Saturday, July 27th, 2024

Brandi Cantrell | 2001 – 2004 | Coronado High School

Sometimes it doesn’t take very long to make a huge impact. That certainly was the case for Brandi Cantrell at Coronado High School. Brandi took over as Head Volleyball Coach at Coronado in 2001 and her accomplishments during her four seasons there were amazing. She did have the advantage of having played at Coronado from 1987-1990 for Lubbock ISD Athletic Hall of Honor Member and legendary coach, Patty Jones. Cantrell was a three-year letter winner for the Lady Mustangs and a Co-Captain of the team both her junior and senior years. She was named to the All-State Academic Team as a senior and received a volleyball scholarship to Baylor University, where she was a four-year letter winner from 1990-1993. Brandi started teaching in 1994 at Alderson Junior High. She was only there a year before taking a job with Canyon High School as their Head Volleyball Coach. She served in that position through May of 1998. Then, it was back to her alma mater as the Assistant Volleyball Coach for her former coach, Patty Jones. In 2000, Coach Cantrell was hired by Tascosa High School as their Volleyball Coach. She was only there for one season, but during that year, her team won the District 3-5A Championship and finished the year as a State Semifinalist. Brandi was named the 3-5A Coach of the Year. The reason Brandi only stayed one season at Tascosa was that the job at her alma mater opened up, with the retirement of Coach Jones. In 2001, her first year at the helm of the Lady Mustangs, Cantrell guided the team to the regional quarterfinals. The next year would see the Lady Mustangs go all the way to the regional semifinals and Brandi was named District 2-5A Coach of the Year. The 2003 team finished as Tri-Champions of the District and made it to the Regional Semifinals once again. The time had come for Coronado to reach the state tournament and 2004 would be the year. The Lady Mustangs got all the way to the state championship game before falling to Austin Westlake. Coronado finished the year 41-4 and Brandi was awarded the Texas Girls Coaches Association 4A-5A Texas Coach of the Year. In 2005, Brandi went into Christian ministry and served in Vienna, Austria until January 2012. She then returned home to Lubbock and joined the ministry team with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She is currently the Texas Tech Women’s Chaplain and Texas Tech Campus FCA Women’s Director.
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