Cole Birchfield enters his fourth season as Joanna Tincher’s lead assistant coach at Newberry in the 2021-2022 season.
Currently, Birchfield assists in all aspects of the Wolves’ program with an emphasis on player development, scouting reports, academic monitoring, summer camps and social media, in addition to on-court coaching and mentoring. In the summer of 2021, Birchfield was named Recruiting Coordinator by Tincher.
During Birchfield’s time at Newberry, the Wolves have compiled a 42-34 record, finishing .500 or better in each season, including three top 5 finishes in league play.
During the 2018-2019 season, Birchfield helped Newberry to a 16-12 record, recording the best start in program history at 10-0, including an upset of D1 Winthrop University. Birchfield assisted with the continued development of First Team All-Conference Selection Meg Essex and Second Team All-Conference guard Shelby Britten.
During the 2019-2020 season, Birchfield helped guide Newberry to a 16-12 record, including a 13-8 record in conference play and a top 4 seed in the SAC tournament. Birchfield was instrumental in creating scouting reports that helped the Wolves succeed in knocking off two nationally ranked opponents in Anderson and Catawba, respectively. Guards Keli Romas and Kelsey McDermott were named to the All-SAC Second Team at the end of the season.
In the shortened 2020-2021 season, the Wolves finished at .500 with a 10-10 record.
Birchfield spent the 2017-18 season on staff at Higdon, Alabama's North Sand Mountain High School. He served as an assistant coach with the varsity team while taking the head role with both the freshman and junior high teams. He was in charge of skill development and in-game substitutions, and helped to create scouting reports for the varsity program, where he helped head coach Cole Hicks engineer a 10-game turnaround from the previous season and an overall 11-10 record.
Prior to his coaching experience, Birchfield spent two years as a personal trainer at D1 Sports in Chattanooga, TN where he worked primarily with junior college basketball and softball players on strength, technique, footwork, and speed.
Birchfield played the 2013-14 season in Scarlet and Gray. He was the team's fourth-leading scorer as a true freshman, averaging 8.4 points per game and firing at a 40.2 percent clip from the field while playing in all 28 games. He attained his season high of 19 points in the regular season finale against Carson-Newman and reached double figures 10 times. He completed his career at Shorter, playing in 72 games and averaging 6.1 points per contest while shooting 41.0 percent.
