Photo by Todd Lester
Jim Brown coached basketball for over 30 years at Briarwood Christian School and won over 400 games.
Jim Brown’s first love was the game of basketball, so the idea of helping coach the freshman football team at Briarwood Christian School may not have thrilled him.
But he did so because he wanted to serve his school and its students however he could. There was an added bonus, as well.
“Once he realized he could coach his [two] sons, it turned into a prideful moment,” said Chris Brown, his oldest.
During a game in his freshman football season at Briarwood Christian School, Chris Brown managed to recover a fumble. When he looked over to the sideline and began running off the field, he saw his father and assistant coach leap with joy after seeing his son make a big play.
“I didn’t know he could jump that high. He was so excited,” said Chris Brown.
Even though the moment was over 20 years ago, fond memories like that have resurfaced in the minds of everyone who knew longtime Briarwood teacher and coach Jim Brown. Jim Brown passed away July 1 following a career filled with many wins but, more impactfully, a life dedicated to serving those around him.
“Looking back, I always knew that he had touched a lot of lives [at] Briarwood,” Chris Brown said. “I didn’t realize the extent his impact reached.”
Jim Brown is survived by his wife Lisa, their three children — Chris, Kevin and Carleigh Brown — and his mother, Helen Yarbrough Brown.
Bigger than wins
Jim Brown won more than 450 basketball games in over 30 years at Briarwood, including the last 25 as the head girls coach. His teams won several area championships and even advanced to the Final Four twice, but in speaking to former players, those numbers are not what is discussed.
“Basketball was super important to him and he loved it so much, but the love he had for us, his players, was even greater,” said 2018 Briarwood graduate Morgan Hutchinson. “He cared about us so much and he just wanted what’s best for us.”
Hutchinson remembers Brown only yelling at her or the rest of the team for a lack of effort, whether on the court, in the classroom or life in general.
“Nothing made him more mad than to see us not try our hardest. He knew we had so much potential even when we didn’t see it,” she said. “I’m so grateful to have had him in my life.”
Madison Thompson will be coaching the eighth-grade girls basketball team at Liberty Park Middle School this winter and coached against Brown in June. Brown stepped down as the high school coach following the 2017-18 year but was coaching the eighth-grade Briarwood team in the summer. For Thompson, that game was like old times.
“We laughed and cut up like we always do and it was a great conversation,” she said.
Thompson attended Briarwood through eighth grade and played for Brown’s varsity team during her final year at the high school. But her relationship with the coach went back to first grade, when she attended his annual basketball camps.
“That was the highlight of my year,” she said. “He always had a big influence on me growing up. I had a lot of older friends that played for him, and I just couldn’t wait to play for him.”
Her memory of him resonated with so many others.
“Just a genuine person,” Thompson said. “No one has a different opinion. He took care of his players, took care of his students, loved the classroom, loved his students, loved the Lord.”
Providing perspective
Chris Laatsch has put together a successful high school basketball coaching career. He’s piled up wins in his time as the boys coach at Briarwood and Helena and begins his tenure at Spain Park later this winter.
But Laatsch has also developed into the type of coach that values his players’ lives above their basketball abilities, and he credits much of that from what he learned while working with Brown for 16 years.
When Laatsch came to Briarwood in 1998, winning was first and foremost on his mind. Brown helped broaden his view of the job.
“Jim played a big part in me having more of an eternal perspective,” Laatsch said. “It’s not just about here on earth, but it’s about helping kids and people for eternity. He had a big impact in my life, to see things in a different perspective and a different lens in life.”
Bobby Kerley was a student in Brown’s European history and economics classes and then worked alongside Brown at Briarwood for the last 18 years. Kerley remembers Brown as a thoughtful man that always took time to care for others.
“Coaching his team and us going through seasons, he was always just as interested in my groups as he was in his own,” Kerley said.
Kerley fondly recalls working those basketball camps with Brown and Laatsch. One year, they ran a camp at Brown’s church for free because “he wanted little kids to be able to play the game and be able to share the gospel with them.”
In the weeks before his passing, Kerley said Brown’s zeal for the junior high basketball teams, despite being ill much of the winter and spring, was something that will stick withhim.
“We probably spent 45 minutes talking about these seventh- and eighth-grade girls and how excited he was,” Kerley said.
Humor
Along with providing past students, players, friends and coworkers with a great example of how to live life, Brown also encouraged something else: laughter.
Thompson said Brown was “absolutely hilarious” and had “the driest sense of humor on earth.”
“During the middle of a long, hard practice, he would be cracking jokes and making us all laugh,” Hutchinson said.
As a student, Kerley said you had to keep your guard up and be prepared for what he might say next.
“He always had a way of finding in humor in history, which not many people are good at doing,” Kerley said. “He always kept you on your toes because you didn’t want to miss what he had to say.”
