Brandon Williams knows all too well the winning traditions and success enjoyed by Roadrunner Men's Basketball through the years under legendary coaches such as "Fang" Mitchell and Steve Solomone among others.
As the new Roadrunner coach, he intends to keep that tradition alive and well!
Executive Director of Athletics Brian Rowan has announced Williams' selection as the new Roadrunners' head coach for the winter 2023-24 season. Williams replaces former coach Rich Casey, who led the Runners into the Region 19 playoffs a year ago as the team finished with a 22-8 record. Casey is now the Athletic Director at Rosemont College.
"Being here as the new head coach is an honor," said Williams, who was head boys basketball at Deptford High School the past three seasons and who previously attended Gloucester County College. "I know the rich traditions of all the coaches we've had here. I will put my entire work ethic into building a foundation of recruiting great players and maintaining a winning culture as well as making sure we all do our jobs."
Williams is already familiar with some returning players on the Roadrunner roster, such as forward Darnell Demby and center Josh Randall.
"These guys are good basketball players -- I know them from when I coached high school ball," said Williams. "We've also had a lot of interest already from around the area. South Jersey is a gold mine for talented players, and we will be out there recruiting heavily."
While a coach at Deptford High, the Spartans were selected as the South Jersey Team of the Year under Coach Williams' guidance in the 2020-21 season, when they were ranked No. 1 in the SJ Group 3 tournament with a 12-2 record. The tournament was not played that season due to covid 19 restrictions. His Spartans also posted a record of 19-8 in 2021-22, winning the Tri-County Conference Liberty Division with an 8-0 mark. In his 3 years at the Deptford helm, his teams have captured two Tri-County Liberty Division crowns.
Williams, a former Deptford High standout athlete, has also coached football as a defensive coordinator and currently serves as a school counselor at DHS. Priot to becoming head basketball coach, he served two years as an assistant at DHS. Williams is a graduate of Gloucester County College (associate's degree), Rowan University (bachelor's degree) and Wilmington University (master's degree).
Director of Athletics Rowan feels that Coach Williams will continue the Roadrunner Men's Basketball lengthy winning tradition.
"Brandon really shined in the interview process – he has a vision for our program and how to get there and will be a tireless recruiter," said Rowan. "We had a familiarity through an internship that Brandon did with me and I was extremely impressed with him then and even more so now. Brandon will be a leader on the court and in the community and we are very proud to have him in our program.
"Something that Brandon has is a strong sense of what it takes to be successful here – in his interview he mentioned Coach Valli, and Coach DePasquale and Coach Cooper among others as having programs he wanted to emulate and that was important. He knows the glory days of the program under Coach Solomone and Coach Mitchell and Coach Jackson and he wants to hang banners like those great coaches did and also marry that with a desire to see these young men make great life choices and be a mentor for them. We couldn't be more excited for him to get started"
For information on Roadrunner Men's Basketball, contact Roadrunner Athletics at 856 468 5000 Ext. 2207 or email Athletics@rcsj.edu
We are in the process of setting up email and phone for Coach Williams - interested athletes can use form here to contact coach: https://rcroadrunners.com/information/men_basketball_prospect