Brandon Huntley joined the Northern Arizona women's basketball staff in April 2017. He previously served on Loree Payne's staff as an assistant coach for seven years from 2010-17.
During the 2019-20 season, Huntley helped Caitlin Malvar finish the season with 4.5 assists per game, as well as a 2.18 assist-to-turnover ratio which ranked No. 35 in the nation. On Jan. 8, 2020, Malvar posted the program's first ever triple-double when she finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a 114-107 double overtime victory against Sacramento State. Malvar earned All-Big Sky honorable mention, while Jacey Bailey landed a spot on the conference's second team after hitting 70 3-pointers as a junior.
Huntley guided Kaleigh Paplow to a spot on the All-Big Sky Third Team in his second season in Flagstaff. During the 2018-19 campaign, Paplow led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals and was in the top 15 in the Big Sky in all four categories. Huntley also played in a role in Lauren Orndoff nearly doubling her scoring average as a sophomore and developing Bailey and Regan Schenck into go-to scorers for a Lumberjack team that won a conference tournament game for the first time in 12 years.Â
Coaching NAU's guards, Huntley helped Olivia Lucero earn All-Big Sky Third Team honors during the 2017-18 season. Lucero ranked in the top 10 of the conference in scoring, assists, free throw percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio, while registering the sixth-highest single season scoring total in program history (482). Kaleigh Paplow also averaged career-highs across the board in scoring, rebounding and assists under Huntley's guidance.
Huntley was a vital member of Payne's staff at Puget Sound, where the Loggers reached the Northwest Conference Tournament in six of seven seasons. The team made the conference championship game in each of the last three years and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2015 and 2017. Among his duties were preparing scouting reports, film breakdowns and player development programs along with coordinating campus visits for prospective student-athletes in conjunction with the university's Admissions Department.
Huntley also served as Puget Sound's recruiting coordinator for a program that won nearly 70 percent of its games during his time there. He worked specifically with the Logger guards, coaching Emily Sheldon to Northwest Conference Player of the Year and WBCA All-American honors in 2016. In his final season, he was responsible for coaching Samone Jackson to the all-conference first team after she finished the season as the NWC's second-leading scorer. In all, he helped produce four 1,000 point scorers.
Prior to Puget Sound, he was the associate women's basketball coach at Johnson & Wales from 2007-10. He coached seven players to All-Great Northeast Athletic Conference honors, including two first team selections, and the program's all-time leading scorer.
The Lakewood, Wash. native also has experience with Excel Sports Academy in Tacoma, Wash. He was a coach for the 17U and 16U AAU teams and was responsible for organizing fundraising and travel plans for the team to compete at national tournaments in addition to creating a player development program. Huntley was also the head coach of the U19 and U16 USA teams that competed at the United World Games in Klagenfurt, Austria in 2016. They brought home the silver medal and he recruited student-athletes from around the country as part of Student Athlete World.
Huntley earned his bachelor's degree in Sports, Entertainment, & Event Management from Johnson & Wales in 2007.