Kara Powell earns her third season on the Tribe staff as the Director of Basketball Operations. Powell, who played collegiately at the University of Richmond, spent last season as an assistant coach at Sacred Heart.
Powell was a member of the staff that saw the Tribe to a record setting season in her second season in Williamsburg. The Tribe racked up 15 wins, the fourth-most in school history, on its way to its first-ever postseason appearances with bid in the Women’s Basketball Invitational. The Green and Gold had a seven-win turnaround, while setting three school records for assists (466), blocked shots, (143), blocked shots per game (4.5). Individually she helped lead four players to five All-CAA awards. Sophomore Marlena Tremba was named to the All-CAA Third-Team, senior Jazmen Boone was named to the All-Defensive Team, freshman Abby Rendle to the All-Rookie and All-Defensive team, and senior Kyla Kerstetter earned all-academic honors.
In her first season, the Green and Gold finished in the top 10 nationally in steals per game, while Jazmen Boone also ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA in the same category. Kaitlyn Mathieu garnered Third-Team All-Colonial Athletic Association honors, and went on to sign a professional contract with a team in Germany. In addition, guard Marlena Tremba went onto win CAA Rookie of 
the Year, and was named to the all-rookie squad. Boone was named to the all-defensive team, while she and Kyla Kerstetter took home all-academic honors.
During her first season working with the Pioneer program, SHU posted a 22-11 record and made its first-ever WNIT appearance. Sacred Heart finished second in the Northeast Conference at 13-5 and advanced to the conference semifinals. During her time at Sacred Heart, Powell was in charge of day-to-day operation, worked with team travel and the budget, on court development for guard workouts, assisted the recruiting coordinator, and oversaw film exchange and the breakdown of film on both the team and opponents.
Powell enjoyed an outstanding collegiate career at Richmond, starting 120 of her 123 career appearances. She finished her career with 695 points, while dishing out 307 assists to go along with 120 steals. Powell ranks 10th on the Spiders’ career assists list. During her final two seasons at Richmond, Powell helped lead UR to the WNIT in 2010 and 2011. The Spiders went 20-13 in 2010, advancing to the second round of the WNIT, while the 2011 squad finished with an 18-12 ledger.
Powell earned her degree in Rhetoric and Communications Studies from Richmond in May of 2010 as a Dean's List student-athlete. As a prep at Agawam High School in Feeding Hill, Mass., Powell was named the Massachusetts Player of the Year and a two-time Street and Smith and AAU All-American.
Powell work as the Basketball Operations Intern with the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association during the summer of 2010. She assisted the organization's basketball operations staff with the day-to-day duties as well as coordinating projects and research with the team's scouting department. She also assisted with coordinating team travel and working with the video department on daily projects. Following her graduation from Richmond, she worked for DKC Public Relations, Marketing and Government Affairs in New York City as a publicity assistant in 2011 and 2012.
