Coaching Staff

Nicole Conway (Director)

Nicole Conway graduated from Bethlehem Central High School, scoring over 1200 career points while playing for Coach Kim Wise. She played AAU for 7 seasons, culminating with 2nd place in the U17 Nationals. Nicole went on to play basketball for 4 years at Boston College on a full athletic scholarship and earned her undergraduate degree in elementary education and math/computer science. 

While at Boston College, Nicole started as a freshman and helped take BC to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. BC went to the NCAAs three out of the four years Nicole played. She was a captain of the team her senior year and was selected as the Big East Women's Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year, BC's Outstanding Scholar-Athlete and Honorable Mention All-Big East team. In 2013, Nicole was named to the Capital District Basketball Hall of Fame. 

While earning her masters degree in education at BC, Nicole played for a semi-pro team, the Springfield Spirit. She started on the Spirit alongside Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Rebecca Lobo and Kara Wolters and played against other WNBA legends such as Sheryl Swoopes, Becky Hammon, and Tina Thompson. The following year, Nicole played professionally in Ireland for the Waterford Wildcats. Though she had opportunities to continue to play overseas after this one season, Nicole was excited to start her career as a math teacher. She has taught math in every grade from 6-12, served as a math department head for 5 years, and is now an assistant principal at BCHS. 

In addition to working many, many basketball camps over the years, Nicole's coaching experience includes being a volunteer assistant for the Bentley Women's basketball team, coaching a Baystate Jaguars AAU team for several seasons, and serving as assistant coach for Newton North High School's varsity team before being named co-head coach. Nicole ran camps, clinics and individual workouts through her own camp for several years, working with players in elementary school through high school. 

Coaching Staff

• Mick Doemel: Coach Doemel graduated from CBA in 2005, winning two Section II Championships as a junior and senior.  He was a third team All-Big Ten selection as a senior and was selected to play in the exceptional senior game. Mick participated in the New York State Final Four after winning the Regional Championship as a junior. After high school, Mick joined the Siena men’s basketball team as a walk-on where he played for Iowa Coach Fran McCaffrey. After college, Mick began to coach with his father Dave Doemel at CBA as the freshman coach and varsity assistant. While at CBA his freshman teams won back to back Big Ten Titles and also won numerous Section 2 titles and a State Championship in 2010 with the varsity. He is now a Physical Education Teacher at Slingerlands Elementary School and continues to coach basketball.

• Lauren Mullen: Coach Mullen spent 12 years coaching at the collegiate level. Her most recent position was the Head Coach at New York University from 2012-2018. Her teams made five consecutive postseason appearances-three of those being to the Division III NCAA Tournament. During her tenure at NYU, the teams posted a 102-57 record. Before NYU, she served as a Division I Assistant Coach for Sacred Heart University and Lehigh University. Lauren played at Hofstra University where she graduated with a degree in Human Development. She was a three time captain and starter for the Pride. Currently she lives in Delmar with her wife, Colleen who is Head Women's Basketball Coach at UAlbany, and three busy kids, Maggie, Callan and Brennan. Basketball is a very important part of Lauren's life and she is excited to share that passion with Bethlehem Hoop School players!

• Kathleen (Smith) Russell: Kathleen (Smith) Russell graduated from Columbia High School and played four years of college basketball on scholarship at Divison 2 Southern Connecticut State University where she scored over 1000 points in her career.  She was also a captian for her final 2 seasons at Southern. Kathleen was a Northeast-10 Scholar Athlete and named to the ECAC honor roll on numerous occasions. Kathleen was inducted into the Columbia High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007. Kathleen coached the Columbia girls varsity basketball team from 2007-2011, then continued her coaching career at Hudson Valley Community College from 2011-2015.  She has also coached boys and girls AAU programs locally in the capital district. Currently, Kathleen has been a program assistant for Coach Wise at Bethlehem High School for the past 2 seasons and was the JV head coach for Bethlehem this year. Kathleen lives in Delmar and brings a wealth of experience, skills and knowledge to the game of basketball. She has worked with athletes at all levels from Elementary to College.  She has worked numerous clinics and camps throughout her career and loves the game of basketball. Kathleen is in her 20th year of teaching Physical Education in East Greenbush (9 years at the HS, 11 years at the MS).

• Brooke Rutnik Shaw: Coach Shaw is an Albany native born into a basketball family. So the love of the game is innate. Her father (Chris) and sister (Tiffinay) also played hoops, and each had their own decorated career. Brooke played competitive basketball for over 30 years. She started at 11, played at the Academy of the Holy Names, and continued to play Division 1 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. After college, she played in as many leagues as possible throughout the capital region and New York City "until her old body told her it was time to rest". Some of her "fondest memories growing up were playing with Nicole Conway and Kathleen Smith during AAU in high school". She also spent countless hours playing ball with the entire Doemel family. Brooke holds several degrees in marketing, communications, and graphic design and works at National Grid as a Senior Program Manager. She started coaching Kindergarten and First graders last year, where she had the opportunity to coach her son and daughter. Brooke is a mom of three and hopes they, too, find the love of the game and the endless possibilities this sport can afford them.

• Kiley Shortell: Coach Shortell was the head girls' varsity basketball coach at Ravena Coeymans Selkirk for 8 years and is now the assistant varsity coach for the Bethlehem girls' varsity team. Kiley also coached AAU for the Albany Capitals as well as the scholastic team for the Empire State games in 2003. She played collegiate basketball at Quinnipiac University from 1996-1999. Kiley has worked as PE teacher for the past 19 years (1 at Bethlehem and 19 at RCS). 

• UAlbany Women's Basketball players: Lucia Decortes, Helene Haegerstrand, Ellen Hahne, Morgan Haney, Taniya Hanner, Grace Heeps, Fatima Lee, Lilly Phillips, Abby Ray, and Freja Werth

• Local high school stars (current and former): Ellie Cerf, Hannah Lauenstein, Maren Louridas, Kaitlyn Robbins, Kellen Stewart, Michael Waldenmaier, Anna Walston, Ali Weatherly, Caroline Wise, and Logan Yohe