COTY: Cedar Hill High School Head Girls Basketball Coach Nicole Collins

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girls basketball coach nicole collins
Cedar Hill girls basketball coach Nicole Collins

Cedar Hill High School Head Girls Basketball Coach Nicole Collins Named Class 6A Dean Weese Coach of the Year

Cedar Hill, TX – Cedar Hill High School Head Girls Basketball Coach Nicole Collins has been named the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Class 6A Dean Weese Coach of the Year. The award is named for a legendary West Texas girls basketball coach.

According to Collins, the award is presented to a coach who had a team overcome adversity and still enjoy a successful season.

Collins’ Lady Longhorns finished 31-10 overall and third in District 6A-7. After a series of close playoff victories, Cedar Hill reached the Regional Championship Game for the first time in 10 years, losing to eventual 6A State Champion, Duncanville, 56-54.

Collins said there was a great deal of adversity before the season and during it. Shortly after the 2018-19 season, Collins lost her father and close mentor, Joe Collins. “That was beyond a huge blow to me and my family,” Collins said. “We had a great relationship. He was my biggest fan and biggest supporter. We spoke to each other after every game, and he was the person who taught me about the game of basketball. Going through a season without him has been one of the toughest things for me to go through.”

Beyond that, several members of the program have dealt with family illness and tragedy during the offseason and into the season. On the court, Collins said the Lady Longhorns had a remarkable season in 2018-19, but she believes a shocking loss to South Grand Prairie in the Regional Quarterfinals may have carried over to the beginning of the 2019-20 season. “We weren’t playing our best basketball,” Collins said.

Cedar Hill kick started its momentum in February with a 6A-7 district victory at South Grand Prairie, which spoiled the Lady Warriors’ Senior Night but propelled the Lady Longhorns.

Coach Collins Career

Collins grew up in Houston and had a stellar high school basketball career at Pasadena Dobie High School, earning All-State honors as a senior. She went on to earn a scholarship to Baylor University as a point guard. Before Collins’ sophomore year, Baylor hired new head coach Kim Mulkey. Collins was part of the first Lady Bears team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Three years after Collins finished her career at Baylor, the Lady Bears won the first of their three NCAA Championships.

After earning a degree in Forensic Science from Baylor in 2003, Collins expected to become a doctor or a nurse. But one of her high school coaches convinced her to try coaching. She coached at Mansfield Summit and Fort Worth Dunbar before arriving at Cedar Hill as an assistant.

She was an assistant on the 2009-10 Cedar Hill Team that reached the State Semifinals.

After brief stints as head coach at Coppell and North Crowley, respectively, Collins returned to Cedar Hill as head coach where she has continued the Lady Longhorns’ success.