By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
sullyglorydays@gmail.com
When Scott Meile decided to leave the Oakcrest High girls basketball program to coach at Holy Spirit prior to this season, the Falcons needed a new leader.
Brittney Carney, a biology teacher at the school, checked a lot of boxes for Athletic Director Dave Bennett as somebody who could rebuild a program that struggled with roster numbers the past couple of seasons.
Transfers left Carney with just a handful of players who had any type of varsity experience, and that translated to a 1-9 start through the first 10 games of the season. The Falcons finished up 3-15 this year.
But those checked boxes will help her start to put things back together, brick by brick. One, she’s a former three-sport athlete at Delsea Regional High. Two, she’s young (having graduated from college in 2016), energetic and has boundless positive energy. And three, she’s the daughter of Tom Carney, former Delsea and Buena Regional baseball coach who won a ton of games during his career, most recently taking Buena to a state championship game in 2023.
“I just love basketball. I got into teaching to coach. I know that might be a little bit backwards, but I watched my dad do this my whole life,” Carney said after a win over Buena. “There’s something magnetic about high school sports and I’m very excited about this opportunity.”
Carney might be the perfect coach for this situation. She has a great support system, and she knows she has to teach a lot of her players just about everything about basketball. She went on a recruiting frenzy around the halls of Oakcrest prior to the season, just trying to get enough bodies out so the Falcons could have actual scrimmages at practice. Last year, there were only about eight players in the program, and only about half of them returned.
So this year has been all about trying to get athletes from other sports to understand basketball — teaching the game from the ground up, including where each player should stand or sit during a timeout.
“My first thought was there were a lot of girls walking the Oakcrest halls who didn’t know that they should be playing basketball. I was going to be real loud about it and find a way to get them to give it a shot,” she said. “Most of them I told to come to the first practice and if you don’t like it you can stop.
“It’s hard for any team to be successful when you don’t have enough players to run a full scrimmage. (Because of inexperience) a lot of focus this year has been the team; showing up for your teammates, recognizing that you’re a part of something bigger than yourself and making decisions based on what is good for the team, not what’s good for you,” Carney continued. “Everything in life worth having is hard to get, and we have to realize that the more we support each other and come together the more we can focus on Oakcrest. A lot of our battle this year is culture, and I think we’re starting to get there. When a girl comes out of the game, she gets a high-five from everyone on the bench. It’s understanding when a timeout is called, everyone gets up. These are little things that we were missing last year because we just didn’t have the numbers. When you only have seven girls, it makes it hard.”
The numbers are much better this year, so much so that the school now has a junior varsity team. It’s going to take some time for all these new players to get better at basketball so the Falcons can be more competitive, but Carney said she’s willing to put in the time and effort it’s going to take.
“We’re building toward something, coming together, and I stress all the time that our next big thing is going to be working out this summer. Every team practices from November to February, but showing up when it’s not required, not mandatory (will make a difference). I’m looking forward to seeing who is going to commit (in the offseason),” Carney said. “We’re in a little bit of a unique situation. Half my team has never been exposed to basketball before, but we’re getting there. We stress the basics because you can never be too good at the basics. We’re trying to build off the fundamentals. There’s some insecurity (with the new girls) but I’m their biggest cheerleader. I’m constantly telling them how capable they are and how proud I am of them because they need to hear that. Coming into this year we lost a few key players to transferring and a lot of the teams we’re playing this year came back at full strength. The girls are aware of that and they realize things don’t change overnight. There’s no one day where you just all of a sudden are a good basketball player. It’s every day trying to get a little better. One of the hardest challenges is constantly getting them to not be discouraged. No one becomes a great shooter right away, it takes thousands of shots and repetition. But we can get a little better every day.”
The players seem to have taken a liking to Carney, who they are familiar with because she was one of Meile’s assistants last year.
“She’s doing well. She talks to us, tells us what we need to be doing on the floor and things like that,” said guard A’Tirah Mitchell. “She’s good with talking to us, consistently, always just talking to us and letting us know what we need to do.”
Added Aliyah Gause, another returning guard, “I love Carney, she really has my heart. She’s a really good coach, always supportive, always in a good mood. I liked her as soon as I saw her. She seemed like a really good person, really positive, and she’s had a really good impact on our team ever since she first got here.”
Carney said she has some great mentors as she gets started in her varsity basketball coaching career.
“I learned a lot from Meile. He’s been great, even this year, helping me with managing the nuances of the behind-the-scenes,” she said. “He’s a big supporter of our girls because he taught most of them in middle school. He’s been a huge asset to me.”
But her father is her sage, the person she gets a text from after every game asking how it went — before she even gets home.
“He is probably the biggest influence on me. I would be selling him short if I didn’t give him all the credit. From a very early age he pushed (me and my siblings) to be our best and not accept less than what we were capable of and to work hard for what we wanted. He always used to say, ‘what makes (someone else) different? Why is she better? She’s got two arms and two legs just like you, right? Everything else is just an excuse.’ The way he’s able to motivate almost everybody he comes in contact with, I just strive to hopefully one day have that effect on people,” Carney said. “Everything is in the details. It’s the little things, and that’s the same thing I’m trying to do with my players here at Oakcrest. Take pride in boxing out and rebounding and being a good teammate. Those are things (my dad) was big on; you know, all the corny cliches like ‘play for the team on the front, not the name on the back.’ I was lucky enough to watch him my whole life and I say it all the time, I’m so grateful for my parents. They held us accountable and supported us. My dad is my biggest fan, the first text I get after a game.”
Carney may have gotten into teaching so she could coach, but now she’s doing more teaching than she ever has, trying to get these Falcons used to their wings so they can start to fly.
“I love the girls, they are a great group. They have bought in and are committed. I love watching the light bulb turn on. Nothing I tell them is pointless, it’s for a purpose, and watching them in action is amazing,” she said. “Watching them start to take accountability after losses and wanting more. Watching them gel together — how cool is it to see girls who didn’t even know each other at the start of the season now walking around the hallways together? It’s those kinds of culture changes that excite me, and that goes for all of Oakcrest, too. I’m the assistant coach for field hockey, and all of this can snowball and become bigger for all of our girls. If we unite and support each other, great things can happen.”
