Sandra “Sandy” Anne Brondello was born on August 20th, 1968 in Mackay, Queensland.She started playing basketball at the age of nine when her older sister Karen had joineda team in the Mackay Under 16 competition and Sandy had gone along to watch and was asked by a coach from the Midgets club whether she would like to be on a team. The Midgets trained once a week on a school outside concrete court. “I fell in love with basketball from game one!” says Sandy.
It was not all basketball as Sandy was an accomplished Vigaro player and athlete. She was the Australian Long Jump champion for twelve year olds. Sandy started to play “A” Grade senior basketball in Mackay at the age of twelve. She demonstrated exceptional basketball talent and potential at a very early age.
As a twelve year old she started representative basketball in Under 14’s and played for North Queensland from Under 14’s through Under 16’s, Under 18’s and Under 20’s. At these stages she was heavily influenced and coached by Carol Insch at the Club level and by Norma Connolly in the representative teams.
Sandy was selected on the Australian Junior Women’s Basketball Team when she was only sixteen years of age. She played with the National Junior Team against Athletes in Action, and in the Calgary Women’s International Tournament in Canada. In 1985 she played for Australia at the World Junior Championships. The team surprised the basketball world by taking 6th place.
Her talents, skills and abilities were now on the national stage. So much so that in 1986 she was offered a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra. This was a big decision for the seventeen year old youngster from Mackay but she had the drive and belief in herself to accept the scholarship and to see where it would take her.
Sandy was a sensation at the AIS as in her first year she teamed up with an outstanding group of sixteen and seventeen year olds such as Nina Cass, Fiona Robinson, Karen Smith, Jenny Riesener, Anne Robilliard, and Joanne Moyle, all of whom went on to be outstanding players in Australian women’s basketball.
Sandy explains what happened. “I knew I had a lot to learn and was driven by my desire to give my all in being the best player I could be, plus I had a huge passion for the game. Adrian Hurley the AIS coach was the biggest influence on my career as he believed in me and gave me direction both on and off the court to be the best I could be!”
Under Sandy’s leadership in 1986 the AIS women (average age of seventeen years) went to the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) Grand-Final and won the Australian Women’s Club Championships. Sandy’s leadership, leaping ability and jump-shot stamped her as one of the best players in the country. That same year she travelled with the National Junior Team on a ten game tour of China.
In 1987, as a seventeen year old, Sandy was selected to the Australian Women’s Basketball Team for an eleven game tour of Europe. That same year she represented Australia in the World Student Games and toured the USA and Canada on a seventeen match tour with the Australian Women’s Team.
Sandy was selected to play for Australia at the 1988 Olympics (they still had to qualify). She played for Australia against Japan and Canada in Australia and in the Seoul Goodwill Tournament in Korea before the team travelled to Malaysia for the 1988 Olympic Qualification Tournament.
Australia qualified for the Olympic Games through the Qualification Tournament in Malaysia.
Prior to Seoul Australia travelled to Riga, Latvia for games.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games Australia went on to upset the world by securing 4th place in the Olympics and along the way inflict on the Soviet Union their first defeat in Olympic Women’s Basketball competition. A last second basket in the semi-finals by Yugoslavia prevented Australia from playing off for the Gold Medal. In the playoff for the Bronze Medal the Australians lost to the USSR.
Sandy comments, “I learnt a lot from the Olympic experience by being alongside so many experienced players such as Jenny Cheesman, Robyn Maher, Julie Nykiel, Pat Mickan and company and I was determined to use the experience to establish a long career as an Australian player.That whole experience in 1988 lit the fire in my belly that lasted until the day after my last Olympics in Athens 2004.”
After the Olympic Games, Sandy continued her WNBL career with Bankstown and the Lady Bullets from 1988 to 1996. She was selected as MVP of the WNBL in 1995 and was the League’s leading scorer in 1994 and 1995. She was named to the WNBL All Star Five in 1994 and 1995.
In 1989 Sandy played for Australia against Japan, then when Australiawon the Oceania Championships, and on a thirteen game tour of the USA.
Her aim was to play in the 1990 World Championships and after an eleven match tour with Australia to Europe she was selected on the team for the World Championships. She played for Australia in the Seoul Goodwill Tournament and then in the World Championships in Malaysia. The Australian Team finished a highly creditable 6th position in the Championships.
