Many coaches make their players run sprints after losing a game or a drill but choose not to participate themselves. Not Reneé Brantley, the new head coach of the Oak Park and River Forest girls basketball team. She’s there sprinting across the Fieldhouse with her team. 

Nicole Ebsen, the athletic director at OPRF, frequently observed the practices last year. “On several occasions, you could see that she was doing sprints with the girls because she was on the team that didn’t win whatever competition they were just doing, and she was actively doing whatever the consequences were after it,” said Ebsen. “So that holds her apart for sure.”

This year will be Brantley’s fourth season working with the team, but her first as the head coach. Last year Brantley was the interim head coach, and the two years prior she was an assistant coach. 

Brantley has extensive playing and coaching experience. She played collegiately at Alabama A&M University as a Division I athlete from 2007 to 2011 and then was the assistant coach from 2011 to 2012. Brantley then coached at South Shore International College Prep from 2014 to 2017, and then at Morgan Park High School from 2017 to 2020.

Ebsen described Brantley as “an athlete forever and ever, through and through.”

“I think all of our coaches are very hands-on, but in different ways,” said Ebsen. “She is actively playing in practice, guarding, showing kids what to do, running up and down.”

As a coach, Brantley sees herself as someone who “approaches everything with intensity but with attention to details,” she said. “I am a former college athlete, so I understand what it takes to win, but also compete at the highest level.”

Tryouts for the upcoming season will begin Nov. 4 with their first game on Nov. 19, and Brantley has high hopes for the girls this year. “I want to be competitive within our conference,” said Brantley. “I want us to get better as a program and develop our young players.”

Brantley also prioritizes the well being of the players, emphasizing a strong community within the team. “Coach Brantley takes a holistic approach to coaching,” said senior Claire Detmer. “She genuinely cares about all of her players and pushes us all to work hard when she doesn’t think that we’re meeting our true potential both in and out of basketball.”

Sonia Lavery, a senior, said she “really liked how Coach Brantley took the time to develop each player and help them focus on bettering their skills…[Brantley] really wants her players to succeed in everything.”

Brantley wants the team to grow as players as well as people. “I try to teach them about discipline, confidence and going after things that you want,” she said. “I just want them to leave as better people.”

For Brantley, a big part of the sport is learning how to handle unexpected obstacles. She tries to teach her players that things won’t always go according to plan, whether it be in a game or outside of basketball. “Somebody fouls out, someone gets hurt, the refs are terrible, but it’s how you respond. It’s the adversity that comes,” said Brantley. “What are you going to do? Are you just going to let it happen and just fold? Or are you going to do something about it?”

Brantley also ensures strong communication with the players if she makes a line-up adjustment in the middle of a game about what improvements should be made. “I’ve seen her make a very conscious effort to make sure that it is always a coachable moment,” said Ebsen. “I think that that’s huge because it gives our athletes some confidence, and they’re not wondering what they did wrong.”

As someone with someone with such genuine love for basketball, Brantley enjoys coaching because “it doesn’t seem like work at all. I enjoy being around my colleagues. I enjoy being around our players, seeing them every day, watching them develop and do things that they probably weren’t successful at doing in the beginning, but now they can do it,” she said. “I enjoy seeing them grow and be confident, work together and that camaraderie.”       “My favorite thing about the team is how close we all are,” said Detmer. “The basketball season is a long one that involves a lot of hours in and out of the gym together. Through those hours I’ve made some of my best friends and I can’t wait to have one more season with them.”

Brantley is “using basketball as a vessel to make better human beings. She sees what basketball has done for her in her life, and she wants to translate that to other people’s experience, ” said Ebsen. “I think once our athletes walk away from it…they still will have her as a mentor and a contact, and I think that they’ll realize kind of what she’s done for them as individuals.”