Amy Broadhead knows that now is the time to be a part of USC women’s basketball.
The Women of Troy are coming off an Elite Eight appearance, preseason ranked third in the nation, and feature arguably the most recognizable and talented collegiate women’s basketball player in the country with JuJu Watkins.
Throw in an All-American transfer in Kiki Iriafen and Monday’s season opener in Paris, and it’s hard not to get swept up in the new era of not only Trojan athletics, but women’s athletics in particular.
Earlier this fall Broadhead became USC’s first general manager for the women’s basketball team, a role that is relatively new in women’s collegiate athletics. With more than 20 years of experience at some of the largest sportswear companies in the country, Broadhead knows a thing or two about sports branding. As a former college athlete herself, she hopes she can help the Women of Troy maximize their potential on and off the court.
“There’s going to be a lot of eyeballs on this team, and for me, it’s just about elevating the platform,” Broadhead said. “At the end of this year, if the team wins and they’re the coolest team in the country, I have done my job. My job is to make sure that the level of excellence they have on the court is matched by the support they have off the court.”
The path to becoming USC women’s basketball general manager
Broadhead is one of only a handful of general managers at the women’s NCAA level, so she knows her role will expand with college athletics. According to her official USC bio, Broadhead’s role “will serve as a liaison to USC’s vast and decorated alumni base and will have a role in enhancing the game experience for guests as well as connecting the USC program with the community of Los Angeles.” One of the largest parts of her job is assisting with name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for players.
“[NIL] gives a lot of room to really help elevate these women’s status earlier, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Broadhead said.
Broadhead has worked with brands including Burton, Reebok, Adidas, Nike, Jordan, New Balance and Puma. Having played both basketball and soccer at Brown University — where she was teammates with USC head women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb — Broadhead knew she wanted to be involved with sports as a career. She considered going the university route, but said she never felt she had the right opportunity — until now.
“I would love to have worked in a university setting if I felt like there was the right role for me, and there never was — this is a role that hasn’t existed before,” Broadhead said. “This role brings all the different things that I’ve been able to do in my career so that I can give back to these girls, and I’m excited about that.”
Broadhead said it took a few conversations with her former teammate to see the impact this role could have. For Gottlieb, Broadhead is simply the best person for the job at the best time.
“Her experience working with major basketball brands and directly with athletes will give us a unique resource for our student-athletes,” Gottlieb said. “She is the right person to help us launch ahead in this amazingly exciting time for female athletes.”
The ever-changing world of modern college athletics
Of the now 18 members of the Big Ten Conference, only USC, Washington and Iowa have full-time listed general managers for their women’s basketball programs. Though that might not seem like many, Broadhead said it shows the amount of progress women’s and college sports in general have made since the NIL era started roughly four years ago.
“What hopefully this is doing is setting the bar for women’s collegiate basketball,” Broadhead said. “I see it as a pioneering position and something that will hopefully be replicated.”
Broadhead said what might be the norm for athletes entering college now could be vastly different when they graduate in four years. This means her job will have to constantly adapt.
“It’s still changing all the time. My job is going to probably be a little bit different two years from now than it is right now,” Broadhead said. “What I’m excited about is working with what it is right now and just continuing to innovate with the change.”
Building the Trojan brand
Not since the days of Cheryl Miller and Cynthia Cooper winning back-to-back NCAA championships — and rocking the stage at the Grammy Awards — have the Women of Troy had such national visibility and hype surrounding their program. Last year, Watkins finished as a unanimous first-team all-American in a season where she set the all-time national record for scoring by a freshman, with 920 points. In the offseason, Watkins signed an NIL deal with Nike.
Ahead of this season, Watkins is on just about every awards watchlist and was listed as a preseason all-American — along with Iriafen. On Monday, the Women of Troy will open their season in Paris against the University of Mississippi. It will be the first women’s collegiate basketball game to be played overseas.
“I think that just shows the globalization of basketball,” Broadhead said. “When we say we want USC women’s basketball to be the coolest, best basketball brand in the world, then we have to go play in places like Paris.”
Broadhead believes that her job is about building the brand of each individual player. Part of that work involves finding out what goals each player has and tailoring their brand to fit those while acknowledging that not everyone will play in the WNBA after college.
“There’s a real opportunity for players, while they’re in a great school like USC, to capitalize on their image,” Broadhead said. “It’s such a huge benefit to be at a school in a huge city like L.A. where there’s so much opportunity — we haven’t even opened the door a crack yet.”
