Annika Brooks joined the women's basketball staff as an assistant coach prior to the start of the 2024-25 campaign, joining the Lynx bench for her first collegiate coaching assignment. Brooks comes to Lesley with experience in Division III athletics as both a student-athlete and mental performance coach.

In the collegiate ranks, Brooks spent the 2023-24 season at Ithaca College working with seven varsity athletic programs as a Student-Athlete Mental Performance Coach. In this role, Brooks worked alongside the Bombers coaches and advocated for the mental side of athletes' training. She created and delivered workshops on mental training topics, supported student-athletes through observing practices and competitions throughout their seasons while also developing rapport with athletes to better provide individual student-athlete sessions when called upon.

As a collegiate player, Brooks played three seasons at Mount Holyoke College. Over her career she played in 65 games for the Lyons, starting all but two contests during her rookie season. Despite missing her junior season due to COVID, Brooks finished her MHC career with 845 points (13.0 ppg) and 667 rebounds (10.3 rpg) to average a career double-double. She scored in double figures in 48 games and grabbed 10+ rebounds in 35 games to account for a total of 26 career double-doubles in three campaigns. Her single-game career highs stood at 23 points (1/4/20 vs. Wentworth) and 19 rebounds (11/17/19 vs. Bard) and over her career she averaged just over 37 minutes per game.

Brooks graduated from Mount Holyoke in 2022 with a Bachelor's in Psychology and went on to complete a Master of Science Exercise & Sport Sciences with a focus in Mental Performance from Ithaca in 2024.

In addition to her coaching background, Books is working towards a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) certification program. 

(Updated Sept. 3, 2024 - 10:45 PM)