Rebecca "Bec" Cole (born 19 March 1992) is an Australian professional basketball player. Cole is a starting shooting guard for the

Southside Flyers The Southside Flyers are a professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League ( WNBL). The club is based in Dandenong, Melbourne, Victoria. The team was founded as the Dandenong Rangers, however before ...

in the WNBL, and has been a member of both the Australian 3x3 national team and the

Australian Opals The Australian women's national basketball team is nicknamed the Opals, after the brightly coloured gemstone common to the country. From 1994 onwards, the Opals have been consistently competitive and successful having won nine medals at offic ...

Early life

Cole was born on 19 March 1992 in

Mount Waverley, Victoria Mount Waverley is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Mount Waverley recorded a population of 35,340 at the 2021 census. ...

. She is the daughter of Gary and Ros Cole and has two older sisters, Jessica and Emma. Cole began her career playing for the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of th ...

(AIS) at the age of 16.

Professional career

WNBL

Cole made her

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Ba ...

debut with the AIS in 2009–10 season at 16 years old. Her professional career began when she moved to the Bulleen Boomers in the 2012–13 season. She re-signed with rebranded

Melbourne Boomers The Melbourne Boomers are an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The Boomers compete in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and play the majority of their home games at Melbourne Sports Centre – Par ...

for the 2013–14 season. In the 2014–15 season, and was named the Round 12 Player of the Week. Cole remained with the Boomers through the 2016–17 season. Following the 2018–19 season, Cole signed with the

Dandenong Rangers The Dandenong Rangers were an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League ( WNBL). The club is based in Dandenong, Melbourne, Victoria. The team was founded as the Dandenong Rangers, howe ...

at shooting guard. In January 2019, she was named to the 2018–19

WNBL All-Star Five The All-WNBL Team is an annual Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) honour bestowed on the best performing players in the league following every WNBL season. From 1988 to 2018–19, the honour was known as the All-Star Five. As of 2020, it is ...

for the first time in her career. Cole was also announced as the Rangers 2018–19 MVP. Following the 2019–20 season, the Rangers rebranded to the Southside Flyers, where she committed for the 2019–20 to 2020–21 season. As of 2022 her name is still on their website.

FIBA 3x3

Cole was a member of both the 2018 and 2019 Australian teams in the FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup. In 2018, Australia won bronze and in 2019 Australia went undefeated winning the gold medal, with Cole being named the MVP of the 2019 tournament.

National team

Youth Level
Cole made her international debut with the Under-19 program in 2011. Cole was chosen as captain for the Australian Gems (Australia's Under 19 Women's Team) at the

FIBA Under-19 World Championship The FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup (formerly FIBA Under-19 World Championship) is the under-19 men's world basketball championship organised by the International Basketball Federation ( FIBA). From its inauguration in 1979, until 2007, it wa ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

, where Australia narrowly missed out on bronze, placing fourth. Cole played all eight games. Senior Level
In January 2019 it was announced that Cole was part of the 2019

Opals Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) is a spacecraft communication instrument developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was tested on the International Space Station (ISS) from 18 April 2014 to 17 July 2014 to demonstrate the t ...

squad.

Recognition

In the 2018–19 season, Cole was awarded runner-up for WNBL Most Valuable Player Award and was selected in the WNBL All-Star team.

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

named Cole one of the "10 Women Who Defined 3x3 in 2019".

Other roles

Cole is the Ambassador for Lymphoma Australia.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Rebecca 1992 births Australian women's basketball players Guards (basketball) Sportswomen from Victoria (state) Australian Institute of Sport basketball (WNBL) players Living people Dandenong Rangers players Melbourne Boomers players People from Mount Waverley, Victoria Basketball players from Melbourne People educated at Caulfield Grammar School Southside Flyers players