Senior leads varsity team with encouragement, humor

Campus lifer Brandon Brogan plays in his second and final year of basketball. Brogan is driven to push his teammates forward through the hard times of the season, aiming to run deep into playoffs. He started playing basketball for FC in elementary school, but took a break for soccer shortly after.

Over summer break, the campus boys basketball varsity team practiced and traveled as a team.

“My favorite memory with the FCS basketball team occurred while in San Diego over the summer,” Brogan said. “We made a lot of good memories on that trip and I feel like we got closer as a team.”

Brogan decided to start playing basketball again after he fell out of love with soccer, and wanted to try something new. This resulted in him trying out and competing in basketball.

“I enjoy basketball because of the coaches and all of the players,” Brogan said. “The people make it really fun. We all enjoy ourselves and laugh even if we are losing, we can still make each other laugh.”

Kevin Brogan, father of Brandon Brogan, is a physical therapist and has remained supportive and encouraging through Brandon’s journey in sports.

“Brandon was exposed to basketball very early in life,” Kevin said. “An early toy was a Nerf hoop and a small 3 foot miniature hoop. He and his older brother, Bailey, played with those toys a bunch growing up. Both played preschool and elementary school club basketball. Brandon played through junior high school, then switched to soccer for freshman and sophomore years.

This podcast features Sukhman Cheema, ’19, commenting on Brogan’s contribution to the basketball team.

Ty Coffman, ‘20, a teammate of Brandon’s, has known him since arriving at FC last school year. Coffman sees great attributes in Brandon, including being upbeat, encouraging and having a great sense of humor.

“One of my favorite memories with Brandon was when the team traveled to San Diego and the whole team got stuck in an elevator,” Coffman said. “There were 18 of us in the elevator and then Bulldog comes in as the 19th person and we all start screaming and yelling in there, and then me, Brandon, and Suky Cheema are in there looking at each other and laughing.”

Besides playing basketball, senior Brandon Brogan also played varsity football as highlighted in the following 2017 Feather tweet. Brogan is a four-sport athlete, playing baseball (4 years), basketball (2 years), soccer (2 years) and football (1 year).

Junior Brandon Brogan, No. 21, scores at the end of 2nd quarter. Eagles up, 14-0. pic.twitter.com/fU2RLhC63t

— The Feather Online (@thefeather) November 25, 2017

Brandon endures many injuries throughout his time in sports, including spraining both ankles, some fingers, and injuring his knee during his junior football season. Kevin, his father assists Brandon in recovering from injuries.

“Brandon has had multiple ankle injuries this past couple of years and has come to my office quite a bit,” Kevin said. “Other injuries that were more ‘annoyances’ have been muscle injuries, requiring stretching on the sidelines of soccer and football games or before the basketball games.”

Attending since kindergarten, Brandon qualifies him as a lifer on campus. He played basketball as a kid on his own and is now playing for the FC high school team. Brandon describes the benefits of playing sports at a small school.

“What I love about playing basketball here at FCS is that it is a smaller school so it is a lot easier to make friends and be more involved with everything that’s going on,” Brandon said. “Playing basketball here is not as hard to make it onto the team. At a big school you have to be one of the best, if not the best player, at the school, but here they take everyone.”

Kevin watched Brandon go through several sports over the years, and as a father, he has watched Brandon grow over the years.

“Brandon has shown great maturity through team sports,” Kevin said. “Both his mother and I were involved in his sports participation and he seemed to really like it, so we just continued to encourage him to play. Early, it was hard for him to accept failures. He has always been very hard on himself. As he has grown, and being a part of a team, he has learned to let go of mistakes and failures faster and this has helped him grow in areas outside of sports as well.”

After playing soccer for a few years, Brogan decided to rejoin basketball after his sophomore year of high school. However he does not enjoy basketball enough to continue into college.

Outside of basketball Brandon enjoys hanging out with friends, playing video games and relaxing. The two video games he is most fond of are NBA 2K and Black Ops IV. His favorite game mode in Black Ops is multiplayer, because it allows for play with friends. Currently, he plans on staying in Fresno for university at either Fresno State or Fresno Pacific.

For more articles about the FCS basketball team read Landon Goldsborough leads basketball team at center position or our newest article EDITORIAL: Resolve issues through mediation, conversation.

Cohl Obwald can be reached via twitter or email.