VARSITY HEAD COACH BEN FRANZEN
Coach Ben Franzen enters his second season as our head coach, where his 2022-23 Mustangs were 12-4 before being decimated by injury late in the season. His underclassmen obtained a huge infusion of varsity experience which will benefit them during this upcoming season.
Coach Franzen came to us from Covington Catholic where he was the Colonels Varsity Assistant and the JV Coach under Coach Scott Ruthsatz, one of the area’s premiere coaches. He is also the former Freshman Coach at Highlands.
Franzen spent six years as an assistant coach at Covington Catholic High School, which won four 9th Region championships during that time. Franzen also served as the junior varsity head coach at CovCath and guided the Colonels to back-to-back perfect seasons (47-0 overall record), including two consecutive Northern Kentucky regional tournament championships.
In 2017-18, the Colonels junior varsity team posted a 23-0 record en route to the regional title. That preceded the CovCath varsity team’s march to the KHSAA state championship in Lexington.
A year earlier, Franzen’s junior varsity squad finished 24-0 and also captured the regional crown.
Prior to arriving at CovCath, Franzen spent three years as the freshmen head coach at Highlands High School. He guided the Highlands to the regional championship game in 2014-15.
In addition, Franzen has worked several summer camps for Michigan State University head coach Tom Izzo in East Lansing, Michigan
Franzen is a 2009 graduate of Campbell County High School, where he lettered in both basketball and baseball for the Camels. He earned his B.A. in Elementary Education from Northern Kentucky University in 2013.
Franzen is a 2009 graduate of Campbell County High School, where he lettered in both basketball and baseball for the Camels. He earned his B.A. in Elementary Education from Northern Kentucky University in 2013.
Ben teaches in the Kenton County Elementary School System He and his wife, Melody, and their three children are members of the St. Joe’s Cold Spring Parish.
JUNIOR VARSITY COACH DERRICK McBRIDE
Coach Derrick McBride is a Northern Kentucky native, who currently resides in Alexandria with his wife, Brossart grad Elena, and son Everett. He attended Gateway Community and Technical College, and University of the Cumberlands, graduating in 2022 with a degree in business finance.
McBride serves as both the Head Archery Coach and the Head eSports coach at Thomas More University but started his coaching career in basketball in 2013. He was the assistant men’s varsity coach at Silver Grove High School from 2013-2015 before moving into the same role at Highlands High School for the 2016-17 basketball season.
After Highlands, McBride became the Junior Varsity men’s basketball coach at South Dearborn High School in Dearborn County, Indiana. While there, he began his eSports coaching career in 2019, helping establish the program at South Dearborn. In 2020, he became the head eSports coach at Beechwood High School in Fort Mitchell while also continuing to coach basketball.
Coach McBride has been largely responsible for running our summer skill sessions, and developing our younger players. He will serve as our Junior Varsity coach this season.
Freshman Head Coach Curtis Bezold
Curtis Bezold (’99 grad) played alongside of Nathan Seiter on our co-winningest team ever (28-7) that played in the 10th Region Championship game, losing narrowly to Fleming County.
Curt is the 20th leading career scorer in Brossart Basketball history with 992 points. Only an illness during the Mason County Invitational Tournament as a senior, prevented him from being a member of our 1,000 Points Club.
Curt is in his fifth season as our Freshman Coach. His 2019-20 Mustangs were 11-11 with wins over Covington Catholic, NCC, Holmes and Dixie Heights.
Previous to becoming our Freshman coach, Curtis coached the Sts. Peter and Paul Cardinals where his teams were the 7th and the 8th Grade Diocesan Champions. He is married to his wife Tina, and works for Duke Energy in the Gas department.
FRESHMAN Assistant Coach Steven Verst
Steven Verst (’21 grad) burst upon the Brossart basketball scene back in 2010, where as a second grader, he began winning individual “Camp Champ” titles, and earned a total of 18 of them by the time he became a Freshman Mustang.
Verst has left his mark on the program by setting records for Top Free-Throw Percentage in a Season – 83.5%, and Best Free-Throw Average in a Career at 81.4%. Stephen set a school standard for best 3-Point Percentage in a game by hitting 6 of 8 against Frankfort in the All “A” State at EKU as a junior in January of 2020. Included in his 83.5% Free-Throw record for a season is a string of 29 consecutive successful charity tosses.
Stephen served as Graduate Assistant to Coach Ben Franzen a year ago, and will join Curtis Bezold in developing our freshmen in 2023-24.
Staff Assistant Dave Schabell
Schabs is a fixture around the Mustang basketball program.
During his tenure, the ’65 Brossart grad has served as head coach to eleven Mustang freshmen teams. He also served a five year stint as Varsity Girls Head Coach from 1986 through 1991 where his Lady ‘Stangs compiled a 99-45 record, including a 26-6 campaign in 1986-87 which ended in the 9th Region Semi-Finals, after winning the school’s very first District Championship. Dave has served under nine Mustang head coaches dating back to Jon Quatman who hired him in 1978.
He is presently the program’s business manager in charge of publicity, the BMustangs.com website, Fund-Raising, Anchors the Meridix Webcast Team, edits the Program’s Media Guide and serves as Traveling Secretary when the Mustangs are on the road.
Schabell was elected to the 10th Region Hall of Fame in the spring of 2009; was inducted into the Northern Kentucky Athletic Director’s Association Hall of Fame in October, 2009; the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame in November of 2009; and was inducted into the Brossart High School Athletics Hall of Fame in March of 2016. In 2019 Dave was elected to the Northern Kentucky Coaches Association’s Court of Honor. In March of 2022, he was inducted into the NKBBCA Court of Distinction. He turns 77 in June of 2024, but is still going strong.
In 2022, The Munninghoff Family bestowed the honor of naming the drive into the MAC after Schabell for his countless years of service to Bishop Brossart and this community.
STAFF ASSISTANT ERNIE LIGGETT
Ernie Liggett comes to Brossart through his relationship as assistant coach to Ben Franzen during their days together at Highlands. Ernie is best known as the premiere official in Northern Kentucky for over 28 years. During that time he worked in 12 KHSAA “Sweet 16” Boys and Girls State Tournaments, officiating the championship game on 5 occasions.
Ernie officiated 22 All “A” State Tournaments and appeared in 20 “A” State Championship games. He has trained young aspirant officials for 15 years. To this day, Ernie mentors underprivileged children, and runs a basketball league named in his honor.
He is a Member of Holy Spirit Parish in Newport.
Statistician Jeff Miller
Jeff Miller, the husband of recently retired school secretary Katie Miller, has been a key member of the staff for nearly 20 years. Jeff coordinates our student stats personnel, transitions our stats from the game film to the KHSAA site, and provides the coaching and broadcast staff with up-to-the-game current player, and team statistics.
Jeff and Katie are parents of two children, Danny, who played on the Campbell County Regional Championship team of 2001, and Julie. Danny resides in Louisville, while Julie lives in Boulder, Colorado. The Millers have five grandkids.
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