Cal Poly women’s basketball head coach Shanele Stires has rounded out her coaching staff for the 2023-24 season with the addition former Alderson-Broaddus head coach Ta-Rel Franklin as the new Director of Operations.
“Ta-Rel is a young and up and coming coach that gives us a lot of ability to interface externally in the community with his effervescent personality as well as internally with our players,” Stires commented of Franklin. “Another great thing is that he has head coaching experience and as Alderson-Broaddus’ Chief Diversity Officer so he’s worn many hats and been able to manage the direction we want to go which will make him a great fit for us.”
Franklin comes to Cal Poly after spending the last four years at Alderson-Broaddus University in Philippi, WV where he was first the men’s basketball Associate Head Coach before becoming the head women’s basketball coach there. He was also the school’s Chief Diversity Officer during his time there.
Prior to that, he had stops at Hendrix College in Conway, AR as the assistant men’s basketball coach (2018-19) as well as Bluffton University in Bluffton, OH also as an assistant men’s basketball coach (2016-18).
“I would like to thank Coach Stires and the Cal Poly family for this opportunity,” Franklin said. “I am extremely excited to be joining a strong-minded staff that is family oriented and wants to win at the highest level.”
Franklin is a 2016 graduate of Alderson-Broaddus University where he was the Director of Basketball Operations there and a student assistant coach while he was a student. During the summer of 2013, he also worked for the World Basketball Association as the Assistant to the Director of Basketball Operations.
Franklin received his Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Alderson-Broaddus in 2016 and earned his Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Sports Management from Bluffton University in 2018.
