Led by new coach Brandon Monroe, Broadfording boys basketball is a ‘work in progress’

After a lopsided loss to Williamsport this week that dropped his team’s season record to 3-8, Broadfording Christian Academy first-year boys basketball coach Brandon Monroe kept his composure, expressing neither anger nor frustration.

In fact, his feelings were just the opposite.

Monroe is still on Cloud 9 about having the opportunity to run a high school varsity program, and from that perch, the 36-year-old Hagerstown native can see the bigger picture.

Recently, he’s been without two starters due to injury. Against Williamsport, junior Dawda Silva, his best player, had an off night. His roster, which he inherited, includes five foreign players from outside the U.S. And he’s only just getting started as their head coach.

“We’re 11 games in, so we’ve got a good 19-20 games left,” Monroe said. “I just want us to be better than we were when we started. Obviously, the wins are going to come probably at a slower pace this year, but that’s OK. We’re a work in progress.

“It’s different in the aspect that you’re not just the local school team, where everybody is hip to the same thing and they know each other and they talk to each other outside of school. I’m literally dealing with people from different countries with different beliefs and religions. That’s going to take a while to come together, not just on the court but off the court, trying to build chemistry with the guys.

“I just want us to be a better team, and that doesn’t necessarily mean a better win-loss record,” he added. “It means we’re playing better, our attitudes are better, our work ethic is better and we’re just better as a whole.”

Hoop dreams

Monroe — who works as a paraprofessional in behavior support at Pangborn Elementary School — has basketball in his blood.

He’s the son of local legend Rodney Monroe, who starred at St. Maria Goretti High School and North Carolina State University before playing for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA.

Brandon Monroe was a high school standout in both football and basketball, first at Saint James and then at St. John’s Prospect Hall in Frederick, Md., where he graduated in 2003.

“Basketball has always been my love, but it also might have been my biggest mistake,” he said. “Everybody always told me I was a better football player. But my dad played basketball, and I was always around it and just loved it more.”

Monroe played one year of basketball at Division II Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Del., before returning home.

“I came back to Hagerstown, my oldest daughter was born and I just got into coaching,” he said. “My first coaching job was at my grandmother’s summer league (the Ruthann V. Monroe Summer Basketball League at Hagerstown’s Wheaton Park).”

Although he spent a few years as an assistant high school coach at North Hagerstown, most of Monroe’s coaching experience has come at the younger levels as he’s followed his son Brandon, now an eighth-grader, through the ranks. He’s coached at the Hagerstown YMCA, the Hagerstown Junior Basketball League, Northern Middle School and with H-Town Elite, the local AAU powerhouse.

“I just always wanted to keep going up,” Monroe said. “I got serious about having a head high school coaching position when my H-Town Elite teams started getting a little older and developed. Seeing how talented they were, it was exciting to look toward the future and be like, ‘These kids, I’ve brought them up since they were babies. I could have a hand in changing their future as they’re older.’”

‘Dream job’

At Broadfording, Monroe replaced Gabe Hirsch, who spent two seasons at the helm.

“I interviewed for it at the beginning of the summer, and I got hired at the end of August,” Monroe said. “It’s absolutely a dream job. They took a chance on me, and I’m happy to be there.”

From the get-go, he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

“In the interview process, they told me it would kind of be a down year,” he said. “I’m not looking at wins and losses. I just want to get kids into college and try to get them to the next level.

“They told me that we schedule to lose. We don’t schedule a bunch of easy games because that’s not going to help get the kids into college. We schedule tougher, bigger-school teams so that we can get the kids some exposure.”

Eventually, the wins might start coming, especially if Monroe is successful with recruiting local talent.

“I’m hoping that makes a difference,” Monroe said of his connections to Hagerstown’s youth basketball scene. “I’m talking to everybody.

“Broadfording hasn’t really built the program off of local talent, but I want to change that. I want to get more kids from the inner city out there. That’s my plan.

“As far as next year goes, hopefully I can get a few of these current eighth-graders to come and pair them with Dawda Silva (who’s averaging 20.8 points and 11.4 rebounds per game this season),” Monroe added. “He’s only a junior. That’s the best part of this year. My best player is coming back next year.”

However, there is a hurdle. Broadfording doesn’t have a football team.

“That kind of hinders who I can go after,” Monroe said. “Some of my H-Town Elite guys I can’t go after because they’re also football players.”

He described the issue as “almost like a karma thing.”

Before Monroe started at Saint James in 1999, he was heavily recruited by Goretti to play basketball. But the Gaels didn’t have a football team, so he became a Saint.

International flavor

Broadfording is known as an international school, and its basketball roster reflects that, with Silva (Gambia), Jovan Tadic (Serbia), Leo Kyriacou (England), Boran Dogan (Turkey) and Felipe Negrete (Chile).

“It’s cool,” Monroe said. “Not every coach is blessed with being able to have international kids. They bring a different look and aspect to the game.

“The game over there is a little different, and it’s fun to help them adjust to the new rules and the new way of basketball over here. Like our first game, Jovan got two goaltending calls, because over there, as soon as the ball touches the rim, you can knock it off. But over here, that’s a goaltend.”

It’s all making Monroe’s first year on the job a unique experience.

“It’s almost like a college or NBA type of job because you’re getting the international players, you get to recruit a little bit, and I get to experience a little of everything that comes along with coaching,” he said. “You know, like at North and South and Williamsport, they pretty much get whoever enrolls, whoever lives in that area. But for me, I get to do a little recruiting, I’ll get kids who just attend Broadfording who come out, and I’ll also get some international kids handed to me. It’s a pretty cool gig.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Brandon Monroe takes over Broadfording boys basketball