MUNCIE, Ind. — Championship teams often run much deeper than just the players on the court. The coaches, trainers, and managers who can make large differences frequently work behind the scenes. Ball State Women’s Basketball Head Coach Brady Sallee wants to make sure that doesn’t happen to his assistants.
After winning the MAC Coach of the Year award for the first time in his career, Sallee made one thing abundantly clear: This award is due in big part to his staff, and thus, he aptly renamed it the ‘MAC Staff of the Year.
“I do mean it when I say we had the staff of the year,” Sallee said about renaming his award. “Without them, this team isn’t what it is.”
Associate head coach Aubrey Spencer has been coaching alongside Sallee for over ten years, and as much as she enjoys Sallee recognizing his staff in the award, she knows that this title of coach of the year should have been Sallee’s long ago.
“It means the world, obviously,” Spencer said. “He deserves the heck out of that award. And he probably should have gotten it many times before.”
Even if this is Sallee's first time winning the award, it doesn’t diminish what he and the staff have done as a team this season.
Not only did they claim the MAC regular season championship, but they also won the MAC tournament and subsequently gained just the second-ever berth to the NCAA Tournament in program history, the first since 2009.
Whether on the court, off the court, or somewhere in between, Sallee believes that his staff is second to none in the country.
“I trust my staff,” Sallee said. “I think I’ve got the best in the league and the best in the Midwest, and it truly was a staff of the year award.”
Contact Jake Dickman with comments at jacob.dickman@bsu.edu.
