In a Class of Her Own: Cole Succeeds in All Areas for GW

Kenan Cole has a 3.92 grade-point-average. (John McDonnell - The Washington Post)

For a moment, Kenan Cole wondered whether she could manage a mechanical engineering major with a starting role on a women's basketball team ranked among the nation's top 10. But it was a fleeting moment.

"The thought crossed my mind," said the 5-foot-10 guard from Rocky Ridge, Md. "But I guess I was able to do [well athletically and academically] in high school, and I just figured I'd be able to continue to do it. I definitely knew it would be an adjustment."

Making it sound much simpler than it had to have been, Cole found a way over her four years to balance her interests with remarkable success.

She maintains a 3.92 grade-point-average and is having her best season on the court. It is a testament to her perseverance that she is the lone senior who will be honored at GW's final home game, today against Temple.

"She is the ultimate self-made player and the most disciplined person I've ever coached," GW Coach Joe McKeown said. "Her work ethic is incredible."

After a stellar career at St. John's-Prospect Hall, where she was valedictorian and led the team in scoring and rebounding all four years, Cole knew she wanted to pursue mechanical engineering, and considered several highly regarded universities.

Most of them, however, lacked a strong basketball program. McKeown told her she could have the best of both worlds by attending GW, and she believed him.

"I challenged her in a way," he said. "I said, 'You can go to all those schools, and they're great schools. I respect them all. But if you really want to play at a high level in basketball, you really want to challenge yourself as a player, come here and do both.' And that's what she's done."

Cole is hardly the first GW player to follow a rigorous academic path. The women's basketball team in particular has a tradition of attracting motivated student-athletes and has produced several engineers, doctors and lawyers over the years.

For Cole, there were many nights when she stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish projects.

"It's definitely not easy," Cole said. "It's mainly been time management and planning ahead. . . . The professors have been very helpful. Most of the time I am able to hand [assignments] in early, but if I miss a class or I don't understand something, they make office hours available. I've never had a problem with a professor not being able to help me out on something."

Cole, who received only two Bs during her four years at GW, applies the same drive on the court as she does in the classroom. She has started every game this season for the ninth-ranked Colonials (24-2, 13-0 Atlantic 10) and has developed into one of GW's most reliable outside shooters, making more three-pointers (34) than her previous three seasons combined. Through long hours spent in the gym, she has become a more well-rounded player and increased her scoring average to 11.3 points per game, up more than three points over last season.

"Kenan Cole made herself into a better player by her own work ethic," McKeown said. "She took whatever faults we would identify and work endlessly on that fault. She's a perfectionist. It carries over to the engineering where she is very precision driven."

Intrigued by how things work and what makes them move, Cole devised a toy car that could travel up walls for her senior project. She would like to one day earn a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.

"I'd like to do something with project based engineering," she said. "The classes I enjoy the most are ones where we have a project to build that incorporates all the class work. You design it, build it, test it and improve it."

For the moment, her biggest project is helping GW improve its standing entering the NCAA tournament. A win against Temple today, which would mean the Colonials would finish the Atlantic 10 regular season undefeated, would go a long way toward that goal.

"The past two years we've gotten to the second round and then gotten knocked out," she said. "It's important to us to go beyond that. I've been in the [NCAA] tournament every year I've been here. We want to keep going farther and to keep taking the next step."