“I think I have the greatest coaching job in the country.”
Reaching 500 coaching wins is remarkable — but for Kevin Broderick '89, it means the most because it happened at Nazareth, where his basketball story began.
The milestone was unimaginable during his first year as a head coach at Oswego in 1996, when he genuinely feared he might never win a single game.
"It's hard to win, right? It's hard to win a championship, but it's also hard to win one game," he recalled. "I thought I was going to end my career without a win."
That first victory finally came on December 6, 1996, a win over Utica that launched what would grow to 209 wins with the Lakers. But despite his success there — in the town where he'd grown up — Broderick always knew there was only one job that could pull him away. "I literally would not apply for another Division III job unless it was my alma mater," he said.
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| In Kevin Broderick’s time as a player on the team, Nazareth’s basketball team had four straight winning seasons, won the Chase Lincoln tournament two times, and went to the NCAA tournament twice. |
When a Nazareth coaching job opened in 2009, he returned to Naz and hasn't looked back. The Golden Flyers men’s basketball teams have since added 293 wins and three Empire 8 championships under his watch.
His preparation for the role was grounded in an unusually accomplished coaching tree: As a player at Nazareth, he learned under highly successful coaches Bill Nelson and Mike Daley, and he later served as an assistant to Bill Van Gundy and John Beilein. "Those are Hall of Fame people," he said. "I had so much good training from great coaches."
Nazareth has become more than a workplace for Broderick. It's a family story. He met his wife, Jennifer Board '90, a standout Golden Flyers distance swimmer, here on campus. All three of their sons — Brendan Broderick '20, '21G; Patrick Broderick '21, '25G; and Ryan Broderick '25 — played for their father at Nazareth. "We were pretty sure our sons would love it, too," he said. "This is a family place."
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| Left to right: Kevin Broderick, son Brendan Broderick, son Ryan Broderick (as a senior), wife Jennifer Board, Brendan’s fiancé Kasi Williams, and son Patrick Broderick. |
Now in his late 50s, Broderick shows no signs of slowing down. "Why would I possibly not want to keep doing it forever?" he says. "I think I have the greatest coaching job in the country.”