That same year she was a member of the Australian Team that played at the Goodwill Games in Seattle.
In 1991 Sandy played for Australia in a seven game tournament in Australia against the USSR, China and Korea, before travelling to the USA for twelve games.
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics were Sandy’s next goal. After a series between the Australia and China she was selected on the Australian Team for the 1992 Olympic Qualification Tournament.
The 1992 Olympic campaign for Sandy and the Australian Team was a let-down after the dizzy heights of the 1988 Olympics, as the team failed to get through the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Vigo, Spain. Despite playing well and defeating eventual Olympic Silver Medallists Spain Australia failed to qualify on percentages when defeated by Brazil by two points in overtime. They were very unlucky. Sandy was named as the 1992 Basketball Australia Female International Player of the Year.
After the 1992 Olympics, Sandy made the move to play in Europe in the tough European competitions. She joined forces with the German Club BTV Wuppertal where she was to go on and earn the reputation as one of the best players in Europe. She helped Wuppertal to win tenGerman League and Cup titles and captained the Club from 1993 to 1997.
In 1996 Sandy was named the European League MVP after leading Wuppertal to the EuroLeague title. Sandy was named a EuroLeague All Star in 1994, 1996 and 1997. She was a pioneer for Australian female players in Europe and was one of our most successful.She also played for a few months with RosCasares, Valencia, Spain but was injured and had to leave the Club.
In 1994 Sandy returned to play for Australia in a series against Russia and Bulgaria and then in the Pre-OZ94 Tournament in a lead up to the World Championships which were to be played in Australia.
The Australian Team(now called the Opals) and Sandy performed very well when they finished in 4th place in the 1994 World Championships. By this time Sandy was a mainstay of the team and her European experience was most valuable to the team.
In 1995 Sandy played with the Opals in a series in Australia against Korea, on the team that won the Oceania 1996 Olympic Qualification Tournament, and on a tour to Europe.
After the success of the national team in securing 4th place in the 1994 World Championships the Opal’s eyes were clearly on the aim to win a medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. Sandy was selected for the Olympic Games and after games in the World Basketball Challenge and pre-Olympic tournaments in Canada and the USA played for Australia in the 1996 Olympic Games.
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics were to be a watershed for Sandy and the Opals as the Opals became the first senior Australian Team (male or female) to win a medal at a World or Olympic Tournament when the team won a Bronze Medal. It was a magnificent result and set the stage for the Opals for the next twenty years. Sandy was a major player in the success of the Opals at this time.
Sandy played for the Opals in 1997 in the USQ Invitational Tournament in the USA, and in the Golden Cup in Brazil. In 1988 she played for the Opals in the Japan Women’s Basketball Festival, the Grand Prix in Slovakia and a tournament in Portugal in a lead up to the 1988 World Championships.
The Opals backed their outstanding performance in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when they won Bronze at the 1998 World Championships held in Germany. Sandy was in familiar territory in Germany and played a leading role in the success of the team. She also played four games for the Opals in Australia that year against China in the Maher Cup.
Of course the big prize for all the players was to be selected for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Sandy played in Australia for the Opals in the Maher Cup against Russia and the Goldmark Cup against Brazil in 1999.
In 2000 Sandy was chosen on the Opals team for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The Olympic Test Event started the build-up for the Olympics for the Opals , before they played Canada in the Goldmark Cup and then travelled to France and Poland for games. Back home the Opals played against New Zealand, in the C7 Challenge, against the USA in Melbourne and Brazil in Wollongong in the lead into Sydney.
In the Sydney 2000 Olympics Sandy again excelled and was one of the teams leading scorers. The Opals often led by Sandy’s scoring did not lose a game in the tournament until the Gold Medal game. The Opals performed magnificently only to lose the USA in the Gold Medal Game.
Sandy did not play for the Opals in 2001. In 2002 she played for the Opals in the World Challenge in Australia before playing for the team in the 2002 World Championships in China.
When they won Bronze at the 2002 World Championshipsthe Opals repeated their performance of the 1998 World Championships. Sandy now had two World Championship Bronze Medals, and Olympic Silver and Bronze medals as well as ten European Cups in her trophy cabinet.
