Hall of Fame Class: Charlie Brande

A UNIQUE BRANDE OF ANTEATER

Charlie Brande might be the most interesting man in UC Irvine Athletics.

Brande was an Orange County kid that who played football, basketball and even tennis at Orange High School.

Surprisingly, Brande was not the basketball team’s superstar, that would be the other guard, Dave Scott. When UC Irvine head men’s basketball coach Danny Rogers came to watch Scott he would notice the gritty Brande.

“Rogers liked the way I played and liked the way I hustled and I had the grades to go to UCI,” Brande said remembering his path to UCI.

His grades could have taken him to several other schools, but his basketball skills took him only to UCI.

COOL AT A NEW SCHOOL
Brande entered the newly opened UCI campus in 1965 as one of about 900 freshmen just out of high school and no clue as to what college life was all about. 

He lived Mesa Court’s El Camino with his roommate Schulyer Hadley Bassett III. Life for Brande was 8:00 a.m. class, basketball and early to bed, while his roommate was more social and their paths didn’t cross much. 

Hadley Bassett II would go onto partner with water polo players Pat Glasgow and Bob Ernst to market the Anteater as the mascot. While Brande wasn’t a main instigator in the naming of the mascot, he was right in the thick of it.

Next quarter, he would room with fellow teammate Mark Nelson and remembers the early days on campus. 

“The campus was all dirt with a few saplings at Aldrich Park. It wasn’t fun when it rained.”

Going to water polo games and listening to teammate Mike Heckman’s acoustical guitar renditions of Louie Louie at 2:00 a.m. are fond memories of the new campus experience.

On the court, Brande played on the freshman team for coach Dick Davis. Freshmen were mandated to play one year on a freshman team before moving up to the “varsity” team.

“I played the first indoor game in UCI history and I’m proud of that.”

Later that season, Brande and the Anteaters would play in the newly opened Pauley Pavilion against UCLA’s fellow freshmen Lynn Shackleford, Lucius Allen and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).  A daunting task since the Bruin freshman squad had just beaten their varsity team who were the reigning NCAA champs. 

“We got ahead 3-0 and I was guarding Lucius Allen. He faked and I fell for it, but he ended up running over me and was called for the offensive foul. Now we are going stall, but we turn it over. Within a minute we were down 19-3.”

Another moment embedded in his memory from that game had a volleyball theme. 

“I was driving down the court with Alcindor waiting at the basket, Brande smartly pulled up and passed to teammate Jim Farley in the corner and with one step Alcindor was able to volleyball swat the ball 20 rows up. It was an eye opener.”

The next year, Brande would move up and play for Rogers who would become one of the most influential people in his life. 

“Danny Rogers was a great coach. He coached the game and cared about people and was a great role model. He applauded people who worked hard and liked people who liked being part of a team. That’s one of things I enjoyed the most about my basektball time at UCI.”

But the biggest lesson of all and the one Brande would come to be known for himself was the relationships and friendships that you have with your former players are forever.

“You might remember a game or a score, but everyone remembers the relationships.”

Brande still attends Thanksgiving dinner at Danny’s son Joe’s house every year.

Rogers also got Brande his first coaching job with his son Pete’s club basketball team.

As Rogers got older, the duo would have long talks, something that meant a lot to Brande. So much so he still has Rogers’ last phone message on his phone.

Off the court, Rogers got him a job as a lifeguard at the Balboa Bay Club. 

“It was crazy to think I was just a good player at Orange High School now I’m part of this program at UCI and I’m someone. I’d be working at the yacht club and people would tell me they watched me play then John Wayne would walk by. It was surreal.”

The Anteaters went to the NCAA Regionals twice (1968, 1969) in Brande’s career. 

“It was an eclectic group, but we did everything together. By junior year the group was very close.”

REPORTING TO THE NEXT STAGE OF LIFE

He graduated with a degree in economics then off to Fort Bragg in North Carolina as part of the Army Reserve. He moved on to Fort Lee where he was a good solider, but he also got to play on the basketball team on the weekends. 

