Hokie ClubJoined VT Athletics Staff: 2026
Prior to Virginia Tech: Arketa Banks joined the Virginia Tech football staff in 2026 as assistant running backs coach, bringing experience from multiple levels of collegiate football. He most recently spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons as a senior defensive analyst at East Carolina, working with the Pirates' cornerbacks and assisting with defensive preparation and player development.
Prior to ECU, Banks served as special teams coordinator at Georgia State beginning in 2022, and returned to his alma mater, Elon, where he coached tight ends in 2021 before moving to cornerbacks in the spring of 2022.
Banks has logged two stints at Western Carolina, coaching running backs, wide receivers and tight ends from 2017–19 after an earlier run with the Catamount running backs from 2009–12. In between, he spent five seasons at Lenoir-Rhyne, coaching slotbacks (2013–14) and wide receivers (2015–17) while also serving as Director of High School Relations and In-State Recruiting. He coached running backs and tight ends at Gardner-Webb in 2018 before returning to Western Carolina.
Banks began his collegiate coaching career at Brevard College in 2008, coaching the defensive secondary and serving as recruiting coordinator. He entered the profession at Warren County High School in Warrenton, North Carolina, serving as JV head coach before taking over the varsity program, and later coached defensive backs and quarterbacks at Wakefield High School in Raleigh.
Education: Elon, 2003 (B.S. in sports management)
Personal: Banks was a four-year letterwinner and an All-Big South Conference performer as a receiver and a kick returner in 2002. Named All-Independent as a return specialist in 2001 and during his career, he led Elon in receiving from 2000-2002, amassing 1,371 yards on 54 catches with 17 receiving touchdowns. Banks and his wife, the former Latora Pettaway of Henderson, N.C., have three children: Shymia, Kimora, and Arketa, II.