The upside

Brody Limric: Growing Up in a Basketball Family

Brody Limric runs on the CCSU court against Framingham State University, 2023

---

---

​Brody Limric is happy. The second-year player, who transferred from Quinnipiac University in 2022, has found his basketball home at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, playing for the Blue Devils. 
 
The team is off to a shaky 4-6 start; however, optimism remains as the Central team winds down its nonconference schedule in December under third-year coach Patrick Sellers, with conference play to follow. 

Division I (D1) college basketball can be a pressure cooker for athletes—and coaches.  The road is littered with dreams that have missed the mark. There are 358 D1 basketball programs and fewer than 5,510 players in the United States. 
 
And if the NCAA Transfer Portal is an indicator, many players are not satisfied. NCAA data show that during 2022, 1,649 D1 basketball players entered the Transfer Portal, a slight decrease from 1,687 in 2021. 
 
The Meeting 
 
I meet Brody on the Central campus one sunny afternoon in mid-October, a perfect fall day. He leads me down a long, deserted hallway of cinderblock walls painted white in the bowels of the athletic department in Harrison J. Kaiser Hall. 
 
Brody opens the door to a room snugly containing a conference table and brown leather couch (he was told by someone in the athletic department this would be a quiet place to talk. And it is).
 
The sunshine through large windows floods the room with natural light. While the basketball gods haven’t been kind to the program recently, the sun just may be an omen of better days to come. 
 
Brody immediately plops his 6-foot-9-inch lean frame on the couch; I sit in a chair facing him. On the eggshell-colored walls above him, the school’s Blue Devil mascot looks down on him with a mischievous smirk. 

​All Smiles 
 
Brody, a physical education major, is wearing Birkenstock sandals with white gym socks—an outfit no dad could pull off with panache. His blond hair is parted neatly in the middle, like the center line on a street. 
 
Wearing a shirt that reads “Be kind to everyone,” he is all smiles. Grey sweat pants cover his long legs—he swears he’s trying to gain weight to handle the rigors of playing center for the Blue Devils. 

You have to shoot!

​Technically, Brody is 6’7 3/4”, based on a recent visit with his doctor. Weighing in at a light 215 pounds, Brody’s job this season is to rebound, protect the rim and set screens to get shooters free. 
 
When there is a mismatch, he will cut to the rim for an alley-oop or pick-and-pop for a three-point attempt. The expectations are high at this level, and practices can be like combat—and not just from the coaches. His teammates have been known to yell. 
 
Brody described a practice where he bobbled a pass and passed up an open shot. Kellen Amos, a senior from Houston, Texas, yelled, “You have to shoot!” according to Brody. He knows he should have shot the ball. 
 
Confidence is not an option in D1 basketball; it’s mandatory. 
 
He feels “most comfortable” shooting threes. “I control everything with that,” he calmly states. “If I shoot the three, that’s me and the rim. You’re not doing anything about that,” he says.  
 
“I know that if I’m not confident, I may not have another chance,” he adds. Brody mentions that coach  Sellers has said in practice that if you don’t shoot when you’re open, you’ll never play. 

Brody Limic at CCSU athletic office

​A Dark Place  
 
“I love it here,” Brody says. 
 
The reasons flow like running water from a faucet. He loves the coaches, the campus is close to home and family, his major is perfect, and his girlfriend (Grace LaBarge plays on the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team) is only 30 minutes away.  
 
Brody is in a good place mentally, but all is not perfect. In college sports, there’s a constant tension below the surface, like a riptide attempting to pull him under. 

That was very difficult for me because I was not playing at all.

He climbed out of the abyss that was Quinnipiac University, where he didn’t play and would eventually take a redshirt year during the 2021-22 season. 
 
“Yeah, for sure. It was really hard at Quinnipiac. That was very difficult for me because I was not playing at all. That was really draining,” Brody says. His voice goes back to those dark days but springs back as if a huge weight has been taken off his lean shoulders. 
 
Going through difficult times has led to personal growth. “I don’t know if I’m maturing as much as accepting where I am and being happy with what I have,” he says. 
 
Basketball can be like a business. “I feel like you understand that in high school,” Body says, referring to the recruiting process. “You do what you have to do. That’s what’s giving me peace.” 

The Transfer Portal has made it easier because players don’t have to sit out a year, which has opened the floodgates to players leaving their teams—coaches have always been able to leave without consequences. 
 
Brody transferred to Central for the 2022-23 season and played sparingly for a team that finished 10-22. 

​Coach Sellers 
 
In mid-November, I reach coach Patrick Sellers on the telephone. He is in his 24th year of coaching the game, which has taken him worldwide and back. 
 
