After 3 schools in 3 years, Andover player finds a home with senior-night winner
Brendan Eilert has been the new kid twice in two years, the hidden cost of being a college basketball coach’s son.
But last Friday night, on senior day, he finally got the kind of moment that makes a new place feel like home.
The Andover and Eisenhower boys basketball teams were tied at 49 when Andover star Walker McClellan rose for a 3 and the shot was tipped. Eisenhower corralled the rebound under the basket and tried to fire an outlet pass, but Andover senior Aiden Henry got a hand on it, just enough to redirect the pass straight to Eilert with 1.9 seconds left.
One dribble. A layup. A buzzer.
Pandemonium.
Teammates mobbed him. Students poured from the bleachers to celebrate. The kid who had spent the last two years starting over was suddenly being mobbed by a gym full of his peers who had completely embraced him. In his senior year, on senior night, with Andover’s AV-CTL Division II hopes on the line, Eilert felt like he belonged.
“I was just in the right spot at the right time,” Eilert said. “To be the guy who had the opportunity to make that shot for my team, it was like a storybook ending. It really was a one-of-a-kind moment.”
Brendan was born in West Virginia and for most of his life, that’s all he knew. His father, Josh Eilert, coached for the Mountaineers’ men’s basketball team for 17 years from 2007-24. It wasn’t just a stop, it was the foundation of Brendan’s childhood: friends he’d known forever, familiar gyms, a community that felt permanent.
Then the coaching carousel hit home.
After Josh finished out the 2023-24 season as interim head coach, West Virgina decided to move on from him. He found new work as an assistant coach at Utah for the 2024-25 season, where he again finished out the season as the interim head coach. For Brendan, it meant moving for the first time in his life and leaving behind his friends and routine.
“He was born and raised in West Virginia and he knew nothing other than West Virginia and West Virginia basketball,” Josh said. “So it was hard for him to adjust to Utah, which is why I felt such an enormous amount of guilt for upending your kids’ lives.”
Just as the family settled in, the future shifted again.
When Josh was back on the market this past summer, he jumped at the chance to return to his home state of Kansas and become an assistant at Wichita State. It was a move that brought the family closer to their roots, as Josh was raised in Osborne and has extended family all over the Wichita area. But it also meant Brendan would attend three different high schools in his final three years.
Brendan chose to take a positive outlook on the change.
“It’s definitely been difficult, but it’s also come with a lot of great learning experiences,” Brendan said. “Being in more than one spot in your childhood, you get to learn new people and new cultures and the life lessons that come with all of that. As difficult as it was, I think it definitely helped me grow as a person.”
Not only did it help having more family around this time, Josh said that Brendan’s transition to Andover was made easier joining a program with a first-year head coach in Trey O’Neil. It was a reset button for everyone, as Brendan was in the same boat as four-year seniors trying to learn a new playbook and a new culture.
But Andover had nine seniors on the roster: Paul Evans, Griffin Hand, Aiden Henry, Barrett Hill, Walker McClellan, Easton Peck, Jackson Penner, Shal Ruud and Gatlin Tilson. Would a senior class that large who had grown up together make room for a newcomer?
Instead of treating him like an outsider, the Andover seniors pulled Brendan in.
“Andover has taken me in tremendously,” he said. “Everyone has done such a great job of welcoming me. They could have easily been like, ‘We have our own friend group. We’ve been friends since elementary school.’ They didn’t have to take me in, but they did and I can’t thank them enough for that.”
O’Neil says it wasn’t difficult for Brendan to fit in.
“Brendan has been a great addition to the Andover community and the boys basketball program,” O’Neil said. “He does everything the right way. He’s a great teammate. He makes the extra pass. He shows up to work every day ready to roll. The guys noticed that and they welcomed him in with open arms and ever since, he’s been part of a really tight-knit senior class.”
It turns out, when trying to fit in on a new basketball team, it helps when you prioritize defense, passing and being a great teammate.
“He’s the typical coach’s kid,” Josh said. “He gets more excited about a defensive stop and seeing his teammates score than he does himself. He’s just an unselfish kid who wants to play the game the right way and be a part of something special.”
That’s the part Brendan has always loved about life as a coach’s son: basketball has always been the constant. He still tags along with his father to WSU road trips whenever his schedule allows. He’s enjoyed getting to know the team this year as they’ve climbed to second place in the American Conference standings and won eight of their last 10 games. The sport has never been a burden to him, it’s actually been the thing that makes every new place feel at least a little familiar.
The burden has been the goodbyes.
That’s why Friday hit Josh and his wife, Brandi, so hard.
Before the game, O’Neil invited the 10 senior dads into the locker room to speak to the team. Josh stood up, not as a WSU assistant coach, but as a father staring at the teammates who had given his son the perfect senior-year experience.
“I just wanted to thank the seniors because those guys have been playing together their whole lives,” Josh said. “For them to take him in as their own and not only mesh him into the program, but mesh him into their friendships, they’ve made this year so special for us.”
Then came the steal and the layup that turned senior night into a memory Brendan will carry long after the next move, the next job, the next uncertainty.
“In that moment, I just wanted to be dad,” Josh said. “That’s why it was so emotional for me and my wife. We’re so proud of how he has handled everything. He’s such a steady and resilient kid. It brought some tears to my eyes, for sure.”
Brendan talks about the last two years with the kind of perspective that sounds older than 17. He’s even developed some of his father’s coach speak when discussing Andover’s outlook with the postseason approaching.
“Basketball season is all about runs,” Brendan said. “You’re going to have good runs and you’re going to have bad runs. It’s all about playing your best basketball at this time of the year and I think we’re starting to play great basketball at the right time.”
That’s why the real story of the buzzer beater wasn’t about the shot or the win, it was about what it represented.
Every teenager wants a place to be celebrated, a place to be embraced, a place to feel like he belongs.
And in the roar of his new home gym, surrounded by teammates who had become his best friends, Brendan found what he’s been trying to become the last two years:
Not the new kid.
One of them.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 6:08 AM with the headline "After 3 schools in 3 years, Andover player finds a home with senior-night winner."
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