South Portland coach Brianne Maloney, with her father and assistant coach, John Maloney, looming over her shoulder, addresses her players during a timeout earlier this season. The Red Riots will play for the Class AA state title Saturday night. Hoffer photo.

For nearly three decades, love for the sport of basketball, and for each other, has been a connective force in the lives of Brianne Maloney and her father, John Maloney.

This winter, the Maloneys have taken that love to a new level.

And the South Portland girls basketball program has been the biggest beneficiary.

Brianne Maloney, 28, is the Red Riots first-year head coach and with John Maloney, 54, by her side, as one of her two trusted assistants along with Kelsey Flaherty, they have elevated the program to brink of an elusive championship.

As with any father-daughter relationship, it hasn’t always been easy, but there have been a lot of laughs, occasional tears and a whole lot of triumph.

And it wasn’t even supposed to happen.

“My first thought when I found out I was getting the job was keeping an all-female coaching staff,” said Brianne Maloney, South Portland Class of 2014, who served as an assistant to Lynne Hasson, the Red Riots’ previous coach. “I felt like an all-female staff is something that’s really important. I had a few people in mind and I reached out and things just didn’t work out. After a couple of no’s, I thought about what I needed as a first-year coach and the first couple things that ran through my mind were experience and having been through seasons that were successful and maybe seasons that weren’t so successful. After thinking about that, it was pretty easy to think of who that person should be. There was really no hesitation on his end when I asked. At first, he said,  ‘I’ll be there as much as I can,’ but I think that mindset quickly changed for him.”

“When Brianne got the job, I said to her, ‘Whatever you want me to do, I can do. I can scout games for you, come to practice.’ I never thought I’d coach with her,” said John Maloney. “A couple weeks before the season, I went to her work to give her something and we were out in the parking lot and she was like, ‘Hey, me and Kelsey were thinking. Do you want to be my volunteer assistant?’ I said, ‘Yeah, whatever you want me to do.’ There was no hesitation to saying yes to help my daughter and I thought, ‘Great, now I get to hang out with my daughter two hours a day.'”

A steady diet of basketball

Brianne Maloney was an intense competitor during her playing days as well. Mike Strout / Forecaster file photo.

John Maloney, a one-time high school basketball star in Weymouth, Massachusetts, who went on to play collegiately at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Massachusetts and later at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, began coaching as an assistant in Westbrook in 1994, then took over the Yarmouth boys head job in 1999, not long after his daughter was born.

Brianne Maloney quickly became a basketball aficionado.

And eventually a star in her own right.

John Maloney went just 32-62 in his five seasons with the Clippers, but he did take them to their first quarterfinal in 14 years and laid the foundation for what would become a perennial contender.

John Maloney then served as an assistant for three years under under Dan LeGage at Deering as the Rams made a surprising run to the Class A state game in 2005, then won the program’s first ever Gold Ball the following year.

Brianne Maloney vividly recalls those seasons.

“Before I was able to play, I went to (my Dad’s) games and practices,” Brianne Maloney said. “I’m old enough to remember Deering’s run when they went to states back-to-back. When I was younger, I thought I was going to be a Deering Ram because that’s where he was coaching.”

John Maloney had a couple of stints as an assistant with the South Portland boys team and when Brianne Maloney was in middle school, he coached her for one year.

“Once I started playing, he was at every game,” Brianne Maloney said. “He coached me eighth grade year and that was the only time he coached girls.”

Brianne Maloney would become a standout for South Portland, being named the Red Riots’ 2014 Winter Female Athlete of the Year by The Forecaster.

Brianne Maloney followed in her father’s footsteps and played at St. Joseph’s College in Standish. Courtesy John Maloney.

Brianne Maloney went on to play at St. Joseph’s College, while John Maloney later helped coach his youngest son Owen (he also has an older son, Jake).

Owen Maloney helped the South Portland boys snap a three decade title drought in 2022, then, after he departed for the University of Maine (and later the University of Southern Maine), the Red Riots won another championship in 2023.

South Portland’s girls, meanwhile, are still looking to break through, having last captured a title in 1986.

Surging

The 2023-24 Red Riots won 15 games, but suffered a painful loss to Scarborough in the Class AA South semifinals.

Following the season, Hasson stepped down and Brianne Maloney eventually got the job. With just about everyone returning from a talented team, expectations were high, but John Maloney was concerned that the introduction of a male to the coaching staff might rock the boat.

Instead, he’s been welcomed with open arms.

“I’ve known (sophomore) Annie (Whitmore) since she was born basically,” John Maloney said. “(Junior) Stella (Henderson) was little when (her older sister Lydia) played with Brianne and I knew (senior captain) Emma (Travis) from Red’s Dairy Freeze because I was a regular there. All they knew was that I was Bri’s Dad.

“My only hesitation was how would the girls accept me. Being a passionate coach and the way I come across, would they want someone like that in the program? (Brianne and Kelsey) without hesitation said, ‘These girls want to be coached.’ After four or five practices, I thought this is great. These girls want to be coached hard. (Junior post standout) Destiny (Peter) said to me one day at practice after I checked in with her, ‘If you don’t coach me that way every day, I’m going to be disappointed.’ She’s kind of a quiet kid and for her to come out and say that to me like that, it made me feel really good.”

“He did a really good job communicating with us and checking in to be sure he was coaching us the way we wanted to be coached,” said Travis.

“I’ve always been a big fan of John Maloney,” said Flaherty, South Portland Class of 2008. “We go way back. (The Maloneys have) been family friends as long as I can remember, but I’ve never had the relationship with him we have this year. I’ve never really seen the side of him I’ve seen this year. It’s been really fun. At the end of the day, he’s a big softie. He’s hard on the girls at times, but what they love about him is he’s a Dad figure. It’s been fun to see that.