Another aspect of a new campus was everyone knew everyone, including the faculty. After serving his Army duties, he returned and started out as a stockbroker, but it wasn’t what he wanted to do. Brande headed to campus to enroll in the graduate school in education. Unfortunately, he told he was too late and would have to return in the Fall. Luckily as he was walking out, he bumped into the Dean of Education. Dean Lawrence remembered going to everyone of Brande’s games and asked why he was back on campus. When Brande’s explained the situation, he walked him back in and had him admitted.

“That was the support you had on the campus.”

Now admitted and ready to begin graduate school, he was approached by Our Lady Queen of Angeles who had a job opportunity teaching six, seventh and eighth grade math and science. 

What to do?

“I had to call Dean Lawrence for advice and he said teaching in that classroom is the greatest education you can get. I was able to do a correspondence course to get my degree and teaching credential while working a full time job.“

He spent two years at OLQA then two years at Corona del Mar High School where he taught math and coached basketball and tennis.

CHANGING DIRECTIONS

Cuts in teaching led Brande to construction with Paul Salata. Brande happened to be driving Salata when he came up with the idea of Mr. Irrelevant.  "Mr. Irrelevant" and "Irrelevant Week" began in 1976 when Salata founded the event in Newport Beach that celebrates the last pick in the NFL Draft. Superbowl quarterback Brock Purdy was the 2022 Mr. Irrelevant. Again, Brande was in the middle of something special.

While working with Salata, Ron Coon asked Brande to be the assistant volleyball coach and JV coach at Newport Harbor in 1975. 

Wait volleyball?

Dick Davis wasn’t only a basketball coach, but a triple A player on the beach. He taught a beach volleyball class and made the frosh team take the class. Days down at Big Corona started his love for volleyball. It was a good compliment to basketball and he started playing tournaments his junior year.

“I look back and think I was a lucky guy. I was playing basketball, playing volleyball and living on 35th street.”

Introduction to volleyball and a coaching structure would be important to Brande’s future. 

“Davis was a disciple of John Wooden and would have practice plans broken down just like John did and I took that with me throughout my whole coaching life. It was the cornerstone of success that I’ve had. We were good at fundamentals, and I took that from Dick Davis.”

Now in charge of the JV, Brande needed to recruit some players. He convinced a tall redhead, Steve Timmons to join his team. He was talented and only lasted on the JV squad for a minute, but it was Brande who gave him his start. In a fun twist of fate, Brande was the scoreboard operator at the volleyball venue at 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles so had a front row seat to watch Timmons win a gold medal and earn MVP honors. 

A year later Brande became the varsity head coach. In 1979 and 1980 and guided both the girls and boys teams to CIF championships, a feat that hadn’t been done before. 

Dave Shoji, the head coach at Hawaii, had been recruiting some of his women’s players and offered Brande a job as an assistant coach. It was a crossroad. Brande is happy that he took the chance.

While at Hawaii from 1980-82, he would not only add a women’s national championship to his volleyball resume, but give Brande a group of friends that he is still close with today. The Hawaiian culture will also be a forever part of Brande, who spends half the year on the island.

Arriving back to the mainland, he spent a year coaching as an assistant at UCLA with Andy Banachowski before coaching at Corona del Mar, where he won a state championship on the women’s side. 

MAKING THE MOVE TO UCI

Realizing early on that owning a club allowed him to train athletes year-round, Brande started the boys club, Balboa Bay Club in 1976 and girls club, Orange County Volleyball Club in 1982. Brande’s teams would go on to win numerous club championships and hundreds of athletes would earn scholarships to play collegiately. The Odens and April Ross are just a few of his athletes that would go on to be national team members and Olympians. 

In 1993, Brande’s girls club team won the Volleyball Festival. An event that was held at the Davis Events Center and televised by Prime Ticket with Paul Sunderland and Chris Marlow calling the action.  UC Irvine Athletic Director Dan Guerrero was in the stands watching his daughter play. The following week, Guerrero called Brande and invited him to lunch where offered him the men’s job. Brande said he was content with his club and politely declined. Guerrero was persistent and arranged another lunch meeting where Brande accepted the new challenge.

The first year the Anteaters were 6-18 so Brande broke out the Dick Davis practice plan and started laying the groundwork.

