Late this summer, Applewild head of school Amy Jolly was looking for a new director of basketball at the junior boarding school. Upon a suggestion, she reached out to Brandon West, then an assistant coach at Darrow who has a wealth of experience and connections in local basketball.
At first, it was just a networking conversation. A mutual acquaintance told Jolly that West knew who she could hire, and West was happy to help give her some names to look at. But a funny thing happened during that call: West became interested in the position himself.
“As she’s talking to me, I’m just like, ‘Wow, this sounds like a position with great support,’” West recalled. “Everything was a green light, green light, green light. At the end of the conversation, I was like, ‘Amy, I’m more than happy to give you names, but I might want to be considered.’”
Jolly was pleasantly surprised, and the school moved quickly on hiring West. Days later, they flew him to their campus in Fitchburg, Mass., and it became a perfect match. It’s a homecoming of sorts for West, a Massachusetts native who grew up between Marlborough and Boston who’s excited about a unique opportunity to develop student-athletes.
Applewild, a junior boarding school founded in 1957 on the hilltop in Fitchburg, serves students through ninth grade. Over the years, the school has been a leader in music and arts education. But it’s now making a sizable and unique investment in athletics.
The school is building a $40 million, 50,000-square-foot athletic and wellness facility, with plans to open in mid-December. They hired Juju Nealy, a Fitchburg native and former college basketball player at Rivier University to be their full-time strength and conditioning coach and girls basketball coach. Alongside West as the director of basketball, it’s all part of a commitment to athletics that is generally unseen at other junior boarding schools.
“Applewild believes in a holistic student,” West said. “They want to be part of every part of a student’s development and they realize athletics is part of that now and they’re investing in that.”
The new facility has everything and more a young student-athlete could need. It will feature two full-sized basketball courts in addition to a six-lane Olympic-sized swimming pool, squash courts and a state-of-the-art strength and conditioning area. It will even have a golf simulator. Recovery will be a focal point, too. There’s a full yoga studio included.
“I think we’re able to build a whole athlete here instead of maybe that old school approach of lifting and basketball, lifting and basketball,” West said. “It’s going to put us hopefully at the top. It’s going to make the country realize, wow, Applewild is a premier place to send my kid for athletics. …
“The resources are going to be special,” he added. “It’s exciting that it’s not just a building, it’s an investment into what athletics can do for young people.”
West, in many ways, is the ideal fit to take Applewild to the next level. After transitioning to the coaching and player development side after his playing days ended, West has become one of the most well-respected and well-connected basketball coaches in the region.
His journey has taken him to roles at some of the best prep programs in the area, including Beaver Country Day, Phillips Andover, Belmont Hill and most recently at Darrow, where he helped head coach Antonio Anderson turn a seven-win team into a nationally-recognized program. He’s made stops at some of New England’s premier grassroots programs, including alongside the legendary Leo Papile at BABC. He’s even worked with a handful of NBA players. He spent this summer in Los Angeles running Terance Mann’s offseason program, and he’s been in the gym over the years with Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and LeBron James, among several others.
West has been around the best of the best in basketball and has formed a strong understanding of the small details that matter. He has helped send dozens, maybe even hundreds, to Division 1 basketball programs. He has extensive experience recruiting players to secondary prep schools. He knows, more than most, what it takes to make the next level.
“It's been such an amazing journey, and I'm very blessed to do that,” West said. “But I'm also very blessed to pass that knowledge on.”
At Applewild, West said his players will have a strenuous, structured basketball schedule that mirrors the one at Darrow. Early wake-ups, strength work, film sessions and individual skill and player development and recovery will be part of the routine. But West stressed that the experience will be more than basketball. Academics will come first; if a kid is behind on schoolwork, they’ll miss basketball practice to get it done. West said they’ll learn how to be leaders at the school and be comfortable in that environment. Basketball will be a high-powered vehicle for student development.
“They’re going to get better at basketball, it’s going to be basketball development, I can do that very well, you're going to have access to an incredible new facility, and we're going to work extremely hard,” West said. “But your child is also going to be in a small community here where people actually know them. They're going to be challenged academically, and they're going to have real leadership opportunities here. …
“They're going to develop independence here. And I think the biggest thing is we're just going to help them prepare for that next school, the next secondary school with a holistic approach. It's not just going to be basketball, basketball, basketball. It's not going to be academics, academics, academics. We're going to focus on the whole student, and I think it's an experience like no other.”
