Central Virginia native Samantha Brunelle is happy to be back home for her final two years of college basketball.
Growing up in Ruckersville, about 25 miles outside of Charlottesville, and seeing and hearing about the success of the University of Virginia women’s team over the years, Brunelle dreamed of one day being a part of such a program. As a child, she even served as a ball girl for Cavalier games.
“When I was a ball girl, I was always thinking, ‘Oh, I could wear that jersey someday, that’d be so cool to play in front of my family and my friends,’ said Brunelle. “Obviously, my path was a little bit different to get here, but I don’t regret my journey. I think it’s made me a better person and who I am now, and I’m thankful and blessed that I can be here now for the next two years. Super excited for it.”
She had visions of wearing the Virginia jersey, and even the same shoes, as her favorite Cavalier players.
“I was always a huge Chelsea Shine person,” Brunelle said. “I always looked up to her. I remember, I was probably in elementary school when she was playing, and I was like, ‘Mom, I want Chelsea Shine shoes,’ like the Nike’s she wore, and my Mom got them for me and that was just like a whole thing.
“But definitely Chelsea Shine, and I loved Kelsey Wolfe and Lexi Gerson, too. I grew up going to camps with them. And Kelsey trained me in high school when she was working with Adapt in Charlottesville.”
Brunelle kept working hard at improving her skills and eventually became a superstar at William Monroe HS in nearby Stanardsville, where she registered 2,229 career points and hauled down 1,272 rebounds for the Greene Dragons.
She gained national attention in the process, playing on the U16, U17 and U18 USA Basketball teams. At one point, Brunelle had climbed all the way to the top of the espnW national recruiting charts, and was named Gatorade Player of the Year in Virginia and a McDonald’s All-American.
When it came time to figure out where she would play her college ball, Brunelle had offers from just about everyone in the country, including Virginia. She ultimately went with then-defending national champion Notre Dame, choosing the Fighting Irish over not only the Cavaliers, but such high-profile programs as UConn and Maryland, along with NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Kentucky and several others.
She started all 31 games as a freshman in South Bend, averaging 13.9 points and 5.8 rebounds, and picking up ACC All-Freshman Team honors in the process. But as injuries piled up over the latter stages of her three seasons with the Irish, Brunelle began exploring her options at the end of last season, and decided to put her name in the transfer portal at the end of March. She averaged 10.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 80 career games as a member of the Irish, but it was time to move on.
“I’ve had time to reflect on my next steps,” she wrote on social media to Notre Dame fans after her junior year, “which includes graduating this coming summer with a degree in film, television, and theatre and starting a new Master’s program this coming fall.”
When Ameka Agugua-Hamilton took the head coaching position at UVA in the spring, Brunelle took notice, and wound up deciding to finish out her career with the new Cavalier coach, better known as “Coach Mox,” and the Wahoos.
“It took somebody who cares, and I think Coach Mox — it’s not I think, I know that Coach Mox cares deeply about every single one of us that’s on the team,” said Brunelle. “And she has proven and shown that she’s gonna give us any support that we need, through injuries, through maybe you’re struggling mentally. Whatever it is, she’s always going to be there, and stressing family. It’s one big family, is what it is. And, you know, that’s the very truth.”
Brunelle has already decided that she’ll be returning next season for her extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, and her new coach couldn’t be more excited.
“Sam is a great addition,” said Coach Mox. “I said in my press conference, I want to keep the hometown kids home.”
Coach Mox has steered the program in the right direction in a short amount of time, and is happy to immediately bring in such a talented, experienced player like Brunelle to help get things started.
“I think that she’s going to bring versatility, obviously, to our offensive side of the ball,” Agugua-Hamilton said of Brunelle. “She can shoot it, she can really pass it, which allows us to do stuff, especially when they’re doubling our post players or things like that. She stretches the defense.
“But Sam’s coming back from injury right now, and a lot of people didn’t know that she had a surgery on her shoulder in the summertime, so I expect her to, she’s got to work her way back in. Missing the summer is a big deal, that’s where you really grow, and that’s where I saw our players grow the most.
“We just really dove into individual fundamental development, and they got a chance to get used to our pace and understand what we’re trying to do, and so Sam missed that part of it, and so she’s a little bit behind, but I like where she’s at. I like where we’re at, and I expect great things from everybody.”
Brunelle admitted that it wasn’t easy having to sit out, especially during such a significant transition.
“Yeah, it was definitely tough,” she said. “It took me about five months to get cleared fully, and I think the hard thing for me was obviously, I’m coming to a new school and I’ve got this injury that’s taken me five months to heal from. Obviously, mentally it was a little bit of a struggle to try to stay positive the whole time.
“But thankfully, I had people around me, my teammates and my coaching staff, the sports medicine team, that kept me in a really good headspace and they were there for me the whole process and they still are, obviously. I’m still getting into rhythm because I’ve only been back for a month, and getting back with conditioning and getting into the flow of the game more, and it’s getting better and better. And I fully believe that’s because the people around me are being great supporters.”
Now that she’s getting caught up and healthy, Brunelle says she’s feeling good and can’t wait to tip things off Monday night.
“My shoulder is great, yeah, I’ve had no issues with it,” Brunelle said Wednesday. “Shout out to UVA Sports Medicine, they did an awesome job on my shoulder. You know, my shoulder was pretty torn up, so I’m very thankful for them and what they’ve done for me, and I have really no issues with it. It’s doing great, and so I’m excited to move forward.”
Brunelle and UVA returning senior Camryn Taylor, the Cavaliers’ leading scorer in 2021-22, represented the Hoos down in Charlotte last month at ACC Tip Off. Taylor is glad to have someone like Brunelle on her side.
“She’s a tough kid,” Taylor said of her new teammate. “I think she’s very resilient. She’s very honest. She definitely embodies what a leader should be, and I think that’s great for our team.
“I think with Sam, basketball-wise, she definitely stretches the floor for us even more,” Taylor said. “We still have sharpshooters on our team, but Sam kind of adds that other element because she is a [power forward]. So it definitely stretches things, because she can get in the post and on the outside. So yeah, that’s very exciting. I think it’s great for her because she’s in her hometown, she’s near her family. So we definitely cheer her on all the time.”
In the Cavaliers’ exhibition win over Pitt-Johnstown Thursday night, Brunelle started at forward alongside Taylor and kept the stat keeper busy, finishing with 7 points (3-of-9 from the field), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals in 23 minutes. Not too shabby for her unofficial debut. The regular season officially gets underway this afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena against George Washington (5 p.m., ACCNX).
“I think now that I’m older and I’m a grad student, and I’ve been through it for the past three years at a place like Notre Dame, I think it’s going to be really helpful to bring my leadership in here,” Brunelle said. “And you know what? I’ve seen the ACC, and obviously there’s a lot of transfer impact across all the different schools. The ACC is probably the toughest conference in the country this year, honestly. So it’s gonna be really fun, and I think any given night, anybody can beat anybody, so we’ve got to show up every night with what we’re working on.”
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