Nicole Graham enters her first season as the Head Coach of the Harford Women's Basketball team. Previously, she was the Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach & Recruiting Coordinator at Division I Mount St. Mary’s University. Graham also spent 3 years prior as the Assistant Coach & Recruiting Coordinator at her alma mater Clark Atlanta University, an NCAA Division II University and member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) located in Atlanta, Georgia.
Graham knew from an early age she wanted to play college basketball, and those dreams were solidified at Charlotte’s Mallard Creek High School, a statewide powerhouse program. During her high school career, Graham made the I-Mecklenburg All-Conference Team, the All-Mecklenburg County Team, the Charlotte Observer First Team, and was named the Mallard Creek High School Team Best Overall Player. Before graduating in 2012 from Mallard Creek, Graham became the first women’s or men’s player in Mallard Creek history to score 1,000 career points. She began her collegiate playing career at Fayetteville State University before transferring to Brevard College.
Following her graduation from Brevard with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, Graham used her final year of eligibility in the SAIC to play for Clark Atlanta’s Lady Panthers. Graham’s aunt Cynthia Graham Hurd was a proud Clark Atlanta alumnus, and when she was tragically killed in the Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, Graham knew she wanted to honor her aunt’s passing by following in her footsteps. She finished out her playing career at Clark Atlanta as she worked toward her master’s degree in Public Administration.
Graham’s interest in coaching college basketball grew while at Clark Atlanta. As a graduate assistant during the 2017-2018 season, the Lady Panthers won the SIAC Tournament title, and the next year, she’d go on to her first coaching job – Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at St. Augustine University in Raleigh. In 2019, she returned to where her coaching career began – Clark Atlanta – as Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach.
When it comes to coaching, Graham’s goal is to be the kind of coach that she enjoyed playing for when she was a student athlete – passionate, dynamic, driven, and someone who’s able to connect with her players on a technical level as well as an emotional one. As a former college player, she knows it’s important for players to balance the demands of practice, games, and school – and she’s a trusted mentor for her students, both on and off the court.
