Finding the Right Fit
Brady feeling at home on bench at CSU
Mike Brohard
Sometimes, a person doesn’t exactly know what they want to do as much as what they don’t.
Sitting behind a desk as an accountant, Annie Brady realized a lucrative career isn’t always the right choice. So, she did what all good accountants would do – weigh the debit against the credit side.
“I made the right (choice) because I had made the wrong one,” said Brady, in her first year on the Colorado State women’s basketball staff. “I was in accounting before this. It was hard. I knew there were skills I had I wasn’t using. At that time, I made a pretty in-depth list of I need this kind of stuff in my career, and coaching was always in the back of my mind. Right when I got here, I knew it was a good fit.”
The idea of being a coach was always floated around. As a player at Colorado State, she’d considered it, but there was so much more to pursue. She played professionally, where a second knee injury ended her career, the first coming to her other knee the middle season of her three years as a Ram.
She took a church mission. Then it was to what she knew immediately, accounting. It was rewarding, and the team she worked with made it passable. It just wasn’t for her long term. So, she fell back on prior discussions with Ryun Williams and his staff. She ran into a former teammate, Lauren Brocke, now an assistant coach with Air Force.
The seed was planted, and Williams had already told her, if she was going to do it, she should come home. She just needed an opening. When one came about as a graduate assistant, she jumped at the chance. When late coaching changes took place, her place was immediately elevated to an assistant’s role.
Not a normal move for Williams at all. Then again, Brady isn’t just anybody.
“I’ve never done that before. She was with us for three years in our program, so she knows our system,” he said, his team sitting as the No. 3 seed heading into the Mountain West tournament next week. “I also know the character of that young lady, and I know the loyalty I’m going to get. As the head coach, that’s the No. 1 thing, the loyalty piece. She’s been the most loyal Ram through and through.
“As a player, she saw the game the right way. Especially the position we asked her to play. We knew she could be impactful, and she’s a relational kid. She’s good with people. Our boosters loved her. All of her teammates loved her. Why would it be any different as a coach? Yeah, she hasn’t coached a game in her life, but that’s my job. I can coach them.”
And if there was any place Brady was going to make that kind of immediate jump, Colorado State was the place to do it. It wasn’t just the system and head coach where she could draw comfort, but also the presence of assistant Rico Burkett on staff, who was in Fort Collins during her playing days.
As for the coaching part, she attacked it the way she does most things, by getting to know the people. She went to lunch with each of the players as a first step. That made the transition to teaching on the court easier with a launching point from which to work.
“When I got here in the summer, we hit the ground running. It was me doing one-on-one workouts with the girls,” she said. “Before they got here, I got to spend time up with Coach and Rico watching film and refreshing on a lot of things. Rico told me early on, don’t be afraid to say something because you have played in it, and you know what Coach wants. I think having the summer to teach, with a lot of new players, it was a good opportunity for me. We had to be comfortable speaking. That carried over the fall.
“I think just having played for Coach Williams and Rico, understanding what he wants in his system, it was a really good opportunity for me to connect with the girls. Hey, I’ve played for him in this system, and I was also comfortable in coaching and teaching, because I knew what Coach Williams wanted. For a first-time opportunity, from the Xs and Os and the CSU community, it was the best opportunity.”
Name a better human being that Annie Brady. Any coach wants that impacting their players and around their players every day.Ryun Williams
Her focus has been on the posts. Those who are natural to the center and power forward spots, as well as those who have a bit of inside punch to their game, on either end of the floor.
She was a certain kind of player for the Rams. She was tough and physical. As a redshirt senior, she led the team in scoring (10.7 points per) and rebounding (8.2), grabbing 86 on the offensive glass. She holds the program record with 23 rebounds in a game (against San Jose State), a night where 10 came on the offensive end, tied for second most in a game at CSU.
She is acutely aware of the player she was, keenly aware of the players she is coaching. They are not the same, so while she may flash a bit of her game their way, she focuses on what will improve theirs, a style which is greatly appreciated.
