Howard Community College names Cole Harshman JV men's basketball coach

Howard Community College added Cole Harshman to the center of its men’s basketball structure, naming the former Dragon standout head coach of the JV men’s team while keeping him on the varsity staff for 2026-27. The move gave Howard a familiar face in charge of a roster that can feed the varsity program, absorb young players who need minutes, and help the college keep more of its own talent in Columbia, Maryland.

Howard Community College Athletics said Harshman was the third head coach of the Dragons’ JV men’s basketball team, a detail that matters because it shows the role has become part of the program’s operating model, not an afterthought. The athletics staff directory listed him as both assistant coach for men’s basketball and head coach of JV men’s basketball for the 2026-27 staff, tying the development team directly to the main bench.

Harshman’s own playing background gives the hire extra weight. Howard said he played for head coach Mike Smelkinson from 2019 to 2022 as a shooting guard, made 23 career starts and averaged 6.6 points per game. That résumé is modest in box-score terms, but it fits the job Howard appears to want from its JV program: a coach who understands the grind of earning minutes, adjusting to the pace of college basketball and turning raw ability into reliable varsity production.

For NJCAA programs, a strong JV structure can do more than fill a schedule. It can keep fringe varsity players from drifting elsewhere, give late bloomers a place to develop, and create a cleaner pipeline for recruiting guards and wings in a crowded market. Howard’s 2025-26 JV men’s basketball schedule page showed a full season slate, underscoring that the second team was already operating as a real competitive layer rather than a symbolic reserve unit.

The appointment also showed how junior-college staffs are being finalized with preseason work approaching. Howard Community College Athletics described Harshman as a former Dragon standout and said he would continue as an assistant coach with the main men’s basketball program, a combination that should help preserve continuity between the JV bench and the varsity rotation. For a program trying to build depth and keep player development in-house, that is a meaningful investment in the machinery behind the wins.