work stoppage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cAnd when the CBA does get done, and hopefully does get done sooner than later, it’d be nice to have a player,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t know what kind of style [we] want to play. I don’t know. I don’t have any players yet. I know I have a vision of how I want to play. But until that, we just work really hard and prepare the best we can and be ready when it really does happen, because it will happen quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Brondello was named the first coach in Toronto Tempo franchise history in November 2025. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC News)<\/p>\n
Brondello says that despite this being a situation that makes the Tempo\u2019s debut season a little more complicated, her expertise has helped her navigate and be prepared for all challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose my experiences working with different teams has helped shape me, like, what works [and] what doesn’t work? That doesn’t mean it’s always been perfect, but I mean, what a great opportunity to learn from those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former professional player and two-time league champion has said that she cares deeply for her players as people and describes herself as a \u201cplayers coach\u201d and builds off of her own experience being an athlete.<\/p>\n
Brondello is married to basketball coach Olaf Lange, who was part of her coaching staff with the New York Liberty. The couple has two kids and are still based in Phoenix, a decision they made as to not uproot their family more than necessary.<\/p>\n
Her focus in Toronto is to ensure that there is cohesiveness on the court and off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do a lot of activities and team building with my players, because I think the more that they can get connected off the court and be more vulnerable and open about who we are \u2026 we come together as one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building a culture from scratch<\/p>\n
She is interested in building culture around the team and not just her own version; the team\u2019s version.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re building from scratch, and that includes the culture. You know, we’re building our culture from the beginning. We’re building the legacy of this new team, which is very exciting, because we can have a footprint on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tempo will join two other professional women\u2019s teams, AFC Toronto (NSL) and the Toronto Sceptres (PWHL). She met AFC Toronto coach Marko Milanovic during a previous visit.<\/p>\n
Brondello knows how important it is to have the fans and a city behind you. The heavy culture of women\u2019s sports in Toronto was something that Brondello considered before accepting the position. Her belief in using women\u2019s basketball as means to empower women aligned with what the Tempo has to offer.<\/p>\n
She becomes part of an ecosystem in professional women\u2019s sports that will continue to be strengthened across Canada.<\/p>\n
Brondello said that she loves the diversity of Toronto and it reminds her of her native Australia. She also noted that people in Canada are more \u201cfriendly,\u201d but noted that the size of Toronto surprised her, and so did the amount of traffic.<\/p>\n
Brondello has not yet had an opportunity to travel extensively across Canada but is looking forward to exploring and learning. She has yet to try poutine and said that she would prefer it to vegemite<\/a>.<\/p>\nBrondello is lively, authentic and candid in her coaching philosophy. To the young women across the country aspiring to be basketball players or professional coaches, she offers simple and honest advice about authenticity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you see is what you get from me,\u201d she says. \u201cI’m trying to be the best person that I can be. I’m going to have some failure, obviously, but I’m a quick learner. But don’t be something that you’re not.<\/p>\n
“Be your authentic self.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 6 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-423378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n