rules and compliance education programs for coaches, staff, and student athletes. She also took on the role of sports information director, preparing media releases to deliver news about the university’s athletics programs to the public.
Cole served as a compliance intern with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) from 2010-11, assisting with NCAA rules interpretations and education and processing National Letters of Intent (NLI) into a national database.
Cole spent one season with the Hampton women’s basketball program as an assistant coach from 2009-10, leading the squad to a 17-11 regular season record, going 12-4 in conference play. The Pirates would go on to win the MEAC Tournament Championship, the team’s first since 2006, securing a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Cole’s coaching career began at her alma mater, North Carolina Central. After spending a season as a graduate assistant at the school from 2002-03, and two years as an assistant coach at Riverside High School from 2004-06, she rejoined the Eagles as an assistant coach from 2006-09.
North Carolina Central enjoyed historic success during Cole’s time on the coaching staff. The Eagles won the won the CIAA Tournament Championship in 2007, becoming Black College Sports Page (BCSP) Co-Women’s Basketball Black College National Champions. That year, the team set the school record for wins (26) and consecutive victories (19).
Before coaching at NCCU, Cole excelled on the court there as a student-athlete. During her playing career, she led the Eagles to two CIAA Western Division regular season titles, earning the No. 1 ranking in the South Atlantic Regional Poll for the first time in school history. The team advanced to its first-ever NCAA Division II “Sweet 16” during the 2002 season.
Cole received her Bachelor of Arts in History from North Carolina Central in 2002 and earned a Master of Arts in History from the school in 2004.
