Student-Athlete Experience Shapes Former Basketball Star's Future as a Coach/Administrator

Brionna Dickerson Zimmerman knows all about the highs and lows of being a student-athlete. The former South Carolina women’s basketball standout (2005-2009) is now the Athletics Director and varsity girls’ basketball coach at her high school alma mater, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia.

“My own circumstances have impacted how I approach being an A.D.,” said Zimmerman, who has worked at the school for the last eight years, starting in the development office before beginning her coaching career six years ago and also moving over to athletics administration three years ago. “I want our kids to understand who they are not only outside of their sport, but what they can do to better themselves overall.”

Zimmerman was the three-time SCISA Player of the Year at Heathwood, amassing more than 3,400 career points in three years. She missed her entire senior year due to an ACL injury and unfortunately had a similar career arc with the Gamecocks as she suffered a season-ending ACL injury on her other knee midway through her senior season for the Garnet and Black. She averaged 11.6 points per game in her final two seasons while also earning the SEC’s Brad Davis Community Service Post Graduate Scholarship in her final year and was named to the SEC Community Service Team as a junior.

“It was tough to go through that again, but it made me think back on my experience from high school,” said Zimmeran, who earned a degree in international business and marketing and also earned a master’s in international business. “Back then in high school, the weight room wasn’t as important in terms of preventative measures. I specialized in basketball pretty early because I knew I wanted to play at the next level. It made me think about all the ‘what ifs?’ What if I had been more serious about playing multiple sports and not getting those over-use injuries? What if I had done more to understand the impact of the weight room? Back then our high school didn’t have the funding to really have a weight room in the way that we do now. As an A.D., that’s been a big focus of mine. How are our athletes being supported off the playing surface?”

After graduation, Zimmerman worked for her former South Carolina coach Susan Walvius, for whom she played during her first three years as a Gamecock, as a marketing manager for Sheex. Despite her athletics background, administration was not something she thought about as a career until it happened, and her influences from her collegiate days helped her in that role.

“My first influence in this area was Dr. Harold White at South Carolina,” Zimmerman said. “He was so instrumental in me being able to balance academics and athletics. It helped me realize how important that balance was and how, as an administrator, you can play an important part in teaching and as a student-athlete, how you can handle it better. When I came to Heathwood, I was happy doing the development and fundraising work, but I missed the athletics side of it. When I decided to coach, I felt the draw to get back into athletics in a different capacity.”

She started out as an assistant athletics director and handled sports information, social media, and communications with parents before taking on the full responsibilities as athletics director the next year and is now in her third year in that role.

“It wasn’t something I planned for,” Zimmerman said. “I realized that I was able to do everything that meant something to me, which was to impact student-athletes in a positive way and really help improve what that high school experience feels like for them.”

As she gets more comfortable in her role, Zimmerman is also having to navigate the changing landscape of athletics, including Name, Image, and Likeness and how that impacts high school athletes.

“NIL has certainly impacted high school athletics where kids are trying to get as much exposure as possible because they are anticipating brand deals,” Zimmerman said. “That makes it difficult in the recruitment process because, across all sports, college coaches are not coming at kids in the same way as they were back when I was a student. I have to be open-minded about the ways that I’m helping kids promote themselves to find the right fit.”

As she reflects on her time as a Gamecock, Zimmerman said one of her biggest thrills was finding out that her basketball idol growing up, Dawn Staley, would become her head coach for her final season.

“When she played for the Charlotte Sting, she was my favorite player,” Zimmerman said. “I had her bobblehead! I met her and took a picture with her with my AAU team. I told her that I wanted to be her one day! Who would have thought that many years later, she would be my coach at Carolina?”

In addition to her job and family life, Zimmerman is active in the USC Association of Lettermen.

“Carolina provided such an awesome opportunity for me to grow career-wise,” Zimmerman said. “I want to make sure that our current student-athletes are taking advantage of every opportunity that they have to connect with our alumni. They need to understand how important that network of alumni is. As an alumna, I want to give back to my school. We all want to see our school be competitive in every sport, and that starts with us.”

Zimmerman and her husband, Tymere, have three children with daughters Jordyn and Skylar, and son, Kobe.