Interviewing Coach Brown: His Strategies for Success
Coach Brown is a well-known figure at Franklin High School since 1992 and I recently learned that he was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He has coached three sports at FHS for a total of 31 years. Those sports include: wrestling (19 years), girls softball (6 years), and football (31 years). Coach Brown started off as a freshmen coach before going up the ranks to be our football defense coordinator for 12 years before becoming the head coach for 11 years. Hopefully, Coach Brown will be around for many more years to come. With all that time on and off the different fields, he has learned many skills, tactics, and lessons.
Coach Brown has experience on and off the fields in a wide variety of sports. Although his skills came naturally, he knew hard work was the main component to excelling and improving his skills. The main sports that he played were baseball, football, and wrestling. In his senior year of high school, Coach Brown played baseball for Waterloo and was an all-conference player.
According to Coach Brown, the most important assets an athlete can possess are, “physical, mental, and social gifts”. He also says that he wants the athlete to be “the type of kid that is going to reach their full potential. Doesn’t matter if [they] have these genetic gifts, if [they] can run fast or jump high. The problem is [them] not working hard to improve on those skills”.
As previously stated, he doesn’t just look at the physical attributes of future athletes, but how they react to plays and mistakes. He looks at how “they handle things when things aren’t going their way, if they yell at their teammates for mistakes, how they react when they lose, do they bounce back, and do they learn from their mistakes”.
He also looks at “kids who have shots at being a leader, that are socially and physically gifted, but willing to improve and maximize their potential, and how they handle the grind, tough season or game”.
I asked him another question: How would you describe your coaching style? He thinks it “has changed over the years” and the one thing he thinks he is “best at is adapting”. He explains that it may have come up with his upbringing of having a dad in the military (hence being born in Germany) and has moved to Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, anywhere, so he “had to adapt and always was”. Even though it was tough on him as a kid, he “thinks that it helped [him] as an adult, as a teacher, and as a coach”.
The games are “now more player driven”, as he states that “practice, schemes and game plans” are to help involve the players more to become better leaders and improve their skills. Having them be involved “helps motivate them if they know they have a say”. He is willing to “listen to the players” and “motive them” to do their best and reach their full potential.
“Since I’ve been head coach, I’ve never thought about losing when heading into a game.”
I asked Coach Brown one more question: what was the most important lesson that you learned as a coach to go toward success. He tells me how “you have to keep getting better and never stop. You practice what you preach and be present for the players”.
Coach Brown has attained a spot in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Associations Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 1, 2023, along with our offensive line coach, Mike Beck. He was nominated by Bernie Schmidt, who over the years, has seen how Coach Brown works with the players and program. He was impressed with how Coach Brown coached and asked if he could nominate him.
Coach Brown wondered if he “did enough to be in the Hall of Fame”. He even said his “high school coach is in the Hall of Fame”. Coach Brown looked at his successes and agreed to be nominated. “We were the worst program in the state and we flipped it, and are now one of the best.”
While at the banquet, he was awarded a ring that he has showed and allowed me to take a picture of, but the image won’t load.
Coach Brown teaches Senior Gym and Weight Training and Conditioning (1 + 2) here at FHS. I’ve had him in Weight Training and fell in love with lifting because of him. He taught me and others how to ignore how much weight the others are lifting since everyone is at a different level. Everyone starts the same before gaining strength, endurance, and power at different intervals.
And don’t forget, FHS won the WIAA Division 1 state championship football in 2021 and last year during the fall, we are Conference Champions. Good job, FHS football team.
