Home sweet home
Former Bearkat standout returns as head coach of women's basketball team
SID
Issue date: 8/24/06 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 2 next >
HUNTSVILLE -- Brenda Welch-Nichols, head coach the past four years at Mercer University in Macon, GA, is the new head women's basketball coach at Sam Houston State University, Director of Athletics Bobby Williams has announced.
Nichols is a 1988 Sam Houston graduate, earning All-Southland Conference honors in both 1987 and 1988 in women's basketball. In her two seasons as a Bearkat, she averaged 17.8 points and 6.5 rebounds to rank 10th in SHSU women's career scoring with 923 points. She holds a 131-131 career record at four-year schools and an 80-69 mark at the junior college level.
"Brenda Welch-Nichols is a proven NCAA Division I head coach and we're extremely excited she and her family are returning to Sam Houston State," Williams said. "She knows what it takes to build a program at this level.
With her knowledge of the game and her background in this area, we believe Brenda is the coach who can take this program to a higher level."
Nichols built Mercer into a front-runner in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Last year, the Bears reached the semifinals of the conference tournament, losing by five points in overtime after upsetting number three seed East Tennessee State in the first round.
The Bears reached the Atlantic Sun tournament in each of Nichols' four seasons at Mercer and were 41-35 in league play. Last year in non-league action, Mercer beat Pacific, Southern Mississippi, and New Orleans.
Previously, Nichols served as an assistant at South Alabama and Memphis and was head coach at Okaloosa-Walton Community College and Western Texas Junior College. She worked as an assistant coach at Pensacola Junior College when Sam Houston men's basketball head coach Bob Marlin was men's coach there.
"My family and I are so excited to be returning to Sam Houston State where we got our start," Nichols said. "My husband Barry and I are both Sam Houston graduates and met on the campus in Huntsville. I had a great two years at Sam and have always been a Bearkat at heart. It's exciting to be coming home."
Nichols is a 1988 Sam Houston graduate, earning All-Southland Conference honors in both 1987 and 1988 in women's basketball. In her two seasons as a Bearkat, she averaged 17.8 points and 6.5 rebounds to rank 10th in SHSU women's career scoring with 923 points. She holds a 131-131 career record at four-year schools and an 80-69 mark at the junior college level.
"Brenda Welch-Nichols is a proven NCAA Division I head coach and we're extremely excited she and her family are returning to Sam Houston State," Williams said. "She knows what it takes to build a program at this level.
With her knowledge of the game and her background in this area, we believe Brenda is the coach who can take this program to a higher level."
Nichols built Mercer into a front-runner in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Last year, the Bears reached the semifinals of the conference tournament, losing by five points in overtime after upsetting number three seed East Tennessee State in the first round.
The Bears reached the Atlantic Sun tournament in each of Nichols' four seasons at Mercer and were 41-35 in league play. Last year in non-league action, Mercer beat Pacific, Southern Mississippi, and New Orleans.
Previously, Nichols served as an assistant at South Alabama and Memphis and was head coach at Okaloosa-Walton Community College and Western Texas Junior College. She worked as an assistant coach at Pensacola Junior College when Sam Houston men's basketball head coach Bob Marlin was men's coach there.
"My family and I are so excited to be returning to Sam Houston State where we got our start," Nichols said. "My husband Barry and I are both Sam Houston graduates and met on the campus in Huntsville. I had a great two years at Sam and have always been a Bearkat at heart. It's exciting to be coming home."
Be the first to comment on this story