New Girls’ Basketball Coach Looks to Score Quickly and Keep Opposing Teams on their Heels

Braheny has spent the last 13 years coaching at Niles West High School in Skokie, including seven years as an assistant coach in the boys’ program and the last six years as the head coach of the girls’ program.

Athletic Director Jason Kuffel said he was impressed with Braheny’s extensive experience as well as his knowledge of the Saint Viator program, and that is on full display this week during summer camp.

“Kyle spoke extensively about his passion for this community,” Kuffel said, “his excitement to continue to build the program to even greater heights and following the Athletic Departments mission, vision and values through The Viator Way.”

Braheny grew up in Schaumburg and played basketball at Schaumburg High School, under Head Coach Bob Williams. But he made up his mind to go into coaching while working as a student manager for the University of Iowa men’s basketball team, under then head coach Steve Alford – who led the Indiana Hoosiers to a national championship as a player in 1987 -- and later under head coach Todd Lickiter.

“Looking back at my experiences as a player and the relationships I built with my coaches, I knew that pursuing a career in education and coaching is what I wanted to do,” Braheny says. “I wanted to make a difference in people's lives like my previous coaches did for me.”

Braheny says he jumped at the chance to coach at Saint Viator, not only because it will be closer to his home in Arlington Heights, but because he felt drawn to the mission of the school.

“I knew that coaching at Saint Viator would be a way to become more connected and involved with the community,” Braheny says. “In addition, the values and beliefs instilled at Saint Viator align with myself and my family. It feels like a good fit both professionally and personally.”

That said, Braheny wants fans to notice how fundamentally sound the team is and how hard they play. For starters, offensively, they want to play with pace.  

“We have the ability to score quickly and want to keep the opposing defenses on their heels,” Braheny says. “The strength of this team is going to be our guard play and our ability to shoot on the perimeter.  We are always looking to be aggressive with our dribble and that will open up opportunities for our perimeter shooters to get good team shots.” 

 

Defensively, Braheny says the Lions are going to be a team that no one wants to play.  

 

“We want to make it difficult for teams to execute their offense. We are going to be effective running a couple different types of defenses,” he adds. “It is always going to be work in progress, but it is going to be a point of emphasis at all levels.”