Western New Mexico University Athletics

Brenda Nichols is in her first year as WNMU Head Women's Basketball Coach. Prior to WNMU, Nichols most recent coaching stops were Head Girls Basketball Coach at Huffman Hargrave High School and Bossier Parish Community College but is most known for her run as Head Women's Basketball Coach at Sam Houston State University from 2006-2018.
 
In her 12 years at Sam Houston, Nichols won the university's first women's Southland Conference championship and NCAA Division I post-season tournament appearances in the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) and Women's National Invitational (WNIT). Nichols was awarded Southland Conference "Coach of the Year" honors in 2013.
 
Prior to Sam Houston Nichols, was head coach at Mercer University in Macon, Ga.; served as an assistant at South Alabama and Memphis and was head coach at Okaloosa-Walton Community College and Western Texas.
 
Nichols playing career included two years at Sam Houston, from 1987-89, where was the leading scorer for the 18-9 Sam Houston squad in 1988. Nichols also spent two years as an NJCAA All-American at Western Texas Junior College, where she holds the record for most points scored in a game at 44, which she accomplished twice. Her 17.8 career scoring average stands as the second-highest mark in Sam Houston women's basketball history. In 2014 she was inducted to the Sam Houston Athletics Hall of Honor.
 
Nichols earned her undergraduate degree from Sam Houston in physical education in 1989, and her master's at the University of West Florida in 1992. Nichols also earned her minor in art and is a published children's book illustrator.  The Jennings, LA., native has two sons, Brady, and Brock, daughter, Brelee, daughter-in-law, Kate (Brady) and grandson Mikey.