Duke Volleyball assistant coach Mackenzie Cole could sense that her team needed a little pick-me-up.
The Blue Devils were heading into a key match this past fall and the energy wasn’t flowing.
Looking to spark the team, she shot off a text message.
Within minutes, she had a response from Sue Enquist, her former instructor when Cole was a student in UCLA’s Transformative Coaching and Leadership (TCL) program. One of the winningest head coaches in NCAA history, Enquist had shot back an uplifting 20-second voice recording, imploring Cole to light a fire under the Blue Devils.
“I have a lot of gratitude for TCL,” adds Cole, who was elevated on the Duke staff this past year following a season as Director of Operations. “It’s more than a class experience. It’s relationships with your classmates and professors and they’re so willing to be helpful and be a resource to you.”
A volleyball star during her playing days, Cole grew up in Long Island, New York, dominating the local sports scene where both her parents, Rick and Brooke, worked as local athletic administrators. At Connetquot High School, she made a name for herself as a libero, earning a 2017 Gatorade State Player of the Year nod along with First Team Under Armour All-America honors, five All-County selections and four County MVP honors.
Matriculating to Duke, where she carried on a family legacy, Cole added to her accolades….
Becoming the 24th Blue Devil in program history to reach the 1,000-dig milestone she was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2021.
It was during that time that Cole got a taste of transformative leadership…
Her senior year at Duke, she sprang at an opportunity to work as a student intern for the university’s men’s basketball program. There, working under Mike Krzyzewski, Cole says she began more seriously considering coaching as a future career path.
In addition to winning five national titles with Duke and establishing the Blue Devils as one of the premiere basketball programs in the country, Coach K had led the United States National Team to gold medals at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics. Spending time around the legendary hoops mentor was worth its weight in gold to Cole.
To her surprise, however, Krzyzewski announced early that year that it would be his last at Duke. He would retire at season’s end.
As an intern, Cole says “I got to see the inner workings and what he was about,” noting Coach K’s mantra of ‘strength through shared confidence.’
After earning her degree in psychology and discovering the opportunity to build upon her coaching and leadership abilities at UCLA, Cole says becoming a Bruin was a “no-brainer.”
But she notes: “I didn’t really know what to think going into (TCL). I knew some of the professors — coach Sue and Miss Val — some big names. I wasn’t always the most school-driven student. I’d sometimes place sports first and school second. And this was the first time I was actually excited about school and classes.”
“And the TCL program succeeded all my expectations,” she adds. “The guest speakers we had in class were incredible. We had Alex Rodriguez, Jill Ellis, Dawn Staley.
“Getting to hear from some of the greatest minds in sports — I learned lessons I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else . . . it was a cool perspective having Coach K at Duke and Coach Wooden at UCLA and getting to read their books and really learn what their philosophies are.
“I felt so fortunate to be a part of the program. It propelled me and helped prepare me for the coaching role I’m now in.”
Returning to Duke as the Blue Devils’ Volleyball Director of Operations, Cole was an easy choice to elevate to assistant coach this past year when the NCAA expanded team staff sizes. She now works directly with Duke’s defensive specialists and liberos while coordinating much of the team’s behind-the-scenes action, from recruiting to in-season travel logistics.
“As an athlete I always picked things I liked from the coaches I worked with,” she adds. “But getting to sit down at UCLA and actually put those together in a concrete way and figure out what exactly my philosophy was — I always come back to gratitude.
“I’m grounded in gratitude and I lead with gratitude.” In saying this she also recalls Coach Wooden’s counsel from one of her classes: “Make every day your masterpiece.”
While earning her Master of Education at UCLA in the Transformative Coaching and Leadership program, Cole’s capstone compared the leadership of Krzyzewski to legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden. A three-time All-ACC Academic Team member, Cole currently resides in Durham, North Carolina.
*In July, Duke Volleyball announced via Instagram that Cole was stepping away to pursue a new role.
Learn more about UCLA’s Transformative Coaching and Leadership Master of Education program.