Family Ties: Branin Siblings Make Charleston Home
3/6/2015 1:52:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Photo Courtesy: The Branin Family (From L-R: Pat, Carter and Tim II)
JONATHAN BARDEN
CofC Athletics Communications
Charleston, South Carolina, is a city proud of its rich history and deep family lineages. The College of Charleston is no different. Founded in 1770, many families lay claim to The College as their home.
Sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters alike have all infiltrated the gates of Porter's Lodge into The Cistern Yard.
But while it's not uncommon to see these legacies carried on throughout time, it's much more unusual to see three siblings at the same school, at the same time.
Enter: Pat, Carter and Tim Branin II.
Pat and Tim are both members of the College of Charleston's men's basketball team, while their sister, Carter, is making her own name for herself in the campus community currently serving as Vice President of Chi Omega. And, it was Pat who set off the chain of events, which led all three Branin siblings to the Holy City.
It all started with a golf tournament and a family road trip to Florida.
“We were going through a college search primarily for me,” Pat recalled. “We took a family road trip from Richmond (Virginia), to St. Augustine, Florida. We stopped at Flagler College, where I was looking to go to school and try to play basketball.
“Ironically, my uncle (Tommy) had played golf with (former head coach) Bobby Cremins at a celebrity tournament in Richmond and told my dad, 'You know, Bobby Cremins is coaching the College of Charleston. I don't know if you've heard of the College of Charleston, but it's a very nice school.'”
So the Branin family decided they would take the detour to Charleston on the way back home.
“We weren't planning on stopping in Charleston,” Pat said. “My uncle had Coach Cremins' phone number, because they linked up at that tournament. He sent a text to Coach saying, 'Hey, my nephew really wants to come look at your basketball program. If you have a chance, could he stop by?'
“We literally dropped-in to Coach Cremins' office – the whole entire family – and said, 'hey, we really like this school a lot.' That just shows the type of guy he is. He is always nice and will take time out of his day for anyone.”
Shortly after, Cremins offered Branin a scholarship to play basketball for the Cougars, along with his host-brother, Adjehi Baru, from the Ivory Coast.
That was just the beginning.
Pat's sister, Carter, was a junior in high school and soon would start her own college search. On her list were two schools in Virginia and the College of Charleston.
“I was actually committed to going to school in Virginia, but it didn't work out and I'm more than happy with how it ended up,” said Carter, who is an arts management major.
Already having a sibling in Charleston certainly didn't hurt in her decision-making to attend CofC.
“It definitely made my freshman year that much easier and smoother, because Pat was the only person I knew besides maybe one-or-two other people,” she said. “He was always making sure I was okay and checking up on me. Pat was a big part of the decision.”
But ironically, it was both Pat and Carter who both helped influence their youngest brother, Tim, to join the Cougar Family. Tim, now a walk-on freshman, had his own decision to make. Pursue basketball opportunities elsewhere or follow his brother and sister to CofC?
“I was always on (Tim) like, 'Are you going to come? Are you going to go to school in Charleston?'” Carter said. “I was so excited to have both of them here.”
That's when fate intervened.
“We're a really tight-knit family, so we're all close with each other,” Tim said. “Obviously, I wanted to play basketball in college, too, and I had some other interest from NCAA Division I schools and a lot of D-III's, but I always wanted to go to Charleston since Pat, Adjehi and my sister were here.
"I had the opportunity to walk-on and talked to (former head coach) Coach (Doug) Wojcik about it. He presented me with the opportunity to walk-on and it was the perfect fit.”
Now, not only would the three family members be attending the same school, the two brothers would be playing on the same team.
“It's a surreal experience,” Tim said. “When we were little, we always talked about which one of us was going to play college basketball. Like, 'what if we play on the same team?' and now, we're actually living it.”
“It's crazy,” Pat added.
But with two siblings playing basketball and another handling executive duties in a sorority, how do the three balance their own family time away from college life?
“We still make time for each other,” Pat said. “We make time for breakfast and get dinner together on weeknights, so we still remain close.”
As Pat prepares to graduate from CofC in May with a bachelor's degree in business administration, he is looking forward to working in his family's business – dealing erosion control materials to contractors for on-site prep in the Mid-Atlantic region. But, he has no plans of leaving his two siblings alone in Charleston.
“I'll definitely come back down here as much as I can to visit both of them,” he said. “Charleston will always be my second home.”
