LYNN — Jeff Newhall remembers the first day he met Brianna Rudolph.
“She was with her mother, and they’d just moved to Lynn from Medford, and they came downtown to pay their cable bill and went in our building instead of the one across the street,” said the St. Mary’s girls basketball coach. “By the time they left, they’d applied to the school.”
That turned out to be the right move for Rudolph for so many reasons, she said. Going to St. Mary’s changed her life — and for the better. Rudolph helped bring the Spartans a girls basketball state championship in 2014. She played at UMass Lowell. She got her degree, and, because of the time she missed due to two ACL tears in the same knee, she had an extra year of eligibility with the River Hawks, and went after her graduate degree.
Now, she’s about to attend the police academy and will join the UMass Lowell campus police force after that.
All of the above would certainly be enough for a happy ending. But it’s only half the story. Rudolph accomplished all of the above while in the custody of the Department of Children and Families of Massachusetts, an organization that works in partnership with communities to keep children safe from abuse and neglect. She freely admits that without DCF and St. Mary’s, not to mention Newhall and other members of the Lynn basketball community, she very easily could have taken a different path.
“I’m pretty open and honest about it,” Rudolph said, discussing her experiences. “What you see is what you get. I’m not embarrassed, and I’m not ashamed.”
Each spring, DCF holds a graduation ceremony — from any level of education from middle school on up — for all children who have been in its custody. The ceremony will take place Sunday night at Jordan’s Furniture in Reading (the firm is one of the event’s sponsors) and Rudolph is the main speaker. Rudolph is more than willing to share.
“It’s cool,” she said. “It’s always nice to give back. The department has given me so many things over the past four years, it’s nice to have an opportunity to give back.”
“My mom’s a single parent, and we didn’t always have the nicest things, or the best things,” said Rudolph. “Jeff was there to fill in where my mom wasn’t able to. He helped with food, clothes and support. He gave me rides to AAU and hooked me up with Jim Ridley (former director of Lynn Tech, who, along with Marvin Avery, coached the Thundercats girls AAU program). Jim had a lot to do with getting me into the college circle and helping to get me recruited.”
Newhall said that when she got to St. Mary’s, Rudolph definitely had an edge to her.
“But she quickly became more comfortable,” he said. “She moved around a lot when she was young, but she came around quickly.
“Still,” Newhall said, “she had a real ‘us against the world’ way about her. That was how she approached things.”
From Rudolph’s perspective, Newhall and the school were invaluable.
“DCF came in during my junior year, and helped push me along,” she said. “And Jeff opened up his home to me and kept me out of trouble. He made sure I had what I needed. And it was nice to have a place to come and be normal and free of stress.”
She credits Newhall with keeping her grounded.
“He never sugarcoated anything,” she said. “He’d tell me when I was acting like a jerk. But there were also times when he’d see that I really needed him, and he’d be there. He struck a balance.”
Of course, basketball helped.
“I love the game,” she said. “It helped me get an opportunity to be something different. It helped me develop the discipline and structure I needed to get through college. Without it, I may have taken different paths.”
There were times, especially at Lowell, when things got tough.
“My second year, I tore my ACL and was out for seven months. Then, as I was coming back, I tore the same one again and ended up sitting out another year. All told, I was out for 22 months. Everything seemed like it was falling apart. But I didn’t quit. I stuck with it.”
And that perseverance has paid dividends, as she has achieved a master’s degree in criminal justice.
“She is motivated by her situation to be better,” said Newhall. “She expects success of herself. There were times I really had my doubts, and I have more confidence in her than anyone else does.
“I’d have to say that day when she and her mother came here to pay the cable bill turned out to benefit everyone involved. She is one of the best success stories from this school.”
