As the College of Saint Rose women’s basketball team gears up for the new season, its new coach is embracing the challenge.
It’s a late Friday afternoon in October and Will Brown is teaching the Golden Knights a give-and-go set in the half-court.
They run the play again and again, with different groups of five practicing the timing and getting the ball into the lane.
Brown is calling the shots, back at the private Albany college where his coaching career began on the men’s side in the 90s.
“I was here for three years, I met some really good people, I met my wife here,” he said. “My wife’s got a degree from the College of St. Rose, so for me, it was my first opportunity, and to come full circle and now on the women’s side, something new for me. I always feel that everything that you do there has to be a growth and development element to it.”
From there he spent 20 seasons at the University at Albany, leading the men’s hoops team to the Division I NCAA tournament five times. After parting ways with the Great Danes, Brown then served as head coach and general manager for the Albany Patroons pro team for one season in 2022.
Now, Brown finds himself back in the college game, this time at the Division II level in the Northeast-10 Conference. And he’s not here to lose.
“It’s been an enjoyable experience so far. Some of these players, I’m their third coach, and that’s difficult,” he said. “The one thing I keep hammering them with is, we have expectations. What’s been done in the past isn’t good enough. And we’re going to win, it’s just a matter of when.”
The Golden Knights’ roster is dominated by former Section II standouts, and skews young.
Junior Maddisyn Mahoney is from Latham and transferred from Fairleigh Dickinson.
“I think one of the hardest things that Coach Brown is enforcing on us is our mental toughness, because I know that there’s a lot of times during practice that yes, we’re all physically tough, we’ll go after each other for three hours a day, but another part that we still need to build up is on defense, when you’re tired, we need to be mentally tough and maintain solid defense,” Mahoney said.
Sophomore Kaelah Carter of Watervliet went to Shaker High School like Mahoney.
“We’re beating each other up, not gonna lie,” she said. “But it’s good. We need to be physical with each other because that just makes us a lot better for our opponents.”
Brown was busy getting his squad ready for an exhibition against ACC powerhouse Syracuse. But looming larger is the Nov. 15 season opener for a team looking for its first winning season since 2016.
“Here on the women’s side, and I did my research and talked to some people, if they trust you, and if you develop a relationship with them, they’ll do anything that you ask them to do,” said Brown.
Brown says coaching female players for the first time is a learning process and relating to the players is part of it.
“It’s a learning experience for me. When the games start and I’m on the sideline, I’m in my element and I’m in the zone,” he said. “It’s just the different personalities, what makes them tick. Whereas the men’s side, after a scrimmage, if three or four players didn’t play, they’d be sulking, they’d be waiting in my office for me. Three or four players don’t play here in a scrimmage, they don’t say a word, they’re happy, they’re coming in my office, ‘All right, I didn’t play, hopefully I’ll play next game.’”
Saint Rose’s first home game is Nov. 21 against Assumption.
