Berry taps Cole to head up men’s program
The former D-I assistant most recently was at Arkansas-Little Rock.
After one of the most successful seasons in the team’s recent history, Berry College was tasked with looking for a new head men’s basketball coach. On Saturday, the school presented their results.
Mitch Cole, who has served on the staff of Texas A&M and led Birmingham-Southern to conference and division titles, will be the new coach Berry athletic director Todd Brooks announced.
“We are extremely pleased and excited that Mitch has agreed to become our next head men’s basketball coach,” Brooks said in a release. “He is a consummate professional and talented coach that brings a wealth of experience and proven success with him. His previous Division III experience and familiarity with the other institutions in the Southern Athletic Association makes him an ideal fit.”
Cole will join the Vikings as the 12th head coach in program history after serving as the assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for the past two years. He spent the previous five seasons on the staff at Texas A&M, where he was a special assistant under Billy Kennedy.
“I would like to thank athletics director Todd Brooks and the search committee for the opportunity to become the head men’s basketball coach at Berry College,” Cole said in a statement.
from B1
“I appreciate the leadership of President Stephen Briggs and Dean Debbie Heida, and I look forward to the shared responsibility of serving our studentathletes. With a world-class campus, top-tier facilities, and a winning athletic culture, Berry is a place where we hope to attract championship level student-athletes. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about building a basketball program that will make the incredible people at Berry College proud.”
The Vikings won the Southern Athletic Association championship this past season under head coach Jeff Rogers, who resigned from the position last month. Berry went from the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament to winning the title and earning a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.
Cole worked under Kennedy from 2011-16. He was part of the teams at Texas A&M that won 49 games over two seasons, including a program-record 28 in 2015-16.
The Aggies won the regular-season Southeastern Conference title that year, reaching the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament to cap one of the best seasons in program history.
Cole came to A&M after one of the most successful seasons in BSC men’s basketball history, leading the Panthers to a 23-4 overall record in 2010-11 and winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship with a 14-2 conference mark.
The Panthers ended the season by winning the NCAA Division III Provisional Tournament Championship in Steubenville, Ohio. Cole earned D3hoops.com South Region Coach of the Year honors at the conclusion of the year.
A New Orleans, Louisiana, native, Cole graduated from Holy Cross High School in 1988. He played collegiately at Montana State University-Billings, where he double majored in history and education and graduated in 1992. Cole went on to earn his master’s in education from Auburn while working as a graduate assistant with the basketball team.
He and his wife, Amy, have three children: daughter Laura Kate and sons Carson and Joshua.