At this time of the morning, there’s nothing glamorous about his bunker-like office, which is deep underground below the basketball court where Central plays. It’s part of a labyrinth of windowless offices where only the dedicated will survive. 
 
The team is coming off a win over an undermatched D3 Framingham State University team. While happy with the win, Sellers feels there are things the team needs to work on, especially against competitive teams. 
 
Ball-screen defense and rebounding keep him up at night. It’s that simple. 

Coach Patrick Sellers, Bruce Biel, Tre Breland, post-game interview

---

---

​Prior to Brody making his way to Central, Sellers saw him at East Catholic High School, when Sellers was an assistant coach at Fairfield University. He remembers seeing Brody play well against Northwest Catholic. Mentally, he put him on his radar. 
 
East Catholic won the CIAC Division I state championship in 2019. Brody was a sophomore on that team that had three future D1 players: Jaylin Hunter, senior, Ohio University; Matt Knowling, senior, Yale University; and Joey Reilly, graduate student, Sacred Heart University. 
 
Brody is one of three Connecticut-raised players. “I would love to have a ton of Connecticut guys on our team,” Seller says. He knows the state has the talent. 
 
When discussing Brody, Seller says, “If he defends and rebounds, he will have an opportunity to play some of that five position [center] for us. He gives us a five-man who can step out and make shots, so it opens up the floor and spacing.” 

Star in your role.

“He’s been working on his ball-screen defense and obviously staying out of foul trouble and rebounding the basketball.” Sellers likes to say, “Star in your role.” Brody is auditioning for the role. 
 
And when it comes to offense, “We tell all our guys: if you’re open and you’re a rhythm three-pointer shooter, shoot the basketball,” Sellers says.  
 
Big Family 

Brody is from Glastonbury, just 19 miles from the main campus. When he needs a break from school, Brody can go home, grab a meal with his family, and even sleep overnight in his childhood bed.
 
He is a triplet. The other triplets are Cooper (6-foot-7), a sophomore at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, and Max (a mere 6 feet), a junior at Fairfield University, who excelled at tennis in high school and still loves the game. 
 
Cooper is an administration of justice major and wants to be a state trooper. Max is an English and Spanish major. He plans to be an elementary school teacher after he completes his master’s degree at Fairfield. In addition, Max is the managing editor of the student-run newspaper, The Fairfield Mirror. 
 
The Limrics are a tight-knit family. “It means everything,” Brody says, to play in front of family and be close to his siblings. “My entire family is going to come to every game. It’s awesome! It’s great!”
 
You may see parents Steve Limric and Toni Naylor, his grandmother Mary Naylor, and a combination of his siblings, Cooper, Eli and Tessa—but you’re not likely to see Max, who has had his share of basketball to last a lifetime. 

Eli, the youngest brother, is a senior at Watkinson School, and Tessa, the only girl, is a sophomore at East Catholic High School. Both play high school basketball. 
 
On the first morning of November, I call Max Limric. I ask what it was like growing up as a triplet. “It was great! I didn’t love it all the time,” Max says straightforwardly. “But looking back, it was good having a friend wherever I went.”
 
Going to school was fun because he always had one of his brothers close by. “Always someone there for you, for sure.” 
 
“When we were in kindergarten, our kindergarten teacher did tell our mother to stop dressing us alike,” Max chuckles. The teacher could not tell Brody and Cooper apart. 
 
Cooper and I talk on the telephone in late October, around lunchtime.
 
“I loved playing [basketball] with him in high school,” says Cooper, referring to Brody. “But that’s ultimately why I transferred because we just needed our own spaces.” They played the same position for roughly two and a half years in high school. 
 
He left East Catholic during his junior year and would reclassify, eventually taking a circuitous route and graduating from Watkinson School.  
​

Salve Regina University scrimmage versus University of Saint Joseph. Front front: Tessa Limric, Toni Naylor, Brody Limric, Mary Naylor. Back row: Steve Limric & Eli Limric

Cooper & Brody at University of Saint Joseph scrimmage versus Salve Regina University

It was the best and the worst of times. Cooper was able to go to Brody’s games at Quinnipiac. But they missed each other’s presence.   
 
These days, Cooper communicates with Brody “pretty much every day. It definitely took a lot out of him not playing, I think, mentally,” referencing Brody’s unhappy time at Quinnipiac. 
 
“We definitely talk a lot to each other about that kind of stuff,” Cooper says. The challenges are different now in terms of school, basketball, and their future careers. 
 
They are sounding boards for each other. “We try to be realistic with each other too,” when talking. 

A Father’s Shadow 
 
Steve Limric is a sports fan. We connect over the telephone a few days before Thanksgiving. We have met and talked several times on the AAU basketball circuit and at the Greater Hartford Pro-Am.

