Veteran WNBA coach, player, and former Australian Olympian Sandy Brondello (braun-DELL-oh) was named the ninth head coach in Liberty franchise history on January 7, 2022. Brondello joined New York after an eight-year head coaching tenure with the Phoenix Mercury where she led the team to a playoff appearance in each of her eight seasons. After the 2023 season, Brondello holds an overall regular season record of 212-156 (.576) over her 11 combined seasons at the helm of the Liberty, Mercury and San Antonio Silver Stars, making her the seventh-winningest coach in WNBA history.
Additionally, Brondello has compiled a 31-27 postseason record throughout her head coaching career, ranking her as the fourth-winningest coach in league postseason history. In 2014, Sandy was named the WNBA Coach of the Year after she led Phoenix to a WNBA regular season-record 29 wins and capped the season with a WNBA Championship. In 2023, Brondello led the Liberty to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship and first WNBA Finals appearance since 2002.
A 19-year veteran of the WNBA coaching ranks, Brondello has been affiliated with the league for 24 of its 27 seasons, including her time as a player. A proven winner internationally and in the WNBA, her 19 total years as an assistant coach and head coach have featured 16 playoff appearances, highlighted by a perfect 11-for-11 in postseason berths as a head coach.
In those 11 postseasons, Sandy led her teams to eight Semifinals round berths (formerly conference finals) and three WNBA Finals appearances in 2014, 2021, and 2023. Prior to her time with the Mercury, Brondello served as lead assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks (2011-13) under 2012 WNBA Coach of the Year Carol Ross. Brondello led the San Antonio Silver Stars to a 2010 playoff berth in her debut season at the helm following five seasons on the Silver Stars bench as an assistant under Dan Hughes (2005-09), the fifth-winningest coach in league history.
A 2010 inductee into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame, Brondello was named the 11th head coach for the Australian Women’s National Basketball team on April 17, 2017. Most recently, Brondello led the Australian National Team to a Quarterfinals appearance in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. While she serves in her role as head coach for the Liberty, Brondello will continue to prepare the Opals who will host the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
In addition to her work internationally with the Australian Women’s National Basketball team, Brondello previously served as an assistant coach with UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia from 2012-2017.
Brondello finished a stellar 17-year professional playing career with a five-year run in the WNBA in which she played for Detroit (1998-99), Miami (2001-02) and Seattle (2003), and was named a 1999 WNBA All-Star. She began her career with the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in Australia (1986-96), and was named the league MVP in 1995. The 5-7 guard was a 10-time German Cup champion while playing with BTV Wuppertal (1992-2002), a three-time European Cup All-Star selection (1994, 1996, 1997), and the 1996 European Cup MVP when she led her team to the title.
An 18-year member of the Australian National Team, Brondello is a four-time Olympian, a two-time silver medalist (2000, 2004) and was named the 1992 Australian International Player of the Year.
Brondello is married to Liberty assistant coach, Olaf Lange, and the couple have two children, Brody and Jayda.