Women’s Basketball: ‘I never saw her frown’ – Remembering Andrea Brodhead

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, September 13, 2015

 

Andrea Brodhead, the force behind Acadiana Stars AAU basketball organization and Lafayette’s biddy basketball program, died Thursday after a three-year battle with cancer.(Photo: Submitted photo)

 

The official obituary for Andrea Brodhead lists three children among her survivors — Ashley, Blair and Beau.

But this heart that stopped beating Thursday after a three-year battle with cancer was so big and so unselfish that the number of folks who likely feel like one of her children is far too many to name.

To many, Andrea Brodhead was the wife of UL women’s basketball coach Garry Brodhead. To some, she was the owner of Andrea’s Fashions — a girls dress shop — for 30 years.

To so many others, though, she was the woman who provided opportunities in life through basketball. She was the driving force behind the scenes of the Acadiana Stars AAU basketball organization and Lafayette’s biddy basketball program.

Andrea Brodhead was so much more than the woman who signed them up to play basketball and gave them a chance to display their skills. She was the second mom who also helped them throughout the journey.

“She was one of the most real, truthful, down-to-earth people you will ever meet,” said UL women’s assistant coach Deacon Jones, who worked with Brodhead in the Acadiana Stars program.

“There was no selfishness in her at all. Once Garry left the program and her kids were gone, she could have said, ‘I’m done with this,’ but she didn’t. She was an incredible lady.”

Speaking about Brodhead on Friday, the day after she died, Jones was wondering how he was going to tell his 10-year-old daughter about her death.

“Look at the different generations she impacted,” Jones said. “I always said that everybody’s got an AAU team. What she had was an AAU program. Once she took you in, there were no boundaries. Her home was open to everybody. I don’t know any other people like her.

“There’s no one else like her. When you look at all the lives she’s impacted, she should have been named Angel Brodhead, because that’s what she was.”

Through the Acadiana Stars, Brodhead affected the lives of young women from Lake Charles to Iota to Monroe to Eunice to Crowley to Morgan City and even the New Orleans area.

“I never saw her frown,” said UL point guard Kia Wilridge of Crowley. “She was such a positive person. She taught us to keep a positive mind. She was like a second mom, but to some of the kids, she was almost like a first mom.

“She would give you anything you needed. You could call her about anything. Things you would call only your mother about, you could call Miss Andrea for.”

Her impact was obvious on UL’s team from Wilridge to Keke Veal to Jodi Quinn, most of the names up and down the roster. But her influence can also be seen in McNeese State’s Jayln Johnson from Jennings and the Baggett trio from Iota High and South Carolina’s Tina Roy from Kaplan High.

It was for that reason that Brodhead’s battle against cancer over the past few seasons was so personal for the Cajuns’ squad.

“You hear people say that people don’t ‘deserve’ to go through that,” Wilridge said. “If anyone didn’t deserve it, it was her. She gave so much. It was so hard to see her go through it. To watch coach Brodhead watch his best friend die, it just broke my heart.”

Former UL women’s assistant coach Sallie Guillory played for and worked closely with Brodhead for the past 16 years. Coaching with Garry Brodhead at Teurlings Catholic, then McNeese and later at UL, so many associate those two as a coaching duo.

But, really, it all started with Andrea.

“She introduced me to Garry,” Guillory said. “Everything in my coaching career can be traced back to her. She gave me my first coaching job when I was 18.”

While Garry may have instructed Guillory and his other basketball disciples about the importance of playing defense and the Xs and Os of the game, Andrea taught clear lessons on how to love the players as people.

“She taught us how to love the players, how to care for their lives as coaches,” Guillory said. “The type of coach I was and how committed I was as a coach all came from her.”

Back in 2003, when Lafayette hosted the national AAU girls basketball tournament, Guillory remembers all the countless hours making the event happen.

“She made it all happen,” Guillory said.

But it didn’t require a big event for the players to feel Brodhead’s commitment.

“I can remember making jambalaya dinners at 3 in the morning,” Guillory said. “Just so many things. She was so selfless. I’ve never met anyone with more of a servant’s heart than her. She would do anything for you. She just really enjoyed other people being successful.

“It wasn’t lip service with her. She literally treated you like she would her own daughter.”

Like Guillory, former Acadiana Stars AAU performer and UL Ragin’ Cajun Brandi Schambough-Pryor, who is now coaching at Sam Houston High in Moss Bluff, said it was Brodhead who got her started in coaching.

“She was a great woman, and it wasn’t all just sports-wise,” Schambough-Pryor said. “She was just always there for you. She would call me or text me to make sure everything was OK. Those are the things I’m going to remember the most about her.”

Caitlyn Baggett, a former All-State performer at Iota High and later McNeese State basketball standout, saw Brodhead’s giving heart firsthand.

“She helped developed Louisiana (girls) basketball,” Baggett said. “She organized so much. She made it possible for so many players who didn’t have the means to play AAU and get the opportunity to play college basketball. She impacted the lives of hundreds of kids around the state.

“I can’t say one bad thing about her. She’s one of the most sincere, sweet people I’ve ever known. She didn’t want to make a career out of it. She really just wanted to help kids.”

Long before she began empowering athletes, the former Andrea Doucet was one herself. She was an All-State volleyball player at Comeaux High back in 1974, where she met her future husband.

The two went on to college at UL, reconnected with the university when Garry spent a year as a graduate assistant coach in 1994 and then really fulfilled their dreams when he was announced as the UL’s head women’s basketball coach on April 2, 2012.

“She helped bridge so many gaps through basketball,” Jones said. “White, black, hispanic, Asian — race never mattered to her. Once she got to know you, she opened her home for you to be part of her family.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see another one like her.”

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Funeral arrangements

The Brodhead family will receive friends from 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday at Martin & Castille Funeral Home on East Farrel Road.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Monday at Holy Cross Catholic Church on Robley Drive in Lafayette.