I’m a little bit hyper about basketball.

Steve grew up in Natick, Massachusetts. He explains that he played basketball against Donnie Nelson, whose father is the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Don Nelson. Donnie and Steve are the same age and were next-door neighbors through eighth grade. 
 
“We would compete like brothers,” Steve says. “We used to play all the time.” He remembers “playing him harder than anyone else around. I’m pretty intense,” he adds, alluding to his basketball passion.  
 
Steve, who is 6-foot-2 and wears glasses, played D3 basketball and lacrosse at Nichols College in Webster, Massachusetts. He’s often seen in athletic gear and gray stubble on his face with his gray hair combed back—like basketball legend Pat Riley. 
 
His “salvation” was to play basketball when things weren’t going well between his parents, who would divorce when Steve was young. “I thought that [basketball] helped me out quite a bit.” 
 
At games, his presence casts a long shadow, especially in a family of four boys and a daughter, who all play sports. The expectations of a father can often be heavier than a basketball stanchion. And Brody and Cooper have felt it. 
 
When asked what raising triplets was like, Steve replies, “Wow! It was always active.” 
According to him, they were born at 33 weeks and four days—all healthy. He didn’t think they would grow up to be so big. 
​

Brody, Cooper & Max, 3rd Grade

Cooper, Max & Brody, 10th Grade

Steve was their first coach. They started playing recreational league basketball in third grade. They were always the biggest kids, since day one. Max’s interest in the game would eventually peter out. He would go on to flourish in tennis and still loves the game today. 

​When they were younger, the triplets even played lacrosse together for several years. 
 
In high school, Brody and Cooper competed against each other in practice and for game time. This was part of the reason Cooper transferred. It was the first time he and Brody were not on the court together. But Cooper felt he needed to develop his game away from Brody.  
 
“That was the hardest decision,” Steve says, referring to when Cooper left East Catholic High School. “It’s very hard to separate them. The triplets are all very close.” 
 
Brody ended up at Central via Quinnipiac University and Cooper at Salve Regina University, playing D3 basketball. But along the way, their relationship with their father has suffered, which can be attributed to an overdose of basketball—imagine if ESPN broadcast only basketball 24/7. That’s Steve. 
 
Basketball, the game that once brought the family together, has splintered Brody, Cooper, and Steve. Cooper says, “I don’t even talk to my dad about how my basketball is going.” The topic has led to frustration for all. 
 
Brody says, “I’ve been lucky enough where I’ve been able to understand who he is as a person and nothing I say or do is going to change who he is as a person.” He has learned that how his dad talks about basketball is not necessarily how he feels about him. 

​Steve loves his boys and family. 
 
Remembering the earlier days, Steve says, “I was in it and still in it. Now I’m being told to stay away a little bit.” He releases a deep laugh to conceal a situation that must be difficult. He knows he can be “intense” about the game. 
 
To improve their relationship away from basketball, Brody, who was not a golfer before this year, has played golf a few times with his dad this year to bond. It has helped both to connect on a different and more profound level, away from the game. 
 
Brody is not a big football fan, which is how Cooper and Steve have improved their relationship away from basketball by talking and participating in fantasy football. 

You got to have multiple different ways to connect with your parents and with anybody in life. 

It can be hard to let go of kids, which is a lesson all parents learn. But kids do grow up. 
Max has insightful advice. “You got to have multiple different ways to connect with your parents and with anybody in life. It can’t just be through one area. So I think it is good they’re branching out and creating those different deeper connections,” Max states about his brothers and his dad. 
 
The Hard Road
 
The road that Brody has taken has been bumpy, like a New England road after the snowplows rip the streets apart during a major storm. But he has arrived at a place he wants to be: Central. He knows he can contribute to the team. 

Brody loves the game. “I definitely did not used to love what the game gave me.” Things have changed for the better at Central. “I love when I get to play the game,” he says. 
 
At this point in his life, Brody is happy to play his role. And if things get too tough, there’s a game of Monopoly waiting for him at home with his family—something they love to do after a family dinner. 
 
Brody’s family has advice for him. 
 
“Stay locked in, keep at it,” Cooper says. 
 
“My biggest thing, and I tell him this all the time, is to try new things and get out of your comfort zone. Go to new places, meet new people,” Cooper says. “Have experiences because you can’t get those back.”
 
And the message from Steve, his father and first coach, is simple: “Follow your passion going forward. Don’t follow the buck; follow your passion.” 
 
That message applies to life, not just basketball. 

​###

---

---

Author

Anthony Price is an entrepreneur, writer and publisher of Mini Books, inspiring stories for people who are curious about the world. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Extra