'Proactive Coaching' pioneer visits Sisters

Bruce Brown has learned a lot about coaching in a long career - enough to know that he could have been a better coach when he was a younger man.

"I have lots of former players who are now coaches," said Brown, a resident of Camano Island, Washington. "And when I look back at those first six, eight, 10 years as a coach, I wish I could do it over. The first thing I do is apologize to those kids!"

Although Brown thinks he could have done better by his early student athletes, there are those who say he's more than made up for it in the following years.

Brown is bringing the wisdom he has learned to Sisters in a series of seminars on April 16, to help Sisters coaches and mentors become better coaches themselves.

With more than 35 years as a teacher, coach, and athletic administrator, Brown has served student athletes at the junior high, high school, junior college and collegiate level. He's coached football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and badminton. He got into coaching because his eyes weren't good enough for flying.

"My dad always told me to get a job where I made lots of money, or I didn't care how much money I made," said Brown, a native of Richland, Washington. "My uncles looked happy and they were coaches or a fighter pilot. My eyes were no good for fighter pilot."

A graduate of Washington State University with a degree in physical education, Brown, 63, started having a good deal of success on the scoreboard. It was the late 1980s, and folks were asking him to talk about

that.

"I love the technical parts of the game," he said. "But it's the other stuff that we do, that's why we win."

Many of his former players were now coaches and they were asking him for advice

"I wanted to help them shortcut the learning curve," he said.

So he developed Proactive Coaching. One of the core tenets of the organization is that anything that can be done to add character to an athlete as an individual or collectively as a team will enhance the team and individual opportunity for success - including on the scoreboard.

"Coaches are the key to a great or a negative experience for the student athlete," said Brown. "And it's dictated by leadership. Years later, a player will say 'thanks for teaching me to persevere.' They won't say 'thanks for teaching me how to turn a double play.'"

Brown said as a young coach, he taught those components because he wanted to win on the field. As he got older, he taught the same ideals and values so student athletes could carry those characters and traits into their lives.

One of the ways Brown works to help coaches is by making ideas applicable to coaching. "Coaches are not philosophical people. They are application people," Brown noted. "We give them ideas they can use and apply."

One of those ideas is that coaches and teams should have standards, not rules.

"When you have rules, a kid will push, question, drive you to the edge, test you," said Brown. "It becomes a 'me versus you' situation."

But with a standard, student athletes will see the value and rise to the standard set.

"You don't need a lot. The only standard you really need is 'don't let your teammates down.' What does that not cover?" said Brown. "It covers eligibility, attendance, effort, weekend choices. It covers everything."

Brown will give three presentations at Sisters High School on Friday, April 16.

The presentations are hosted by TAPS (Think Again ParentS) and the Sisters Sports & Mentoring Alliance (SSMA). The presentations, one each for students, parents, and coaches, are free and open to the public.

"Having a nationally recognized speaker such as Bruce Brown address our community is a major coup for Sisters," said Quay Richerson, SSMA board member. "Whether he is speaking to the cadets at West Point or the athletic directors in Oregon, Bruce delivers a consistent and engaging message of integrity and character. He understands the critical role coaches, teachers, parents and community leaders play in developing these qualities in our young people."

The parent meeting is slated for 6 p.m., with the coaches meeting immediately following, at about 7:30 p.m. Presentation time for the student meeting, directed to students involved in athletics and extra-curricular activities, has not been set.

For more information, call Sisters High School at

541- 549-4045.