“When Bri told me she was considering asking her Dad to coach, I was on board with it from the beginning. I knew it would pay dividends down the line. Bri and I are fairly new coaches. To have someone like him we can bounce ideas off of and get good, solid feedback, I know I’ve personally learned a ton this year.”

Intensity hasn’t been a problem on the sideline this winter for South Portland’s girls basketball team, as first-year coach Brianne Maloney and her assistant and father, John Maloney, have teamed up to produce a championship-caliber squad. Courtesy Richard Sawyer Photography.

The Red Riots, who feature Peter, Travis, Whitmore, sophomore sharpshooter Mya Lawrence and do-everything junior Caleigh Corcoran, along with some solid contributors off the bench, started fast with three straight victories. After a loss at defending state champion Cheverus, South Portland won five more games, but at midseason, the team faced a crossroads after home losses to Windham and Oxford Hills.

And they responded beautifully, flipping the switch, closing on a seven-game surge, which included home wins over Gorham and Cheverus and a victory at Gorham, to lock up the top seed in Class AA South.

South Portland figured it out both on the court and on the bench.

“Building our confidence was our biggest key coming off last year,” Travis said. “We had some different players who weren’t quite sure what their role would be and how they could contribute. The coaches made it possible for everyone to have confidence on on the floor and in their role on the team. It’s a nice connection to have.”

“(My Dad and I are) close and throughout our 28-year relationship we’ve had moments where we had to iron things out. At this point in our lives, we know each other,” Brianne Maloney said. “There are times on the bench where he says something and I don’t listen and I regret it and there’s times where I tell him to stop talking. At the end of the day, there’s no change in our relationship. That’s the biggest selling point having him on the bench. I know I can leave every day and know that whatever was said in the gym does not affect our relationship. That makes us an even stronger coaching unit and it benefits the girls to know they have three coaches who have each others’ backs and we have their backs.”

“She shuts me right down sometimes and the girls see it,” added John Maloney. “I don’t get upset about it. When it comes down to it, it’s Brianne’s team and Kelsey and I are here to support her. It’s about the 17 of us together.”

Appreciation

Brianne Maloney has earned praise from all quarters for her ability to relate to her players.

“She’s been around basketball her whole life as well, just like many of us,” said Travis. “I think I can speak for all of us that we have Bri in our corner. We can talk to her about anything, be it personal or about basketball. I think it’s important for everybody on the team to have a voice and she’s made it very clear that we all do.”

“I think Bri does a really good job connecting with the girls,” Flaherty said. “In order to buy into what the coaching staff is asking you to do, you have to have that connection with them. She’s really worked to establish that. I remember watching practice this summer and thinking, ‘Wow. She has a way of getting the girls motivated that I’ve never seen before.’ It’s been really cool to watch. Building that connection early on and getting them to trust her has been very successful.”

“It’s just been really gratifying having a front-row seat watching my daughter mature into the young woman she is and the way she interacts with the girls on the team, watching their eye contact and body language,” added John Maloney. “She is so far ahead of me at her age. I was the same age when I got my first varsity job at Yarmouth, but I wasn’t even close to her organization. A big thing I give her credit for is she’s not only willing to listen to me and Kelsey, but to the girls. That can backfire on you, but she has the trust of the girls and vice versa. She wants the girls to be happy. It helps when you win, but there’s also a lot of hard work involved. I tell the girls all the time, there’s no other team working as hard as you.”

Unfinished business

South Portland entered the Class AA South tournament as the top seed and lived up to billing.

The Red Riots dominated No. 8 Noble in the quarterfinals, 66-12, then finally got past longtime nemesis Scarborough in the semifinals, 46-37, before ending Gorham’s three-year regional title reign with a wire-to-wire 50-37 victory in the Class AA South Final last Saturday.

Brianne Maloney and John Maloney share a postgame embrace after South Portland beat Gorham in last week’s Class AA South Final, but the focus immediately turned the one big prize left to capture. Courtesy John Maloney.

Following the Gorham victory, John Maloney quickly embraced his daughter, but for the most part, the celebration was muted.

“It was a pretty special moment to share that with him, but it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that my mind was always thinking about (the state final),” Brianne Maloney said. “We’re saving the hugs for next Saturday. The regional championship was not our end goal.”

“She told Kelsey and me, ‘Don’t you hug anybody, fist bumps only this week,'” John Maloney said. “That’s a credit to her that she’s already on to next week.”

South Portland’s last state title came nearly four decades ago, the year of the Challenger disaster, the “Super Bowl Shuffling” Chicago Bears winning Super Bowl XX and “Crocodile Dundee.”

These Red Riots are eager to end that drought.

“Saturday, my season’s going to end, no matter what,” Travis said. “I’d like to make it a good ending.”

“None of us got a chance to play for (a championship),” said Flaherty. “They’re hard to come by. Our message we’re sending to the girls now is, you don’t know if you’ll ever be back. Even the freshmen and sophomores have to take advantage because it could be a one-time thing.”

Whether or not South Portland beats Cheverus Saturday evening. Whether or not the Red Riots bring home a Gold Ball for the first time in nearly four decades, there’s no denying that this has been a season like no other.

Led by coaches like no other.

Whose bond is unshakable.

“I can’t remember a day in my life without basketball and I don’t know a day in my life without (my Dad) either,” said Brianne Maloney.

“I hope that the girls are watching the interaction Brianne and I have on a daily basis and that’s a positive thing they can bring home to their Dads,” John Maloney said. “The past week or so, a few of the players’ Dads I had never met grabbed me and told me they love the interaction I have with my daughter, the fist bumps that we do.

“It’s special. Brianne’s just grown into a young woman that I’m so proud to call my daughter.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net.