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| Three's Company at Bellevue | ||||||||||||||||||
 Taylor, Joey & Cody Brazen
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Bellevue High School's sister act - Taylor, Joey and Cody Brazen - talk to HoopGurlz about making it to the Washington State 3A tournament together and what all went into it. | |||||||||||||||||
All those years of van trips and coin flips (to determine who flies with the older girls and who stays home with the youngest), all those attempts at being three places at once, have ended for Randi and Joseph Brazen. Thankfully. And serendipitously all those times have converged to produce two to four days this week that will endure a lifetime. The circumstances forced Bellevue High School coach Bill Kelley to be on a first-name basis with his players. He cannot, like many of his colleagues, use last names. There'd be an echo in the gym. Brazen! "Yes?" "Yes?" "Yes?" Yes, there are three Brazens on Kelley's team - Cody, a senior; Joey, a junior, and Taylor, a freshman. Bellevue's will not the only three-sister act at the Washington State 3A tournament at KeyArena. Annelie, Hanna and Julia Fjortoft also play for unbeaten Meadowdale. However, the Brazens have a bigger influence on the personality and success at Bellevue. Among them are the Wolverines' top scorers, rebounders, their captain, their main source of inside points, their main source of outside points, starters, top reserve and energy source. It's been a memorable season already. Joey was named tournament MVP after scoring 27 points in the title game as Bellevue won the Slam bracket at the Surf ‘N Slam Tournament in San Diego over the holidays. Joey and Cody combined for 34 points and 20 rebounds as the Wolverines upset Seattle Prep in Sea-King district play. And now this - a state-tournament appearance during the only season possible for the three sisters to do it together. This truly is a family affair as each has been coached by their father, Joseph Brazen, at the Bellevue Boys & Girls Club, Bellevue Select and Puget Sound Flight programs, usually with mother, Randi, keeping score. Joseph and Randi Brazen are real-estate moguls, operating the hugely successful Brazen Group, and this past year opened a restaurant, the 520 Bar and Grill. So it hasn't been easy. The three-B effort may have been toughest on the youngest, Taylor. Her older sisters, Cody and Joey, were such inseparable friends, people took to calling them the "Jodies," and they already were all-league performers on Bellevue's varsity team. The pressure was on for her to join them. Last week, the three Brazens met around the kitchen bar to discuss the experience with HoopGurlz.com:
Cody: "It's awesome. For the last four years, since I was a freshman, I always thought it would be fun to play in the state basketball tournament. Now in my senior year we made it here, and the icing on the cake is we did it the year I get to play with my two sisters. Win or lose, I know some day when we’re sitting around at some family reunion, this is going to be a memory we’ll talk about time and time again." Joey: "It's so amazing. We’ve talked about this since I was in sixth grade. At the beginning of the season, Cody and I made t-shirts for the team and our friends that said Bellevue Girls Basketball 'Make a Statement.' ... It had a picture of the state of Washington and inside the state it said, '... KingCo … Districts … Key Arena.' We’d wear them at school before the games, after the games and at practice. That’s been our team’s goal since day one, and now it’s coming true." Taylor: "My sisters always talked about going to State together. I was so nervous during tryouts to make the team and to be good enough to get off the bench and earn a spot in the game. They have both been playing since they were freshmen so I had big shoes to fill." HoopGurlz: Did you guys ever make a pact to do this? Cody: "When we were all playing together in Bellevue Select, my Dad realized there would be this one moment in time when we could all actually play together and, since that day, we’ve made it a family goal to see if we could do it. I was in 8th grade, Joey in 7th and, when Taylor was in the fifth grade, she was good enough to make the sixth grade team; it was then that we talked about how cool it would be to all play together for one season at Bellevue High. Plus it was a year when we thought the team would have a chance to make it back to the state tournament because we had Alexa Linger, Jenika Swanson and Alexis Kinney, all really strong players we had grown up playing with during our Select seasons and then on our AAU teams, so we thought we had enough chemistry and talent this year to make it."
Taylor: "We had always had a pact and talked a lot about making the varsity team together. I knew if it was ever going to happen, it was going to start with me since Cody and Joey were already on varsity. I remember thinking this summer how I had to step things up if we were ever going to make this family dream come true." HoopGurlz: What is the “Brazen style,” if there is one? Cody: "We’re competitive and we like to win. Our whole family is that way. We think positive results are so much better than the other choice. When I look back on it, my Dad has coached me since I was in first grade, and he always talked about putting on my game face. He’s always had a positive, competitive outlook on life." Joey: "We’re passionate and when we’re playing really well, it’s because we’re playing team ball. When we were kids, the neighbors would laugh because they’d be driving home late at night and they’d see us shooting hoops in our driveway, sometimes in the rain (laughs). We love the game, and the lifestyle basketball has given us. It’s brought our family so close and given us some of our best friends. Even some of my parents' best friends have come from our experiences in playing basketball." Taylor: "All of my life I have played with my bigger sisters and the older girls, and I became a point guard because I had to. I was always smaller and if I wanted to play I had to learn how to keep the ball away from my sisters and get it to my Dad. I can remember times when our family would play together; the teams would always be Cody and Joey vs. my Dad and me . We played really hard against each other. We’d laugh and cry, all within the same game. I think we learned the Brazen style during these times ... we have fun, play hard and never quit."
Cody: "There was a time in the middle of the game against Mount Si, and Taylor was at the foul line shooting two free throws and Joey and I were in the lane waiting for her to shoot. There we were, all three of us in the key, all at the same time, playing for the same team. How cool is that?" Joey: "There was a time when we were playing Liberty and I went up for a rebound and I felt someone coming over my back as I grabbed the ball. When I came down with it, I felt someone's hands on the ball next to mine. We all hit the hardwood and I see that the person on my back is Cody and the person with their hands on the ball is Taylor. I'm fighting my two sisters for the ball. Nothing’s changed!" Taylor: "At the last home game of the season, Bellevue High does something special for the seniors who are playing on their home court for the last time. When they called Cody out to the court I sat there and started to cry as they began talking about her and all of her accomplishments, because I realized our season of playing together was starting to end. During my next three basketball seasons I might be able to go to state again, but I will never be able to do it again with both of my sisters." HoopGurlz: Which of you is the best player? Cody: "It's weird, some games it's Joey and sometimes it's me. Other times we don't care and all we want to do is win. We have lots of fun together after the games sitting around with my Dad and Mom talking about the game." Joey: "Well, last year Cody was first team and I was second team (in KingCo 3A). This year I was first team and Cody was second team. Go figure. ... But the truth is Cody is by far the best all-around team player in our family. She does so much for this team. She leads us in points, rebounds, blocks, she’s a team captain and the one who keeps our team focused and together. But don’t discount Taylor, either, because when she’s on the court she creates such havoc that the game takes on a different pace. She forces the other team to make turnovers because they just want to get rid of the ball before she’s in their face again. My Dad once joked that Taylor on the basketball court is like a pit bull that hasn’t been fed in a week ... hungry!" Taylor: "It’s hard to choose the best player. We all play different positions and have our strengths and weaknesses. Besides, I don’t want to hear the grief if I name one sister over the other (laughs)."
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