Mid-Continent University opens the 2009-10 intercollegiate athletics season with three new head coaches, including volleyball coach Brittany Nicley and women’s basketball coach Courtney Nicley, and former assistant softball coach Christa Bakemeier who was promoted to the head coaching position, June 24, after the resignation of veteran coach Rocky Stinson, who moved on coach softball at Bryan College (Tenn.).

Brittany Nicley, 23, replaces Lilly Zhan at the helm of the Cougar volleyball fortunes after Zhan’s two seasons in Mayfield, and Courtney Nicley, 25, replaces Dominic Tharpe as women’s basketball coach after one season.

Brittany and Courtney are sisters and both are graduates of Western Boone. They begin their first seasons as head coaches and now live in Paducah, Ky.

The younger Nicley played volleyball, softball, and basketball all four years of high school, while Courtney played volleyball and basketball and ran track all four years.

Brittany earned All-Conference awards in all three sports as a sophomore, junior, and senior and still holds the school volleyball record for most career assists and assists in a season and in a single match.

Courtney was an All-Conference award winner for two years in volleyball, three years of basketball, and all four years of track.

She was listed in the 2000-01 Hoosier Basketball Magazine list of the top 100 seniors.

In a Jan. 30, 2001, high school game vs. Rossville High School, Courtney totaled 47 points, and then scored 22 in her next game against Crawfordsville, which put her over 1,000 career points. For her efforts in consecutive games, she was named ESPN School Sports Athlete of the Week.

Ironically, the Nicleys’ father, Paul Nicley, set Western Boone’s boys’ basketball scoring record with two consecutive 47-point games in 1975-76, a mark that still stands.

While their high school careers converged slightly, their college careers were quite different.

Courtney graduated from high school in 2001, and went on to Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne, where she played four seasons of NCAA Division I basketball, from 2001-2005.

She is one of 13 members of IUPU-Fort Wayne’s 1000-point club with 1018 career points in 106 games, and also totaled 372 rebounds, 201 assists, 73 three-point field goals and averaged 9.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game over her career.

Courtney graduated from IUPU-Fort Wayne in 2005, with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice.

A 2004 high school graduate, Brittany attended Judson College, an NAIA school in Elgin, Ill., and played four years of volleyball and softball. She graduated from Judson in 2008, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education. As a senior setter on Judson’s volleyball team, she led the team with 218 assists.

As a junior and senior middle infielder, Brittany helped Judson qualify for the National Christian College Athletics Association (NCCAA) Championships.

She hit .293 with three doubles, 17 RBI, 7 stolen bases, and 14 runs scored as a senior, and Judson posted a 24-24 record, its season record for wins, and placed third at NCCAA Nationals in Florida.

Brittany ranks fourth in Judson history with 381 career at-bats, seventh with 91 hits, 12th with 21 walks, and 13th with 37 RBI and 35 runs scored.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work in an atmosphere where the people show tremendous support for me as an individual and what I am trying to accomplish within the university,” says Nicley, after receiving her first collegiate coaching position.

Out of college since 2005, Courtney served as assistant coach for Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana for two seasons (2005-07).

She earned her Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification in 2007, and worked as a patient care technician for one year and as an EMT at a hospital in Lebanon in 2008-09, just before applying for the Mid-Continent women’s basketball position.

“My desire is to change the style of play, not only offensively, but defensively with an up-in-your-face style and lots of pressure. I want our players to develop not only athletics ability but grow in heart and character,” says MCU’s new head coach.

Schwepker is the Sports Information Director at Mid-Continent University.