Lees-McRae Head Women’s Basketball Coach Keith Jennings announced the hiring of Kiara Colston as an assistant coach on Friday afternoon. Colston joins the Bobcats from Westcliff University in Irvine, California where she was the Head Assistant Coach with the program for the previous two seasons, while also earning her Master’s degree in Business Administration from Westcliff.
“I would like to officially welcome Kiara to the Lees-McRae women’s basketball family,” said Jennings. “From our very first conversations, I knew that Kiara would make an immediate impact on our women’s basketball program. Her accolades as a former player will give her instant respect from our student-athletes and I am very excited about the outlook to our 2022-23 season and beyond.”
While serving as the head assistant coach at Westcliff, Colston’s main responsibilities include assisting with overall recruiting, overseeing scheduling, player development, and academic progress of her student-athletes, organizing travel arrangements, conducting practices and study hall sessions, as well as producing scouting reports for opponents. Before her experience at Westcliff, Colston was an Assistant High School Head Coach at Chesapeake Math and IT Academy since the completion of her undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland.
“I want to thank Coach Keith Jennings and Vice President Craig McPhail for giving me this opportunity to become part of Bobcat Nation,” said Colston. “I am excited for our student-athletes to return to campus and begin working with them for the upcoming season. Our student-athletes have a great chance to become successful on the court and in the classroom this year and I am excited to work with them in the coming weeks.”
In addition to her coaching experience, Colston was also a three-year player on the NCAA Division II Bowie State team who finished the 2017-18 season with a 22-10 overall record to earn the program’s first NCAA appearance since 1998. Colston also found individual success as she made the All-CIAA Tournament Team in each of her three seasons, was named the CIAA Women’s Basketball Player of the Week on three occasions, and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Bowie State Athletic Department.
