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COACHING PEDIGREE
Mantecas Agenbroad climbing the coaching ladder as a student
FEAT-agenbroad-pic2a
Brianna Agenbroad and father, Frank, coach up Presentation during halftime Saturday at Turlock’s Sacred Heart. - photo by BRANDON PETERSEN
You’ve heard the term student-athlete, but here’s a new one: Student-coach.

The updated sports vernacular comes courtesy of Manteca High senior Brianna Agenbroad, who doubles as the head basketball coach for the 8th Grade boys team at Presentation of Stockton.

Agenbroad’s story is a rare one indeed.

Not only does the newly-turned 18 year-old already have five years of coaching experience under her belt, which includes work alongside some of the area’s most respected coaching talent, but she also coaches boys, a rarity extremely difficult to find in a male-dominated landscape.

Agenbroad isn’t alone.

Bed-Stuy Brooklyn head basketball coach Ruth Lovelace is perhaps one of the most highly recognizable female boys coaches in the country. Lovelace’s Boys & Girls High School was the No. 2 seed in New York’s Public Schools Athletic League basketball tournament a year ago, and has been featured on ESPN.

Although on a much smaller scale, Agenbroad has faced some of the same challenges that Lovelace has in proving she belongs in the boy’s game.

“Recently one of the parents told me that the kids went home and told the parents, ‘We have a girl coach, so it’s going to be a bad season,’” Agenbroad said. “They were kind of bummed out.”

Although Agenbroad’s resume should speak for itself  — it includes an assistant coaching gig under St. Mary’s High assistant varsity coach Sam Harrison — and her record speaks even louder — she helped turn a team that won a total of three games over three seasons into an unbeaten champion — the skeptics are still plentiful.

“You hear things,” Agenbroad said. “I’ve heard parents say, ‘Oh, a little girl is coaching.’ But then the game starts and those same people say, ‘Oh, OK, she can coach.’

“It’s nice to get respect for just being a regular coach.”

Agenbroad’s father, Frank, took over the head coaching duties at Presentation last year and asked his daughter to be a part of the staff.

That was the team that went undefeated in Stockton’s Catholic Youth League Trinity Division.

This season, Presentation has stepped up to the tougher Spirit Division, and Frank has stepped into an assistant role in order to let Brianna take the reins.

“This is my first full season as a head coach,” Agenbroad said.

Although the sledding has been tougher in Spirit Division, Presentation’s squad is light years ahead of where it was just  a few short seasons ago.

“I’m a defensive-minded coach,” Agenbroad said. “Boys don’t like to play defense, so we use that to our advantage.”

Agenbroad is an aggressive coach and just as vocal, if not more, than many of her male counterparts.

She demands respect in her huddle, and she’s unquestionably afforded it.

“I’ve played since I was eight years old,” Agenbroad said. “I started helping my dad and I just sort of fell into coaching. It’s nice to be able to take what you know and pass it along.”

After graduation, Agenbroad plans on attending Chico State, and is considering Kinesiology as a major.

The combo small forward, shooting guard is also considering walking on.

“I may be going into coaching though,” Agenbroad said.

That wouldn’t be a bad idea either.