“She’s been amazing. She stays after practice,” freshman Kloe Froebe said. “She’ll come before practice, and she’ll work with me and just show me some of the types of moves she used. She’s a post, but she can play everywhere, so she’s helped me with that. She was a big rebounder, and she’s always giving me insight on little things. She’s been so brilliant; I’ve loved having her as a coach.
“Something I’ve noticed when she’s working with me is she’ll explain to me how she did it, then she asks what’s more comfortable for me. When I’m on the court, she says whatever feels more comfortable, whatever you’ll be able to do on the spot let’s drill that and work on it. She tailors to what will be best for us.”
Her approach has also been noted. Williams, in his role, must law down the law. As an assistant, Brady has a knack for softening the blow, a tactic the two talked about when she was added to the staff.
Brady won’t go soft on them, not for an instant. However, her follow up to Williams’ instruction leans toward a more uplifting feeling. The players know what’s going on, realizing they need both approaches for the message to take hold.
“For me personally, since I’m I the post group, it’s been very beneficial. She brings a lot of energy and she’s positive, which is something we really need so we can thrive,” Jadyn Fife said. “Sometimes it gets a little down, it gets a bit negative, and she helps bring us back up.
“Hey, coach may say something that gets us down, but she may reiterate it in a more positive tone, so we don’t feel as bad about it.”
What they might not have seen coming is the humor and the banter, especially between Brady and Burkett. Fife calls Brady a “jokester,” saying she’ll make a quip on the court which might catch them all off guard, even Williams, then she builds off it in individual work.
Then there are the exchanges between the two assistants.
“She picks her spots very well, especially her and Rico,” Fife said. They bicker a lot.”
“And it comes surprisingly,” interject Froebe. “You wouldn’t expect it and then she says something, and you’re like, wow.”
It didn’t take long for Brady to find her voice, either. Not on the court, not on the bench. As an older player, she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind during the build up to a game, offering suggestions of her own. Doing the same thing as a coach isn’t always easy.
It’s knowing when to speak, and sometimes, what to say. She feels comfortable in both regards, knowing Williams didn’t hire her to just constantly nod her head in agreement. He appreciates her input.
Most of the time.
“Each game it’s more and more. Sometimes you just want to say, zip it, I’ve got it,” he joked. “You’d rather have that. I think where she’s matured beyond her years is she doesn’t need direction from me to go communicate to a kid that maybe needs a pick-me-up or needs to see things the right way on the floor. As soon as they come off the floor, she can go down and talk to them, and that gives a coach a peace of mind.”
This has very much been a season for growth for Brady. She is being coached as much as she is coaching. As a player, she realized Williams relied on film. As a coach, she’s been floored about how much he actually watches.
She knows this is how he reads and dissects his team’s play. Early on, she noticed how it would help her do the same, so as Williams’ puts it, she just invited herself into the room and started scribbling down notes, asking him to stop and rewind at will.
He didn’t know this would happen exactly, but he knew her hunger to be successful would present itself in some way. As he’s noticed, in most ways. This is why she was hired, no experience needed.
“Name a better human being that Annie Brady. Any coach wants that impacting their players and around their players every day,” Williams said. “I think that’s why we’re having a big year. All of our staff, Annie, has been a fresh voice and she’s a joy. She brings a joy. I can be kind of a curmudgeon, and she doesn’t let me be that as much as I’d like.”
What Brady likes is being back in Fort Collins, back in the game again. It’s a new role, and an invigorating one, which is never lost on her.
She recently returned from a recruiting trip. On the front end, there’s the ability to start a relationship with a potential player. The back end is coming home, excited to see the players with whom she works with and they being excited to see her.
It’s the payoff of seeing a player put in the work at practice, then have it pay off in a game. Like the time Froebe had worked on her 3-point shot, only to hit a key one, then look for Brady on the bench and grin.
That’s called making a good career choice. Not just knowing the joys of where you’re at but realizing where she could be currently. Not that she’s completely away from a desk, deciding to add a Master’s degree through the CSU MBA program, but she clearly sees the difference.
“I know what a workday I don’t enjoy looks like,” she said.
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