Blake High Names Brandon Howell New Boys Basketball Coach After Historic Season!

Former Assistant Takes Helm of Bengals Following 23-2 Run and MCPS Title, Led by Star Sophomore Baba Oladotun

Brandy Simms | May 18, 2025

Brandon Howell has been named the new boys basketball head coach at Blake High School, replacing Desmin Wade. / Blake Athletics

Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland has named former assistant coach Brandon Howell as the Bengals’ new varsity boys basketball head coach.

Howell replaces Desmin Wade who announced his resignation last month after a six-year stint as head coach.

“Coach Howell has been part of our coaching staff since 2022,” posted the Blake Athletics Instagram account, “and we are excited to have him lead our program moving forward.”

During the 2024-25 campaign, Blake finished 23-2 and captured the program’s first ever Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) championship. The Bengals were led by talented 6-foot-9 sophomore Baba Oladotun who led the team in scoring and rebounding and was named the Montgomery County Player of the Year and earned first team All-Met honors.

Published May 18, 2025

BRANDY SIMMS

Brandy Simms is an award-winning sports journalist who has covered professional, college and high school sports in the DMV for more than 30 years including the NFL, NBA and WNBA. He has an extensive background in both print and broadcast media and has freelanced for SLAM, Dime Magazine and The Washington Post. A former Sports Editor for The Montgomery County Sentinel, Simms captured first place honors in the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association 2006 Editorial Contest for a sports column entitled “Remembering Len Bias.” The Oakland, California native began his postgraduate career at WMAL-AM Radio in Washington, D.C. where he produced the market’s top-rated sports talk show “Sports Call” with host Ken Beatrice. A former Sports Director for “Cable News 21,” Simms also produced sports at WJLA-TV and served as host of the award-winning “Metro Sports Connection” program on Montgomery Community Television. Simms is a frequent contributor to various radio and television sports talk shows in the Washington, D.C. market. In 2024, he made his national television debut on “The Rich Eisen Show” on the Roku Channel. He began contributing to High School On SI in 2025.