PHILADELPHIA (05/18/03)- Saint Joseph's University men's assistant basketball coach Matt Brady has been selected as one of the 500 scholastic and collegiate assistant coaches to be awarded the second annual AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award. A panel of judges from Scholastic Coach and Athletic Director magazine, the nation's leading publication for the team athletic marketplace, made the selections. The criteria in the second annual AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year program allowed for coaches to win based on longevity, expertise, contributions to the school and community, and special achievements throughout their careers. The selections were based on nominations made by head coaches, athletic administrators, past and current student-athletes, fans and the Board members themselves. The winners were selected from a field of more than 350,000 coaches across the nation. One of the top assistant coaches in the nation, Brady is in his 10th season patrolling the sidelines at Saint Joseph's. After joining the Hawks as a restricted earnings aide in 1993, Brady is now the veteran among assistants in the Atlantic 10 Conference. He is tied for second on the SJU all-time assistant coach list with current head coach Phil Martelli. Only Dan Kenney, 17 seasons, has more tenure as a Hawk assistant. "I am honored to receive the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award," Brady said. "This Award recognizes all of the efforts, achievements and long hours that assistant coaches put in behind the scenes to make their programs better. On behalf of all assistant coaches, I would like to thank AFLAC for their sponsorship, and Scholastic Coach and Athletic Director magazine for the establishment and promotion of this fine Award." During his tenure at Saint Joseph's, Brady has helped lead SJU to three NCAA and three NIT tournament berths, including a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1997 and the NIT Final Four in 1996. The Hawks have also been ranked among the nation's Top 25 teams at one point in each of the last three seasons, a program first. "AFLAC is pleased to sponsor the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Program," Joe Kuechenmeister, AFLAC Senior Vice President stated. "Assistant Coaches are the unsung heroes of American sport. So many of us were positively affected by our participation in sports that we wanted to pay tribute to these hard-working, under-recognized coaches who do so much to improve the young people that they work with." "We were extremely impressed with the quality of the nominees," Bruce Weber, Publisher of Scholastic Coach and Athletic Director commented. "The majority of the nominations were prepared in great detail. The nominators obviously felt very deeply about the assistant coaches they were recommending." AFLAC is one of the world's leading providers of insurance at the worksite. AFLAC insures more than 40 million people worldwide. It is the leading writer of worksite insurance, offering policies to employees at more than 213,000 payroll accounts in the United States. AFLAC is the largest foreign insurer in Japan, insuring one out of every four Japanese households.