July 29, 2002
ATLANTA – Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, a former All-ACC basketball player at Wake Forest, has been named Georgia Tech’s newest assistant women’s basketball coach, Yellow Jacket head coach Agnus Berenato announced on Wednesday.
“I wanted to bring Brenda onto our staff because in everything that she does she is an all-out winner,” said Berenato. “As a person, a student and an athlete, she has a winner’s mentality, and because of that she will become a very good coach.”
Kirkpatrick joins the staff after playing professionally for the past year in France. Her responsibilities with the team will include various aspects of recruiting, individual workouts, setting up team travel arrangements and involvement with scouting and film exchange. Along with those duties, her primary responsibility will be to serve as a liaison for the women’s basketball team with Tech’s academic services department.
A familiar face to ACC women’s basketball fans, Kirkpatrick was a four-year letterwinner at Wake Forest.
“I recruited Brenda when she was in high school and got turned down so for the next five years I admired her as both a competitor and an opponent,” Berenato said. “When I found out that I had an opening on my staff, I took the opportunity to seek her out for the job, and I wasn’t going to be denied twice.”
She played in every game during her career as a Demon Deacon, after sitting out with a knee injury as a true freshman in 1997. Kirkpatrick started all 56 games for Wake during her junior and senior seasons, averaging 9.4 points and 6.8 rebounds in those two years.
“I’m very excited to be able to come and work here at Georgia Tech,” said Kirkpatrick. “When I was playing in the ACC, Coach Berenato was definitely one of my favorite opposing coaches because of her coaching style and the way she relates to her players. I think this is a great opportunity for me to get to work with her and be a part of her staff.”
Emerging as a team leader for the Deacs late in her career, Kirkpatrick finished her four years in Winston-Salem with 568 rebounds and 803 points. That rebound total ranks 10th on Wake’s all-time list, while her .481 career field goal percentage is fifth-best on the school’s all-time list.
“I think that this is certainly a program that is on the rise,” Kirkpatrick said. “They have a great staff in place with MaChelle Joseph and Jeffrey Williams as assistant coaches. You always want to start out somewhere that you will have a chance to learn a lot, and I have that here.”
Following her collegiate playing career, the Waynesville, N.C., native spent the past year playing professionally in France for Nantes-Reze 44 in Nantes, France.
A solid all-around student-athlete, Kirkpatrick graduated cum laude from Wake Forest with a B.A. in history and sociology in 2000. During her fifth year at the school, she earned a M.A. in education, serving as a student teacher at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, N.C.
Kirkpatrick takes over the position created by the departure of Kisha Ford.
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