Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We're chatting about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City, Tennessee a lovely place to live. An interview show hosted by Colin Johnson.
Proud member of the Maypop Media family of podcasts.
0:00:00 - (Colin Johnson): Hey, friends. Welcome to the Johnson City Living podcast, where we learn about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City a lovely place to live. I'm your host, Colin Johnson with the Colin and Carley Group and Keller Williams Realty. It is cold and bone chilling outside. It's wet and rainy, and it's kind of the way February is supposed to be. It's a little dreary, but my spirits have been lifted because a lovely young lady is in the studio today who is a good friend of ours.
0:00:27 - (Colin Johnson): And we are so excited to have you on the podcast. Coach Brenda Mock Brown. How are you?
0:00:33 - (Brenda Brown): I'm doing great. Couldn't be better. Colin. Glad to be here.
0:00:37 - (Colin Johnson): I like. I've been looking forward to having you on the podcast for a while. We've been trying to get you on here. Yes, You're a busy lady. You got a lot going on. What do you do for a living again?
0:00:46 - (Brenda Brown): I coach basketball at etsu. I'm the head women's basketball coach. This is my third season.
0:00:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:00:52 - (Brenda Brown): Rocking and rolling.
0:00:53 - (Colin Johnson): You guys are rocking and rolling.
0:00:54 - (Brenda Brown): We are. We are. I mean, we've had some ups, we've had some downs, just like everything in life, but continue to grow. And so, yeah, super excited. Got 5 games less this season, so we'll be.
0:01:06 - (Colin Johnson): We're excited. Carly and I love coming to the games. Like, it is so much fun.
0:01:10 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, it is.
0:01:11 - (Colin Johnson): Don't tell anybody, but we don't go to many men's games. We like going to the girls way better.
0:01:16 - (Brenda Brown): I'm going to tell everybody.
0:01:17 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:01:17 - (Brenda Brown): I'm going to tell everybody because we got, you know, a lot of people go to the men's games. We want them to go to the.
0:01:21 - (Colin Johnson): We want them to go to.
0:01:22 - (Brenda Brown): We go to the men's games, come to the women's, come to the women.
0:01:26 - (Colin Johnson): They're on different days.
0:01:27 - (Brenda Brown): They are on different.
0:01:29 - (Colin Johnson): Even do both. But we love. Like, the girls just seem so feisty, so fired up every time they're out there. And we're really close. Like, we're in this real close environment. In Brooks Gym. It is an old gym. I used to play basketball in there a long, long time ago. It was just like me in high school. I think that's why I like it. Like, it's like, hey, I'm going back to high school basketball.
0:01:49 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, it's got a lot of character.
0:01:51 - (Colin Johnson): But I will say they totally revamped it since I was there. Like, it looks really good. And then, um, if you ever want to see somebody, like, really excited coaching A basketball game. This lady over here is just all over the place. We let. Like, a lot of times I'm like, oh, did they make a shot? Because I was watching Brenda yell at him. So it's fun.
0:02:13 - (Brenda Brown): I'm the sixth man.
0:02:14 - (Colin Johnson): You are?
0:02:15 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. I have been tempted. You know, I'm sliding down to the corner, there's a shooter, and I've got my hand at least behind her.
0:02:20 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:02:21 - (Brenda Brown): So it's kind of like a sandwich. Close out.
0:02:23 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, yeah. Lane in threes, right behind them. Like. You got that? I can make that.
0:02:27 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. I need to be heavily involved. It distracts me from yelling at the refs. I don't need to do that too much because that really gets me.
0:02:34 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. There are other people that are doing.
0:02:36 - (Brenda Brown): That, and the refs are really good, but they're generally really good.
0:02:39 - (Colin Johnson): They are really good. Okay, Johnson City Living podcast. What do you love most about living in Johnson?
0:02:45 - (Brenda Brown): Well, it's close to where I'm from. I'm from Waynesville, North Carolina.
0:02:48 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:02:49 - (Brenda Brown): Just a stone's throw over Sam's Gap matter. Asheville hanger. Right on i40. So I'm a Blue Ridge gal.
0:02:56 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:02:57 - (Brenda Brown): Love the mountains. Was in Asheville before I came to Johnson City. So I went Asheville and then Virginia, and then came to Johnson City by way of Blacksburg, Virginia, here in Florida for a little while when I was. Now that's years back. Okay, let's talk only 30. But.
0:03:15 - (Colin Johnson): But. But you've been allowed.
0:03:17 - (Brenda Brown): Uh, now I'm quite a bit older than that, but, yes. I was at the University of Florida. Go Gators. All right, I just. Cut, cut. You have to edit that part out. You gotta pull for the paycheck. But I'm a volunteer fan now, you know. You know, kinda, yeah, kind of sorta, you know.
0:03:34 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:03:36 - (Brenda Brown): Yes.
0:03:37 - (Colin Johnson): Where'd you go? Like, you grew up in Waynesville. Where'd you go to college?
0:03:41 - (Brenda Brown): Wake Forest University in Winston City.
0:03:43 - (Colin Johnson): That's a pretty nice college. And I'm assuming you played basketball.
0:03:47 - (Brenda Brown): I did play basketball.
0:03:47 - (Colin Johnson): And that's where the who coaching thing.
0:03:50 - (Brenda Brown): Came together, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't.
0:03:54 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:03:55 - (Brenda Brown): So I had set out to go to law school. That's exactly what I wanted to do, I thought. Majored in history and sociology. Graduated in four, actually. Didn't play my freshman year because I had the old ACL tear, as many do.
0:04:09 - (Colin Johnson): Ouch.
0:04:10 - (Brenda Brown): It ended up working in my favor.
0:04:11 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:04:12 - (Brenda Brown): You know, that's why you just got to keep pressing through. You never know what's on the other Side of your adversity.
