Former Gamecock Ashley Bruner to begin coaching career with top Midlands boys program
Another former South Carolina women’s basketball standout will be coaching boys basketball in the Midlands this year.
Ashley Bruner announced Monday that she is joining the Gray Collegiate boys basketball staff as an assistant coach.
“Coach Dion Bethea was also supportive of me beginning my coaching career at Gray, as well as Coach (Marc) Cooper promising to take me under his wing,” Bruner said. “Coaching young men will be a challenge, but I have the skill to teach, and the will to teach. For me, it doesn’t matter who the student is.”
Bruner will coach the War Eagles’ B Team (freshmen) and be an assistant on the varsity squad. Gray Collegiate is coming off its third straight Class 2A championship. The War Eagles defeated Whale Branch 55-39 on March 6 at Colonial Life Arena.
“We’re going to let her put her touch on things,” Gray Collegiate boys coach Dion Bethea said. “She brings a lot of toughness too with the way she played.”
Bruner is the second former USC women’s standout to join a boys coaching staff in the Midlands. Khadijah Sessions was hired last month at Ridge View.
Bruner joins former Gamecock player Brandon Wallace on the Gray staff. Wallace played six seasons of professional basketball from 2007-13.
Bruner was a standout high school player at Norman High in Oklahoma before coming to South Carolina. She was a second-team All-SEC selection her senior year in 2013 and left the school with more than 700 rebounds and ranked fourth in school history in games played with 128.
After college, Bruner played basketball overseas and averaged 14.2 points and 8.2 rebounds a game for Landerneau in France for the 2019-20 season before retiring.
“At a certain point in my career overseas, I knew that coaching was in the cards for me. On almost every team I played on, I had to be a player/coach for my teammates,” Bruner said. “Sometimes, players weren’t taught the same fundamentals that make this game so great. I enjoy learning the game and I realized very quickly that I also enjoyed teaching it.”
Bruner comes from a basketball family with brothers Jordan and Tommy currently playing college basketball. Jordan Bruner played at Yale before transferring to Alabama in March for his final season. Tommy Bruner was part of two state title teams at Gray and was Big South Freshman of Year this season at USC Upstate.
“The Bruner family has a basketball legacy in the state of South Carolina, which I am proud to say I started. And now it’s time to extend that legacy to coaching. I’m excited for the challenge,” Ashley said.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Former Gamecock Ashley Bruner to begin coaching career with top Midlands boys program."
