By Todd Bradley, DCSportsFan.com
Special to MaxPreps.com
When Bob Brown ended his coaching career at St. Albans about a year ago, it wasn’t long until a competitor and colleague got creative.
Bruce Kelley, head basketball coach at Bullis, asked Brown to join him as assistant coach. Says Kelley,
“I was at a meeting, picking his brain about basketball, when it just started to click. I said, ‘Bob, do you think you’d come on out to Bullis?’ Bob said sure,” Kelley said. “It was a warm spring day, and we decided to go out to the racetrack—something neither of us had a clue about. We bet on three races, won all three, and said ‘What a great omen!’ ”
Brown’s impact was felt immediately. Bullis went 19-8 on the season, 9-3 in conference play and won the Interstate Athletic League outright.
“It’s worked out better than I could have ever imagined,” Kelley said. “Usually a head coach in high school has an assistant coach who is just starting out, and there’s always a learning curve. Instead, I had a longstanding coach, known for the innovation and creativity he brought to the game of basketball. A year ago it was my voice 95 percent of the time. This year it was half that. Bob Brown and I became co-coaches. I learned so much and gained a friend.”
In addition to Brown, along came Marco Bassa-Luca, former head coach at the Heights, who had since changed jobs and wanted to help out.
Walter Booth, who had played at the Heights for Marco before heading to college, offered his services and joined the group. Aaron Moody who had been with Kelley and had gone to Gonzaga also came in and helped. Shawn Kane, the varsity assistant the previous year, coached junior varsity. Brown brought in Jack Kirsch to handle stats and Steve Grant to tackle scouting.
“The most rewarding aspect of the past year at Bullis was being able to coach with a guy like Bruce. He is a good person, a good family man, and a solid individual,” Brown said. “He has the best interest of his players at heart. Coaching with a group of people who knew basketball, enjoyed coaching, and weren’t worried about advancing their career or getting publicity turned out to be a great experience. We had older and younger coaches and guys who were happy to keep the stats and scout. It became a coaching family. It was a great experience. It reminded me of how rewarding coaching can be.”
For Brown, being an assistant coach meant he could concentrate on the game of basketball.
“At first I did a lot more listening than talking, to get to know the players and the different strategies Bruce used,” Brown said. “Gradually I started to give input, doing what I like best about coaching—being creative and changing the X’s and O’s of basketball, the plays and the strategy of the game.”
Brown coached the second team every day, giving extra attention to the squad’s reserves.
“The Bulldog athletes were fortunate to receive game line strategy from the best coach in the D.C. area,” Kelley said. “I saw a change occurring, an esprit de corps emerging.”
Brown believes that high school guys in a second group need someone who is going to encourage them on a consistent basis and give each player an identity as part of the team.
“These guys were the “go team.” I told them they had to go and work hard at practice. We played against the first string. We’d use different plays and try to confuse them, change things up,” Brown said. “It was fun. My guys were even able to beat the first string guys some of the time.”
Brown has three pieces of advice for young coaches trying to build programs;
“First, get a staff that have good people skills. That is very, very important. A coach is always communicating with players, parents, and the public in general. Second, learn the game of basketball by going to clinics, going to college practices, and talking to older coaches. Third, keep everything in perspective. Coaching is much more than just winning or losing a basketball game. Wins and losses are very important but when kids come back 10 years later, they are going to remember far more things than wins and losses. They’ll remember how you coached, places you went, and things you taught them besides basketball.”
Kelley, Brown and other Bullis coaches recently coached at the preliminary game of the Capital Classic April 13 at the Comcast Center. But don’t expect that to be the last time Brown represents Bullis.
