Earlier this summer, the UCLA Bruins welcomed back an old friend to head coach Cori Close’s staff with the return of Shannon LeBeauf as associate head coach. Shortly after, assistant coach Tasha Brown left the program to join the Washington Huskies, leaving the Bruins with another opening on the sideline. This week, that position was filled with the addition of Noelle Quinn, a UCLA alumni.
The process in which Close settled on Quinn to join the coaching staff came together rather quickly following the Bruins’ exhibition games against the Canadian national team last month. Quinn has been a longtime assistant with Canada since 2022, and met with the UCLA staff during that time in which they were completely sold on brining her on board.
Quinn had already stopped by and observed UCLA practice before the trip to Canada, and Close had put out early feelers then to gauge her interest in joining the college coaching ranks.
“After the second one, she came and had hung out with our staff and got to ask some more questions. And I remember after we were done that night, I got a call from our strength coach and he’s like, ‘That’s it, right there. That’s it,’” Close recalled during Quinn’s introductory press conference. “We had a game plan meeting with all of our coaches talking about what did we learn about our team in Canada … and her insights and what she brought to our staff, her suggestions. It really became a no-brainer.”
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This isn’t Quinn’s first foray into coaching domestically. Aside from her role with the Canadian national team, she’s coming off a seven-year stint in the WNBA with the Seattle Storm where she began as an assistant in 2019, was promoted to associate head coach and then later head coach.
Following her dismissal from the Storm after the 2025 season, she took the helm for Breeze BC in Unrivaled this past season. And prior to her WNBA stint, she was the head coach at her alma mater of Bishop Montgomery High School.
But before she roamed the sidelines, she forged her name on the hardwood for the Bruins, becoming one of the program’s most decorated alumni and being inducted into the UCLA Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
For her, the chance to return to where she first earned her name was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
”Being at UCLA, playing at UCLA was some of the best years of my life. Just learning and growing, becoming a young woman and becoming a professional basketball player … it’s a full circle moment to be able to come back,” Quinn said during her intro press conference. “To be able to give back to the place and the people that poured so much into me is very important, and it’s all about alignment … the season of my life, the season in general, I think that there is so much alignment with this decision. Just grateful to be here. I’m ready to work and give wherever is needed. But most importantly, just be me.”
From the outside, Quinn appears to be taking the role Michaela Onyenwere held last season. Close often praised the six-year veteran last season for the way she was able to relate to the players and for her impact in the recruiting sphere.
Not only is Quinn a local product having grown up in Los Angeles, but during her time as head coach at Bishop Montgomery, she was able to build relationships in the high scene that will help when it comes to recruiting. The NCAA is in a much different space than when Quinn donned a Bruins jersey, but she’s confident her shared experiences will make her an asset to UCLA’s staff.
”I think just to be able to be a welcome testament of that, matters in the recruiting process. It’s one thing to talk about it, but it’s also another thing to be about it and have done it,” Quinn said. “Recruiting to me is very daunting. I likened it to free agency in the W. It’s building relationships. Obviously you’re selling a program and you want to find like-minded people to be here. All those things matter.
“But at the end of the day, it says something that I’ve been through it. The familiarity with players and coaches that I have in the area, it’s going to matter. Just the fact that I’ve walked the path that they want to walk, I can kind of help in that way.”
Quinn joins a UCLA team that looks very different than last season. Fresh of the program’s first championship since joining the NCAA, the Bruins lost all six of their seniors to the WNBA Draft.
Incoming sophomore Sienna Betts is primed for a breakout season, if her play against Canada is any indication, and the Bruins do have a handful of players back from last year including the anticipated return of Timea Gardiner.
But the roster will be bolstered by a host of transfers, five in total, as UCLA looks to reload on the fly and maintain their status as one of the Big Ten’s top teams.
With Quinn in the fold, she’s eager to grow right alongside the players.
”It’s the middle of the summer so not a lot of expectations, but you can see the shell of what will be. Cori’s intense and that permeates through the group … you can see their will and their want to be great,” Quinn said. “It was good to game plan against them, but also now kind of wrapping my mind of how good we can be. Really good pieces and I’m excited about learning and growing.”
