On Friday afternoon, the Providence Journal reported that Brown women’s basketball head coach Sarah Behn was charged with domestic assault following an incident with her husband that occurred at a home in Foxboro, Mass. last weekend. The coach’s spouse, Timothy McGahan, accused his wife of pushing him over a wooden chair, causing him to fall to the floor, the Journal noted, adding that when he stood back up, she then allegedly pinned him against a wall.
According to the police report, Behn, listed as Sarah Behn McGahan, told the police that the couple is going through a divorce and she is staying in the basement of the house with her mother. She then stated that McGahan had been yelling at her mother and that she had intervened to push him away from her.
Behn was arraigned on a charge of assault and battery on a family/household member on Monday the 30th in Wrenthem District Court, according to the Journal. Her attorney Jerome Sweeney told the Journal, “She denies the allegation. It’s a private matter.” He also told the Journal that Behn’s mother testified that there had been no physical altercation.
Behn grew up in Foxboro and was a star basketball player for the Warriors. Her 2,562 points at Foxboro High School stood as a state record at the time and still currently ranks in the top-10 career scoring performances in Massachusetts high school basketball history. She then went to Boston College from 1989-1993, where she graduated as the prorgram’s only four time Big East All-Star selection and all-time leading scorer with 2,523 points. She eventually had her number 33 retired at both schools.
Following a year of professional basketball with B.B.C. Etzella in Ettlebruck, Luxembourg, Behn returned to Massachusetts and landed her first coaching job at North Attleboro High School. In her first three seasons, she had a record of 52-16 and captured two league titles. In 1997, Behn entered the collegiate head coaching ranks at Division III Framingham State College. After three seasons, she moved up to lead Division II Franklin Pierce University. Due to the birth of her twin boys (she and McGahan have four children, per Brown Athletics) and a lengthy commute, she resigned her position in 2002 and took over the head job at Franklin High School, where she and her family were living.
The coach moved back to her childhood hometown, returning to lead Foxboro High School in 2004. Seven seasons later, she assumed the head coaching position of UMass-Lowell in 2011. During her three years, she guided the RiverHawks in its transition from Division II to Division I. She was hired as Brown’s ninth head coach in the spring of 2014 and has led the Bears to a record of 57-56 (17-39 Ivy) over the past four seasons.
On the same day as Behn’s arraignment, Brown women’s basketball hosted its Hoops Camp for Girls for young women entering grades 1-8. According to a Tuesday tweet from the coach, which was retweeted by Brown women’s basketball, she was with the kids at the start of camp. She is scheduled to lead the Brown Women’s Basketball Elite Camp for athletes entering grades 9-12 this Saturday and Sunday.
There has been no public announcement from Brown regarding the coach’s job status or any internal investigation. The only statement from Brown University was in response to an inquiry from the Providence Journal. A spokeswoman for the school told the paper, ““the university is not at liberty to discuss individual employees outside the context of their work activities, or any individual employee matters, which are not public.”