Octavia Barnes joined the staff of head coach Toyelle Wilson and the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team as an assistant coach in June 2026. The 2026-27 season will be her first with the program.

Barnes comes to the Island after spending the 2025-26 season as an assistant coach at Texas State. In her lone campaign in San Marcos, the Bobcats earned the No. 8 seed in the Sun Belt, advancing them to the third round of the conference tournament.

Prior to this, Barnes served on the staff at the University of Houston for three seasons as the Coordinator of Player Development, where she mentored and motivated athletes by breaking down film and creating specific workout plans. She helped in the development of guard Laila Blair, who would go on to earn First Team All-American Athletic Conference honors in 2022-23 and All-Big 12 Honorable Mention Honors in 2023-24. During her coaching tenure, the Cougars made the finals of the American Athletic Conference Championship in 2023.

Barnes started coaching after completing her own playing career at Houston, where she spent her final two collegiate seasons. With the Cougars, Barnes played in 63 games and started 25, finishing with averages of 8.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.2 blocks in 25.0 minutes per game. In her final campaign in 2018-19, she shot 45.5 percent from three-point range, with her 56 total makes ranking in a tie for sixth in the American Athletic Conference. Before transfering to Houston, Barnes spent a year each at Michigan State and Hinds Community College.

Barnes, a native of Utica, Mississippi, graduated from Houston in May 2019 with a Bachelor's degree of science in sociology and a minor in health. She is a member of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and was named a WBCA Thirty Under 30 honoree for the 2025-26 season in March 2026.