Brittney Matuschek is the first woman ever to coach a SHHS men’s basketball team.
Matuschek is the new men’s JV coach. She began coaching girls’ basketball in 2014 at a middle school in the Parma school district. A year later she became the freshman women’s coach at her alma mater, Parma Valley Forge High School, where she played varsity basketball for three years from 2006 to 2009.“I was one of their all-time leading scorers,”Matuschek said.
She became women’s JV coach a year later in 2015, and took on the varsity women’s head coach post in 2018. Matuschek led the Valley Forge women’s team to its first winning season in a decade.
She led the Hawken Upper School women’s varsity team during the 2022-23 season before moving on to Westlake High School, where she led the varsity women’s team to two district final appearances and won the Great Lakes Conference in 2024.
The Raider JV post is not Matuschek’s first time coaching male players, however. While leading women’s high school teams, she also coached men’s teams in AAU programs.
Varsity head coach Danny Young said Matuschek is the first woman to coach an SHHS men’s basketball team. “And I believe she’s the first in Cleveland,” Young said.
Young said he is excited about adding Matuschek to the staff. He said he originally aimed to hire an alumnus of the program to coach the JV team. “I had plenty of alums that are volunteers, but none of them really wanted to commit. So I just started trying to think outside the box,” he said. Young said Matuschek stood out as a candidate. “Aggressiveness and knowing what she wanted and seeing the value of how she can add capacity to my staff was very attractive,” he said.
Matuschek said that she adds experience to the coaching staff, and that her perspective is uniquely helpful to understanding and nurturing players. “I bring a lot of knowledge. I’ve coached thousands of basketball games,” she said.“But I’m pretty hard on them. I don’t want to baby the boys, but I do show a compassionate side that maybe is missing in the competitive world of boys’ high school basketball.”
Matuschek said that the student athletes are open to having her as a coach. “They know I have good experience and I have a proven track record. They’re very respectful. Every
time, you know, I say something it’s always a ‘Yes, ma’am,’ ” she said. “Developing relationships with them, to me, is no different than any other player I’ve ever coached — whether it’s a female or a male athlete, you still want to create that meaningful relationship with them, and I think we’re all off to a good start so far.”
Junior small forward Tristan Westland said he recognizes Matuschek’s experience and her goal to develop the program. “I think Coach Brit is very experienced, and you can tell by how she coaches young players that she really wants to see them succeed and grow to be the varsity-level athlete,” he said.
Matuschek said that her experience as a head coach gives her an advantage in working with Young.“I have the experience. I know what he does on a day-to-day basis, so really the program has two people who have been head coach. I think that’s valuable because I know what he needs. I echo his program philosophies to the team because like I said, I know what’s expected out of a JV coach,” she said.
Young said Matuschek often notices things that he doesn’t. “She might say, ‘Coach, you might wanna look at ball handling, you might want to look at how hard they’re cutting, you might wanna look at the way they execute the play,’” he said. Matuschek has already made an impression on the rest of the staff. Young said that she has done things that no male coaches have done. “We have this office space in the north gym. It was totally junky, unorganized, not together. She came in on a Sunday. She said, ‘Coach, I’ll go do it,’ and she cleaned a whole office. The office looks amazing. Like, I got all these male coaches, you know, that work for me for, like, 15 years. Not one of them ever volunteered to clean the office,” Young said.
Matuschek said she left Westlake High School when her family expanded. “My fiancé and I just had a baby girl in February,” she said. “I decided to step away from head coaching because it was a lot.”
Matuschek’s fiancé, Terrence Rose, is an assistant coach for the Raider men’s varsity team. Matuschek said she is enjoying coaching alongside him. “Shaker’s also very welcoming to the family aspect. It’s nice that we still get to spend that time together,” she said.
Matuschek said she wants her young daughter to see the same opportunities she has had.“I’m excited to show her that she can do things that nobody’s ever done before you,” she said. Said Matuschek, “Typically what used to be a male-dominated thing is now becoming pretty big in the women’s world, so it’s nice. Just show her that you can do anything.”
A version of this article appears in print on page 13 of Volume 96, Issue 3, published Dec. 15, 2025.
