Matthew Brady, M.B.A. ’83

Matt Brady has been participating in organized basketball since he was 10 years old, and he has been a part of some impressive teams, historic teams. However, the team that meant the most to him was the 1983 Paul VI Parochial A State Championship team. The one regret of his career at PVI was that the 1982 and 1983 teams were not back-to-back State Champs because, he says, “the 1982 season was just as good, if not better!”

 

Matt was a member of the Courier-Post 1980s All-Decade Basketball Team and was twice selected to the All South Jersey team while at Paul VI.

 

He followed his success at Paul VI with an outstanding collegiate career at Siena College, where he received a bachelor of arts, and then he earned a master’s of business administration at Wagner University. He then turned to coaching. Matt explained, “My career ambition, once I realized I wasn’t going to be the next Hall of Fame point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, was to coach basketball and help other young players to reach their goals.” Through his coaching, he produced fine teams and individual stars. Most recently, he was the head coach at James Madison University where he won 139 games in eight seasons and led the Dukes to a CAA Championship and an NCAA Tournament Bid in 2013. Brady is now thrilled to become part of the La Salle University basketball family and can already see the enthusiasm and optimism for Explorer basketball this season and beyond.

 

Matt’s love of basketball began at St. Rose in Haddon Heights in the late 1970s. He learned the game from coach Tim Lenahan. He was taught that a strong foundation formed an excellent high school and college player. He built on that foundation throughout his career and eventually became known as the “shot doctor” for his ability to score and teach the art of shooting a basketball.

 

Two very influential people helped Matt immensely along the way. Both of them are members of the Paul VI Hall of Fame, and both had Paul VI to thank for influencing their own lives and careers. According to Matt, “The first is Art DiPatri, the coach who put our boys basketball program on the map and made the teams he coached here among the most respected in the state, year in and year out. Coach DiPatri helped me to learn that ‘playing the right way’ didn't always mean doing it my way. He helped his players to recognize that each player had a role and that each role was absolutely critical for the team to reach its potential. Coach had a practice plan every day, and we were going to do things the way he wanted them done, no matter how much we wanted just to play and scrimmage. Those tedious details he bored us with every day allowed our team, one of the smallest teams in the tournament that season, to become State Champs!”

 

Matt said, “The other person who influenced me and, without question, every single player he coached for nearly 3 decades was Tim Lenahan. He had the most amazing ability to make everyone feel unique and special. He found something that each person was good at or some hobby that the person enjoyed, and he would tell everyone how great the person was at that activity. He made all the people he met feel good about themselves and their contributions, and he did this consistently, every day. Isn’t that something we all could do? Couldn’t we all use a little more encouragement and a verbal pat on the back?”

 

Matt went on to say, “I am so grateful that I spent my formative years at Paul VI, with teachers who cared, administrators who liked the students, excellent coaches, and the great teammates I still see at PJ Whelihan’s. Everyone faces adversity and struggles in life. No matter how well someone may seem to be doing, each of us must deal with the inevitable burdens that life dishes out. We all can be a little more understanding and a little more comforting to the people whose paths we cross.”

 

Matt offers current Paul VI students the following advice: “Learn to persevere through adversity. Don’t be so quick to give up, and don’t lose sight of what’s important, such as school, your family, your passions and interests, whatever they may be, and your belief in yourself.”

 

Matt and his wife, Mary, have three sons, Logan, and twins, Cole and Griffin.