Oakland Catholic hires former star Brianne O’Rourke as girls basketball coach

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, June 6, 2018 | 5:40 PM

Former Oakland Catholic basketball star Brianne O’Rourke, who won WPIAL and PIAA titles her senior year, is returning to her alma mater as coach.

“It’s awesome to have her back,” athletic director Mary Pat Bielich said. “Our goals are high for Oakland Catholic and we want to keep it that way. It’s a great experience for the girls to have someone with her experience come in.”

After graduating in 2005, O’Rourke became a four-year letterwinner at Penn State, where she surpassed 1,000 points and 500 assists in her career. The 5-foot-6 guard later played six seasons professionally in Germany, Slovakia and Italy.

She spent the past two seasons as director of operations for Pitt’s women’s basketball program under Suzie McConnell-Serio, her former coach at Oakland Catholic.

O’Rourke replaces Shannon Kearney, who resigned after nine seasons. Kearney led Oakland Catholic to WPIAL Class 5A runner-up finishes each of the past two seasons. The team went 43-15 in that two-year span.

“She’s got her hands full with three little ones,” Bielich said of Kearney. “We kind of thought that might happen, then she looked at it and said she’d had enough. With three little kids, it’s tough.”

Kearney’s record was 123-97 in nine seasons at Oakland Catholic. She reached the WPIAL finals three times. Her team’s best season was 2011-12 when the Eagles went 28-3 and finished as WPIAL and PIAA runners-up.

The Eagle community welcomes back alumna, Brianne O'Rourke '05, who will serve as Oakland Catholic High School's new Head Women's Basketball Coach. We look forward to your return! #WatchHerSoar #OCHS2005 #SoarEagles
Read more about Ms. O'Rourke here: https://t.co/4QCz4QXhh5

— Oakland Catholic HS (@OCHS_Pittsburgh) June 6, 2018

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Oakland Catholic