Bradley new hoop coach at English

Most high school basketball players, and for that matter, their coaches, will probably never find themselves playing at The Garden, but that?s not the case with Rachael Bradley.Bradley won a Division 4 state title on the parquet in 2002 as a junior on the St. Mary?s High girls basketball team and last month, she was there as the English High assistant varsity coach when the Bulldogs were playing Braintree for the Division 1 Eastern Mass (state semifinal) title.English principal Thomas Strangie and athletic director Gary Molea announced Monday that Bradley will be the new English basketball head coach, replacing Fred Hogan, who stepped down at the end of the season.?It?s awesome,” Bradley said. “I?m very excited for the opportunity to coach and stay with the girls.”Bradley graduated from St. Mary?s in 2003 and after spending a year at Assumption College, she transferred to Endicott College to pursue a bachelor?s degree in nursing and, later, a master?s. She also played basketball at Endicott for three years. The 28-year-old is currently a school nurse at Classical High in addition to being an emergency room nurse at Brigham & Women?s Hospital.Bradley said during her playing days, she never gave much thought to getting into coaching, but that changed once she got involved in the English program five years ago. She started out as the freshman coach, and went on to become a junior varsity assistant and then a varsity assistant.?I owe a lot of the credit to Fred (Hogan),” Bradley said, explaining that Hogan approached her about coaching the freshmen at a time when she was focusing on getting her career off the ground and hadn?t really considered coaching.?He lit a fire for being a coach,” Bradley said. “The one thing you can never question about Fred is his heart. He went from a 4-16 team to 25-1 and that came from hard work and dedication. He developed a family atmosphere and that?s something I will 100 percent continue to do.”Strangie said he?s very happy Bradley will be taking over the team.?She?s young. The girls respect her. We?ll have continuity. She knows how the school is run, what we stand for. I?m very happy. She exemplifies what we try to instill in our students at English High. She?s great,” Strangie said.Bradley will inherit a team that will be in rebuilding mode with the loss of “the fab four” — Catherine Stinson, Diondra Woumn, Mikayla Everette and Deidra Newson — to graduation. Stinson and Woumn alone accounted for more than 2,000 points during their careers and Newson was knocking on the door of the 1,000-career point club.?It?s not often you lose two 1,000-point scorers in one season,” Molea said.Although Bradley will have some work to do, Molea said building from the ground up can be a good thing. He said she?ll walk into a team that will be her team right off the bat.?As a new coach, I think that?s what you want to step into,” he said.Bradley said she?s been blessed with a great family (her mother and father, Kevin and Robin Bradley, were at the press conference and she has two brothers). Bradley said she?s always worked hard as an athlete and a student and that?s something she hopes to instill in her players. The priorities are family first and academics second.