Annette Cottle
A graduate of Cottonwood High School and Utah State University, Annette Cottle was a national player of the year in collegiate volleyball and remained a high-level player for many years afterward.
Annette initially played for BYU, helping the Cougars reach the AIAW Final Four under coach Elaine Michaelis, then transferred to USU because of her association with Aggie co-coaches Mary Jo Peppler and Marilyn McCreavy in in club volleyball. She would eventually succeed them as USU’s coach, after having led the Aggies to the 1978 AIAW national championship and then coaching at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Annette received the Broderick Award as the most outstanding player in the country for the ’78 USU team that finished 48-4-2, after winning its first 26 matches of the season. The Aggies finished second in ’79.
She was inducted into Utah State’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993 and the ’78 team was honored in 2008. In her view, the order of inductions should have been reversed. “I only got into the Hall of Fame because of the team,” she said. “They really should have been inducted first. In volleyball, it doesn’t matter how good you are on your own. Without your team, you can’t make it.”
That team-oriented attitude made Annette a contributor to the Aggie basketball program as well. She then launched herself into a post-college athletic career in a variety of sports. The term “recreational athlete” undersells her achievements on a state and national level, while she also devoted herself to careers of officiating volleyball and managing recreational programs for Ogden City.
Annette would have qualified for induction into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame Foundation of the merits of college career. Yet perhaps as much as any elite athlete so honored, she has gone to great achievements in amateur athletics. For all of the work she has done in coaching and administration, she has been determined to keep competing.
Between 1981 and ’99, Annette was named six times to USA Volleyball All-America teams. She was a three-time MVP in the Senior Division, while winning four age-group national championships and finishing second three times.
Beyond volleyball, she was a two-time national runner-up in U.S. Tennis Association national championships, was inducted into the Utah Softball Hall of Fame in 2012 and was a pickleball gold medalist in the 2013 Huntsman World Senior Games.
Annette also coached the Utah Predators and the Golden Spikers of the professional National Volleyball Association, featuring the likes of Natalie Williams and Kristin Klein from the USA Volleyball program. That was a challenging job, blending in the national team players who commuted to the Salt Lake Valley for weekend matches, joining local players such as Mary Nickles, Mechelle Nekota and Mikki Kane Barton who held full-time jobs and still completed at that high level of the sport.
In her profession, Annette administered three AAU national girls basketball tournaments in Ogden and in 2010 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Utah parks and recreation.
Retired from Ogden City, Annette lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.
live in Iowa.