By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The first head girls basketball coach in Liberty High history is a familiar name to basketball fans.

Former Iowa player and Linn-Mar head coach Jamie (Printy) Brandt was announced as the first coach in program history by Liberty High principal Scott Kibby on Monday morning.

The fourth-leading scoring in University of Iowa women’s basketball history, Brandt collected a 48-24 record in three years leading the program at her alma mater.

“She is just going to be a fabulous role model for young ladies in this area, I can just picture the elementary girls looking up to her,” Kibby said. “It’s nice to have a female coach in female sports and especially a high-caliber one like that.”

Brandt had a hall of fame career as a player at Linn-Mar before a decorated collegiate career at Iowa.

A 2009 graduate of Linn-Mar, Brandt led the Lions to the state tournament three time scoring more than 1,300 points in her prep career.

She was a Big Ten freshman of the year in 2010 and a two-time, second-team All-Big Ten selection at Iowa in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 leading the Hawkeyes in scoring both seasons.

Her 1,841 career points rank fourth all time and she is ranks third in program history with 252 3-pointers.

“I am impressed with her basketball success but for me the piece that put it over the top is just the person that she is,” Kibby said. “Her character and the way she carries herself and the way she works with young people and her attitude are just awesome.”

Brandt spent one season as an assistant coach at Linn-Mar before taking over at her alma mater before the 2014-2015 season.

She won 36 games her first two seasons and directed Linn-Mar to a 20-5 record and a spot in the Class 5A semifinals in 2016.

Linn-Mar was 12-11 last season.

After spending her entire prep playing and coaching career in the Mississippi Valley Conference, Brandt will lead a Liberty High program that will join the MVC for the 2018-2019 season.

Liberty High will open this fall and compete as an independent for the 2017-2018 seasons.

“She is looking forward to building it from the ground up, there is some intrigue to that and she has the right mindset for that,” Kibby said. “Even though she is young she has had some wonderful experiences playing Big Ten basketball and playing for Lisa and then jumping into a 4A job right away and having success at Linn-Mar.”