Brianne O’Rourke
Class: 2022 | Category: Athlete | Alma Mater: Oakland Catholic, 2005 | Sport: Basketball

The Oakland Catholic girls’ basketball team reached the WPIAL finals nine years in a row and O’Rourke was one of the team’s brightest stars during that remarkable run. The 5-foot-6 point guard was a four-year starter for the Eagles, who celebrated a pair of WPIAL titles (2002, 2005), two state championships (2003, 2005) and a state silver medal (2002). She later was a conference leader at Penn State before playing professionally in Europe. She’s now the girls’ basketball coach at her high school alma mater. As a senior at Oakland Catholic, the Eagles went 31-2 in 2004-05, winning WPIAL and PIAA Class AAAA titles with O’Rourke running the offense. She was selected for both the Post-Gazette’s Fabulous 5 and the Tribune-Review’s Terrific 10. She also earned all-state honors, and drew honorable mention All-American honors from Street and Smith’s Basketball magazine. O’Rourke had missed her junior season with a torn ACL, so her strong senior campaign earned her YMCA Comeback Player of the Year. A two-time team captain, O’Rourke was named all-section three times. At Penn State, she was a four-year starter for the Nittany Lions and made an immediate impact. She was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team after making more than 100 assists and leading all freshmen in steals. She led the Big Ten in assists in both 2005-06 and 2007-08, at the time making her only the sixth player in conference history to lead the league multiple times. She finished her college ranked seventh in Penn State history in career assists (560) and 13th in career steals (196). She was the sixth player in PSU history to have 1,000 points and 500 assists. She also appears in the team’s record books for once going 15-for-15 at the foul line in a game. After college, O’Rourke played six professional seasons overseas, spending four years in Germany, one in Slovakia, and one in Italy.