Born and raised in Omaha, Central’s new girls’ basketball head coach Nicole Mitchell is ready to take to the court.
After two seasons with the Eagles as assistant coach, Mitchell has officially moved up to head coach after Mike Kroupa left the position following last season. She believes she is ready to take the team back to the state tournament in Lincoln and hopes they can win it all.
Mitchell grew up in the sport, playing basketball in both middle and high school. She didn’t begin coaching until fresh out of college when the Boys and Girls Club asked if she needed a job and challenged her with the task of creating a basketball program.
She knew nothing about coaching basketball, only knowing how to play it at the time. Mitchell created the Lady Jaguars program and began her coaching career.
Mitchell proceeded to coach at the club level, then moving to Omaha Public Schools where she would coach at King Science and Technology Middle School. She also held positions coaching at Benson and Northwest, and later took the position of head coach at Bryan. She joined Central’s coaching staff in 2022 at the request of Kroupa.
“I think Mitchell moving up to head coach is going to be good because it’s another perspective from someone who played basketball,” senior Assata Lytle said.
With a new coach comes new goals for the Eagles. Mitchell’s plan is plain and simple: “Make sure that we are preparing young ladies and develop them not only on the court but off the court, being disciplined in the classroom, and outside the classroom and to go to Lincoln and win state,” she said.
The goals for the team not only resonate with Mitchell but with the players and what they are hoping to see for this upcoming season. “We want to play together as one and keep a positive attitude, we are a very small team and playing through that adversity and getting through anything is important,” Lytle said.
“But if nothing else I always tell the girls everybody is not going to play at the next level, but you will walk out with some sort of plan for life out of high school,” Mitchell said.
The Eagles made it to the state tournament last year as the eighth seed in Class A, losing in the first round to eventual state champions Millard West.
After the successful season the Eagles had last season and the goal to reach the state tournament in Lincoln again, there is lingering pressure not only on the players but on Michell as her first year as head coach.
With a new coach also means a change of dynamic on the team.
“She’s a coach that is going to discipline you the way that you need to be and make you accountable,” Lytle said. “She is also going to let us play, she has known us longer than we have been in high school so she will help and guide us more individually.”
There has been a fire lit underneath the girls’ basketball team because of some circulating doubts around if their season will be like the last, and if they are going to be taking it all at the end of the season.
“Anytime you have a transition and coaching change, and you lose some of your top players, there is always going to be that doubt, but I know what I am doing,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said there is always work that can be done to get better and the team knows that well. They have been conditioning for the last 12 weeks to ensure they are in peak shape to start this season off strong on Nov. 18.
Mitchell hopes that the girls on her team take away with is they know who they are, they know to be themselves, and that it is okay to be different.
