Bernie Poole joined the Methodist University men's basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach in the summer of 2025. Poole brings more than 40 years of high school coaching experience, having helped develop more than 40 players who went on to compete at the collegiate level, with several advancing to coaching careers at the collegiate and professional levels.
Poole returned to the Cumberland County area in 2022, serving as an assistant coach at Cape Fear and Pine Forest High Schools.
Prior to returning to Cumberland County, Poole spent four seasons as the head boys' basketball coach at Dixon High School in Onslow County. Taking over a program that had won just one game in the preceding season, he led the Bulldogs to two North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) playoff appearances.
After retiring from teaching physical education in 2012, Poole continued coaching, serving as an assistant with the boys' and girls' basketball programs at Topsail and Dixon High Schools.
Poole began his career in Onslow County as a physical education teacher and head girls' basketball coach at Jacksonville High School.
From 1984 to 2006, Poole established himself as a fixture in Cumberland County basketball at Seventy-First High School, coaching some of the county's most successful teams. In addition to basketball, he served as an assistant football coach and was on the sidelines when the Falcons captured state championships under head coach Bobby Poss in 1984 and 1986. He also coached tennis.
Poole compiled more than 400 career basketball victories, including 300 while coaching the boys' and girls' programs at Seventy-First. His teams won 11 Cumberland County Holiday Classic titles, missing the tournament only once when the Falcons received an invitation to a national invitational tournament in Delaware. Throughout his career, Poole also earned numerous conference regular-season and tournament championships, five sectional titles, two NCHSAA Eastern Regional championships and two NCHSAA runner-up finishes.
Poole resides in Fayetteville with his wife, Barbara.
