Kristen Cole joined the athletic performance team as an intern in August 2020, working with baseball, men’s basketball, cross country, football, lacrosse, women’s basketball, cross country, track and field and volleyball. In the spring of 2021, she was elevated to coaching assistant, overseeing the training and conditioning for women’s swimming and cross country, while assisting with multiple other teams in the department.
She graduated from the University of Delaware in May 2020 with a bachelor of science degree in exercise science and a minor in strength and conditioning.
In her first year at Delaware, she worked with the athletic training program as a student intern. There, she worked with women’s volleyball and soccer during the fall semester, both men’s ice hockey teams during the winter, and then football and men’s lacrosse during the spring semester. She gained 230 clinical hours during her time there.
During her second year, she began working for UD’s recreation department with the intramural program as a referee and scorekeeper, later being promoted to a supervisor in her junior year. She also volunteered as a PT aide at the UD Physical Therapy Clinic, in both the sports and orthopedic clinic and the neurological and older adults clinic, during her junior year as well. Her final year at UD, she began an internship at the start of the spring semester at Alpha Training in Newark, Del., before it closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She coached all age group programs, ranging from youth to local-college athletes. That is where her true interest and passion for strength and conditioning began.
Cole is a Long Island native. She graduated from Sachem East High School in 2016, where she played field hockey and ran winter and spring track. She was a part of the two-time state champion, three-time Long Island champion and three-time Suffolk County champion field hockey team as a midfielder/defender. As for track, Cole was a long sprinter specializing in the 400m and 600m, and was a 55m, 100m and 400m hurdler.
Cole is a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the NSCA and is CPR/AED certified through the American Red Cross.