While she juggled playing in the WNBL, Europe and for the Opals there was still one more frontier for Sandy. That was for her to be one of the trailblazers for Australian women basketball players in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the USA, the premier Club competition in the world.
She started her WNBA career in 1998 by being selected in the fourth round (34th overall) by the and becoming an All-Star in the first in 1998. She was selected by the in late 1999, but never played a game for them, being traded to the along with a first-round pick for Stephanie McCarty. After two seasons at Miami she signed as a free agent with the in 2003, joining fellow Opals and . She chose to sit out the 2000 and 2004 WNBA seasons to prepare with the Opals for the Olympics.
Sandy was one of the top three-point shooters in WNBA history. Her .410 percentage ranks her fourth all-time WNBA in three-point percentage shooting. She was also the leading free-throw shooter in the WNBA in one season. During her five year WNBA career Sandy was a Starting Five player in 146 of 155 games, averaging 11.4 points, 2.3 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 29.6 minutes per game.
Sandy’s career in the WNBA and overseas kept her out of the Opals teams for two years before she was selected to the Opals for their 2004 Olympic campaign. She played for the Opals against China in Australia and in China, toured to Spain and Czechoslovakia and played in the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament in Crete in the lead into the 2004 Athens Olympics.
By this stage Sandy was the veteran of the Opals team and her experience at Olympics, in the WNBA and all over the world was of immense value to the team.
In Athens 2004 the Opals continued their great feats of Sydney 2000 and once again won a Silver Medal.
Sandy Brondello retired from playing for Australia after the 2004 Olympic Games. She finished her international career with two Silver and one Bronze Medal at Olympic Games and two Bronze Medals at World Championships, a wonderful record and achievement. She had represented her country with great distinction for seventeen years and played at four Olympics and four World Championships. In all, she had played 328 games for her country (26 junior and 302 senior).
“Sandy Brondello is one of the most professional players I think the Opals have ever had,” comments Opals guard Kristi Harrower.
In reflection Sandy comments, “Playing for my country in each of the 302 Senior Games and 26 Junior Games was by far the biggest highlight of my career. Competing against the best teams internationally and within our own team made me become the best player that I could be. Each Olympics I attended aided my development and gave me the necessary experience to reach my full potential. I made lifelong friends and memories that will never leave me”.
After retiring from playing basketball Sandy found that the “fire in the belly” for basketball was still there and in 2005 she was chosen as Assistant Coach for the San Antonio Silver Stars in the WNBA.
“Retiring was not a big an issue as I thought it may be, mostly because I felt satisfied with my career and I went directly into coaching at the highest level in the WNBA. I am enjoying the same competitiveness that I had as a player. I love teaching players and sharing my knowledge and experience I gained from my playing days and from the great coaches I had. My passion for the game will always be everlasting and I am grateful that I can remain in the game I love with coaching!”
In 2008 she and the Stars went to their first WNBA finals. In 2010 Sandy was named as the Head Coach of the Stars and took the team to the WNBA playoffs. In 2011 she was named as Assistant Coach of the LA Sparks.
Sandy returned home to Queensland to serve as the Assistant Coach for the Logan Thunder in the WNBL for 2 years (2010-2012). She is currently serves as an assistant coach under her husband, Olaf Lange, for UMMC Basketball Club in Ekaterinburg, Russia, one of the biggest Clubs in Europe. She continues to serve as an Assistant Coach with the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA.
Sandy Brondello’s basketball career can only be described as extraordinary. This 5 feet 7 inch (170cm) shooting guard with “the purest jump-shot in Australian women’s basketball” has been an All Star player in the Australian WNBL, an All Star player in Europe, a leading player for the Opals at four Olympics and four World Championships, and an All Star player in the WNBA. She has won two Silver and one Bronze Medal at the Olympics and two Bronze medals at World Championships. She has carried this amazing playing career all over the world and then into the realms of coaching in the WNBA.As well as her great contributions to Australian basketball she has set an example and paved the way for others to follow in her footsteps in Europe and the WNBA. She is now setting examples for our female coaches. She remains in coaching.
Sandy Brondello was inducted into the Basketball Australia Hall of fame in 2010.