WILLIAMSBURG — William & Mary head men’s basketball coach Dane Fischer announced the addition of Kyle Pope to the Tribe staff as the program’s director of basketball operations. Pope, a former two-sport student-athlete at Saint Vincent College, comes to Williamsburg with coaching experience at the Division II and Division III levels as well as in TBT.
“We are really excited to add Kyle Pope as our Director of Basketball Operations,” Fischer said. “Kyle brings excellent leadership and organizational skills, and will be responsible for coordinating the daily operations of our program. Kyle has built great relationships with student-athletes and the administration, and we are thrilled to have him in our program.”
Most recently, Pope served as a graduate assistant at East Stroudsburg University in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The Warriors compiled a 42-17 (.712) record over the last two seasons, including a 32-12 (.727) mark in the PSAC. In 2022-23, East Stroudsburg advanced to the PSAC Semifinals and earned a spot in the NCAA South Atlantic Regional before finishing with a 23-9 record. Pope helped in the player development of the PSAC East Player of the Year (Carlos Peppin) in 2021-22 and a pair of All-PSAC East First Team selections in 2022-23 (Peppin and Lakeem McAliley).
Pope’s duties at East Stroudsburg included evaluating and recruiting student-athletes, on-court player development and instruction, group and individual film sessions, monitoring student-athlete academic progress, graphic design for recruiting and social media content, organizing community service events, and assisting with team travel, developing scouting reports and daily practice planning. He earned his Master of Science in Exercise Science from East Stroudsburg in May.
Pope was a dual-sport athlete at Saint Vincent College competing in both basketball and lacrosse. He spent the final year of his undergraduate career as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball program. In 2018-19, he was one of three to appear in all 27 games, helping the Bearcats to the President’s Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship.
Pope was a program and university leader during his time at SVC. He was a two-time men’s basketball captain and a two-time lacrosse team captain. He also served as the class vice president for the SVC student government. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science in 2021.
During his time at East Stroudsburg, Pope also worked with Hoop Group as a recruiting coordinator. He recruited thousands of high school student-athletes to attend various elite level basketball camps.
Pope spent a year as an assistant coach in TBT for the Mental Toughness Team in the Syracuse Region. He was responsible for scouting opponent player personnel, creating film edits and scout for team viewing, designing all graphic content for social media and assisting in day-to-day operations for the company. He also recruited hundreds of high school student-athletes to attend Mental Toughness Prospect Camps.
