ELON, N.C. – The Elon University women's basketball team and head coach Charlotte Smith announced the addition of Sydney-Anne Cottrell as the program's Director of Video Scouting and Recruiting Operations.
 
"We are extremely excited to have Syd onboard with our Elon Women's Basketball family," said Smith. "She comes from a wealth of basketball knowledge and has been part of a great basketball culture that knows how to win championships at Texas A&M. Syd will help us tremendously in the area of video, scouting and recruiting."
 
Prior to Elon, Cottrell worked as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M for the past two seasons, first as an assistant video coordinator before taking over the video operations role in 2021-22. In her first season with the Aggies, Texas A&M won the SEC Championship and made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. She also assisted former Texas A&M Hall of Fame coach Gary Blair with daily activities while aiding new head coach Joni Taylor and her staff with their transition to Texas A&M, including continuing to work the Aggie women's and the A&M men's summer basketball camps.
 
Prior to joining the A&M staff, Cottrell played collegiately for Royce Chadwick at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi for five seasons where she was named to the Southland Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll all five years and served as her team's SAAC representative. Her senior season culminated with the Islanders first-ever Southland Conference Championship, but the season ended abruptly due to the pandemic.
 
Cottrell comes from a family deeply invested in collegiate athletics. Her father, Ron, is the men's basketball coach at Houston Baptist University and is the third longest-tenured Division I men's coach in the country, earning his 500th career victory last season. Her mother, Jacque, has served in athletic media relations at Arkansas, the Southwest Conference, the Cotton Bowl, HBU and the Great West Conference, while her sister Scottlyn is a learning specialist for the athletic department at the University of Oklahoma.
 
Cottrell graduated cum laude with her bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and earned her master's in youth development from Texas A&M this past May.