Good coaches lead by example; some of the best coaches are the ones who serve as a mentor, guiding athletes through challenges and triumphs and instilling values that transcend the realm of sports.
You can count Northampton County’s John Brown into both categories — twice.
After leaving the bench and hanging up his whistle and clipboard following 18 years of service at Lasker’s Northeast Academy, Brown returned just a few years ago — first as a junior varsity coach and later leading varsity teams in football, basketball and baseball for the Eagles. The return made for 21 years of service on the sidelines at his alma mater.
“I always wanted an opportunity to coach my grandson (Camden White),” he explained. “I was hoping it was when he was in high school, but a chance to coach him and his teammates, it’s just been a joy working with young people.”
A 1977 graduate of Northeast, Brown played for Ferrum College Hall of Fame football coach Dave Davis when Davis was football coach and athletics director at Northeast. It was also one of the earlier times Brown found there was more to athletic achievement than what happens between the lines, something he tries to emphasize in his own coaching.
“I’ve enjoyed trying to make them better people along with being better players in their sports,” he noted. “My first couple of years, I won (championships), and the team came along; but then, I had some years where we won just (a couple) of games.
“Those were the years when I learned with high school (players), you can’t pick your talent, you have to take what you have. But I’ve had so many great kids,” he continued. “They may not have been great basketball players, but they became great people; and that’s what I appreciate more.”
At a time when ageism seems to factor everywhere, Brown faced the challenge of being several generations removed from his players upon his return to the sidelines.
“Some of these kids, all they do is play basketball or baseball — or whatever sport — all year round, that’s all they do all year,” he noted. “And that has always been a challenge. It’s so much different from when I played and when I first started coaching, so that’s been something different.”
He acknowledged there are adjustments he’s had to make, but all as part of the new learning curve.
“These kids that play year-round, they’re a little tougher to defend and tougher to find ways to defend them, but that’s the part I’ve always enjoyed: different strategies to try to win ball games. That’s why I prefer the high school game because you can develop things,” he said. “I study the game and I’ve had some good help.”
Brown has pledged to use sports as a mission in other ways — not just as a tool in sanctification, but also as one of the ways to live out redemption.
“I guess as I’ve gotten older I’ve become more conscious of religion in what’s been taught,” he observed. “Every practice after we finish, we pray because no matter what we’ve done, the final thing is with God and how much he loves us.
“We’ve started a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group, and I think that’s important because so many kids are so focused on other things that they’re not seeing eternity,” he said.
A three-sport athlete in the early ‘70s, Brown was part of the first-ever football team at Northeast and, during his second season, the Eagles won the conference championship with an undefeated squad. The school topped that with a trip to the state championship two years later during his senior year.
In basketball, he endured a season with more players than uniforms and only saw action in eight games, but by his senior year he was Most Valuable Player in both sports.
“That’s not important to me,” he said. “I’ve developed relationships with a lot of the people I played sports with so that we still hang out and do things together. We reminisce all the way back to Little League and softball — which we played every weekend. We had some good times and have kept up lifelong friendships.”
Brown received encouragement to perhaps pursue sports at the next level in college.
“I had talked about maybe going to prep school and trying to play football, but in all honesty, joining without guys I knew, I wasn’t prepared enough to do that,” he recalled. “It’s something I look back on and wonder if I could have done it, but the choices I made in life are what made me into who I am today.
“That’s what I try to stress to these kids that you can always look back and say, ‘I could have been this if I’d concentrated harder,’ because there’s so much more out there now with social media and everything. You’re involved in so much more. When they say they’d rather deer-hunt than play ball, I tell them you only get four years of high school, but you can hunt for the rest of your life,” he says. “There are a lot more things you can focus on. Those are the things I cherish about what we did in my day.”
Brown will stress to his players to look beyond the obstacles they are facing on day one and focus instead on the bigger picture.
“I remind them that we weren’t the best team in the conference, but by the end of the year we won a conference championship,” he imparted. “Those are the things you’re really proud of and that’s what I enjoy about coaching: ‘We just beat somebody we shouldn’t have, and it’s because we did the little things.’”
Brown hasn’t set a timetable for how long his ‘second life’ in coaching will last.
“As long as I enjoy it, I can physically do it, health-wise, and the kids are responsive, I’ll stay in it, he acknowledged. “There are things like health issues, being older now and trying to keep up with teenagers in a scrimmage, or the kids coming and saying they don’t want me to coach them anymore, I’ll understand that. But I tell them to stick it out and to enjoy it because you can’t look back once you’ve made those determinations.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0