Joel Washington enters his fourth season as an assistant coach at New Mexico State. Prior to NMSU he was the head coach at Alta Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. and was an assistant at Lamar, where he helped guide the Cardinals to a 14-14 record in the 2000-01 season. That year the Cardinals gained their first-ever berth in the Southland Conference championship tournament.
His duties with the Aggies include serving as the team’s recruiting coordinator and he is the position coach for the forwards and post players.
Last season, Washington helped guide the Aggies to their third straight WAC Tournament championship game appearance as the Aggies became just the third team in league history to appear in three consecutive title games. He also helped guide forward Sherell Neal to first team All-WAC accolades and she was named to her second straight all-defensive team while fellow forward Anikia Jawara was selected to the second team.
Washington has a long history of working with head coach Darin Spence, having coached under him at Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City, Kan., from 1992-93 and prior to that at Butler County Community College in El Dorado, Kan. During his tenure with the Butler County Grizzlies, the team won back-to-back Jayhawk Conference titles, was ranked as high as fifth in the country and had four consecutive 20-win seasons.
The Grizzlies had 19 all-conference, 13 all-region, three NJCAA All-Americans and two academic all-American players under Washington. At Cowley County, he helped the Lady Tigers achieve a 25-7 record and a No. 14 national ranking while coaching four all-conference players, two All-Region VI players and a NJCAA All-American.
He spent the 1996-97 season as head coach at Colby Community College in Colby, Kan., compiling a 15-16 record and leading the school to the Region VI playoffs in its first year in the Jayhawk Conference. He coached an All-Region VI and all-conference player that season.
Washington began his coaching career as an assistant with the Butler County men’s squad in 1988-89, helping the program to a 26-6 record and No. 11 national ranking. Two players from that squad were NJCAA All-Americans.
His early career experience came as a volunteer assistant JV coach at Bellarmine Jefferson High School in Burbank, Calif., and as a basketball camp director with the Barstow, Calif., Parks and Recreation Department. He graduated from Wichita State in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and also holds an A.A. from Butler County Community College in mass communications, which he received in 1989. Washington joined assistant coach Brooke Atkinson as the second Wichita State alum on the coaching staff.
Cecilia Russell-Nava, a former Aggie great and first-year assistant coach with the Aggies originally came from a school (Butler County) where Spence and Washington coached. Current Aggie Ashley Scroggins played in the same Jayhawk Conference that Washington coached in.