In his third season Brande’s team went 14-11 and made its first trip to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament. Players like Donnie Rafter, Mike Rupp and Chris Harger led the way to putting UCI on the map. Brande was named 1999 MPSF Coach of the Year after leading the Anteaters to upsets over No. 1 Long Beach State and No. 2 UCLA.

When the Anteaters took the trip to Pauley to face UCLA, they quickly went down 0-2.  In the third set, Brande flipped Rafter and Rupp to give a different look and they went on to win. He then flipped them back and the Anteaters took the fourth. At 15-14, UCI would have Rupp on the service line. 

“I look around and think we might not ever be in this position again, so I looked at Rupp and said jump it up. He looked at me to make sure he heard me right. He hit the ball around his wrist, but it was an ace and we won the match. The hour drive back to UCI was full of laughter. Both wins against Long Beach and UCLA were monumental to the development of the men’s program. That’s when we started to be respected.”

Another win that year was over No. 7 Hawaii in Crawford, again on a Rupp ace.

That was the beginning of belief.

He became the Director of Volleyball in December of 1999, taking over the women’s program as well as coaching the men.

In 2001 the Anteater men advanced to their second MPSF Tournament, finishing seventh nationally. He produced 10 All-MPSF honorees as well as three All-Americans on the men's side in his time at the helm. 

On September 7, 2000, in his first match at the helm of the women’s program, setter Jamie Pilbeam set an NCAA record with 107 set assists in a win over Texas-San Antonio, a record that still stands today.

Brande credits the addition of Laura Alford as his assistant coach to elevating the women’s side.

“She’s the reason the women’s program got to where it was. Her recruiting, the knowledge of the women’s game, knowledge of how to create a competitive group amongst women was off the charts.”

Marcia Bradbeer, who Brande refers to as the energizer bunny, rounded out the staff and allowed Brande to just coach.

He would coach both teams until 2003 when he would just coach the women. 

A core of talented players that included All-American and UCI Hall of Famer Kelly Wing and UCI current women’s volleyball head coach Ashlie Hain began to gel and success started to take place on the women’s side.

In 2003, UCI toppled then No. 16 UC Santa Barbara to snap a 37-match losing streak, defeated No. 25 Long Beach State for the first time since 1983 at the Pyramid and then again at Crawford Court for UCI’s first season sweep against the 49ers since 1982. The Anteaters also shocked No. 20 Pacific with a straight-set victory for the first time in UCI history and also broke a 14-match losing streak against Cal Poly, handing Brande his first win against the Mustangs. UCI went 24-7 and made its second appearance at the NCAAs, earning the first-ever NCAA Tournament win, a thrilling 3-2 victory over Missouri. The Anteaters won seven of the last eight matches of the regular season to finish in a three-way tie for second place, the highest-ever conference finish at 12-6. 

In his fourth season, the Anteaters made its second consecutive trip to the NCAAs.

UCI celebrated the 20th anniversary of the 2003 team last November with an alumni event prior to a match. 

“I know I’m not supposed to cry, but there were a lot of tears that night. I was a really special night for a lot of us.”

In 2008, the Anteaters went 17-12 overall and finished second in the Big West with a 12-4 mark.

Over his nine seasons with the women's program, Brande mentored 31 All-Big West Conference selections and four All-Americans. 

Brande said goodbye to collegiate coaching in 2009. His daughter Kaili was in high school and it was time to focus on her activities.

“You do something for 47 years and it’s just time. It was time to go to Kaili’s events. It was important to be there.”

In 2020, Brande was honored with the Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame Lifetime Service award for his dedication to the sport.

Two years ago, he sold the club and found there was a void. With the pandemic in full swing and matches being played without fans, UCI made a commitment to enhance its videostream.

Serving as UCI’s color commentator would fill the void and become a new passion.

“I really try to do it right. I start on Monday and read everything I get.”

His relationship with Robert Espero, which has spanned over 25 years, has built the duo into one of the most respected broadcast teams on the college level.

“He is a great compliment. We just know when each other is going to talk and we know when the other has something to say.”

While his dedication to the sport has taken on a new role, his impact on the sport and UC Irvine continues to make an indelible mark.