0:04:16 - (Colin Johnson): That's true.
0:04:16 - (Brenda Brown): That was a good lesson for me because I was able to get my master's in education.
0:04:20 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:04:21 - (Brenda Brown): Played that last year, got my masters. I was studying for the lsat, applying to law school, and I had a great assistant coach at Wake Forest. And he was able to connect me with an agent who landed me a spot overseas. So I played professional basketball. So I was like, anything can be put on hold for professional basketball.
0:04:42 - (Colin Johnson): So, like, paying me to play.
0:04:43 - (Brenda Brown): You're right. And now it was peanuts. It was like, here's some food stamps and some. But gave me a place to live, a car, made a little money, and I had a fantastic time. It was during that probably nine months, I was in France, a little town called. It's actually not a little town. It's Nonce. Nonce. N A N T S. N A N T s. It's about 200 miles in north, northwest, actually in Paris. Okay.
0:05:15 - (Colin Johnson): So I'm sure everybody's getting out their map right now.
0:05:18 - (Brenda Brown): Well, you. I. Geography. People do care. And then they'll probably. You're probably going to get some feedback. That's actually not where it is. Yeah, Coach is wrong on that.
0:05:27 - (Colin Johnson): So it's 113.2 kilometers.
0:05:30 - (Brenda Brown): Let's go. Give or take east, west. That whole. Give or take 200 miles.
0:05:33 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:05:33 - (Brenda Brown): Was there in that nine months. And I think that's when, you know, I. I started asking some questions of now why do I want to go to law school? Good degree, excellent profession, all of those things. But I don't think that was my passion. When I came home after my season in France, that's when I got a job offer to coach at Georgia Tech. Yeah. It was a. You know, it's. It's why you got to keep your network and not burn your bridges.
0:06:00 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:06:00 - (Brenda Brown): So Georgia Tech recruited me out of high school. Obviously didn't go there. Went to Wake Forest. But that you still were friends. Maintain the relationship, Colin.
0:06:10 - (Colin Johnson): Did you like when you played them? Did you kind of go, hey, I'm gonna let you all win to keep this relationship going or no. You look at me like Colin. Yeah. She's not.
0:06:19 - (Brenda Brown): We've not known each other long, but.
0:06:20 - (Colin Johnson): She is extremely competitive.
0:06:22 - (Brenda Brown): We've known each other.
0:06:23 - (Colin Johnson): You're never gonna. You're never gonna do that.
0:06:25 - (Brenda Brown): No. But it is good to maintain relationships. I was there for two years. Yeah, that's. I mean, kind of. The rest is history. I was an assistant for 10 years. Not just at Georgia Tech, but assistant for 10 years and then was a head coach at UNC Asheville in the Big south for a while.
0:06:41 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:06:41 - (Brenda Brown): We're hosting the Big south tournament.
0:06:43 - (Colin Johnson): Johnson City is manners. Tell us about the Big South.
0:06:46 - (Brenda Brown): Really Big South. So for. For you guys who are like, what? Who? The Big South's coming to Texas. A lot of people ask me. They think that there are tournaments here. Nope.
0:06:56 - (Colin Johnson): That would be nice.
0:06:56 - (Brenda Brown): Etsu. That would be nice. Etsu. A Southern Conference will be in Asheville, but Big south consists of Ashe. Will be over here. UNC Asheville, Radford, High Point, Gardner Webb, Winthrop. I'm going to forget some schools in there. Charleston Southern, Longwood. So a lot of good teams. About 10 teams, and I think they're the same weekend. Actually, I miss the men's tournament here most.
0:07:20 - (Colin Johnson): Most both.
0:07:21 - (Brenda Brown): So they're going to do the same thing that we do in Asheville for the Southern Conference here at Freedom Hall.
0:07:27 - (Colin Johnson): So that'll be fun.
0:07:28 - (Brenda Brown): I know Johnson City's excited about it.
0:07:30 - (Colin Johnson): That is kind of cool.
0:07:30 - (Brenda Brown): 10 teams, actually. I think 20 teams, staffs, families. That's a lot of.
0:07:35 - (Colin Johnson): That's a lot of revenue coming into the JC area. It is a lot of people.
0:07:39 - (Brenda Brown): I'm excited for that.
0:07:40 - (Colin Johnson): When. When is that tournament? Do you know?
0:07:42 - (Brenda Brown): That is that same weekend. So I think like March 6th through 10th in that area.
0:07:47 - (Colin Johnson): So if we come over to Asheville.
0:07:48 - (Brenda Brown): To support you, you're gonna miss Big south tournament.
0:07:50 - (Colin Johnson): We're gonna miss it here, but that's okay because we're supporting you guys.
0:07:53 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. The men and the women. Etsu. We're going to be in Asheville, hopefully for the duration.
0:07:57 - (Colin Johnson): What's the best way to get tickets to your tournament?
0:08:00 - (Brenda Brown): If you go to ETSU athletics.com, they should have a big banner there. You can click on it. That sounded real techy. Did you just put that in the show? Notes big things on the screen.
0:08:12 - (Colin Johnson): Just push the button.
0:08:13 - (Brenda Brown): Just ETSU athletics and boom, boom, boom. Or follow us on Twitter.
0:08:19 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:08:20 - (Brenda Brown): ETSU women's basketball, men's basketball. On Twitter. We're on Instagram. We're on all the things.
0:08:25 - (Colin Johnson): That's good.
0:08:26 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. I'm not so much good at posting, but here and there, but TSU athletics is pretty good.
0:08:31 - (Colin Johnson): That's pretty exciting. You told me at lunch the other day, you're going to win the term.
0:08:37 - (Brenda Brown): I would like to.
0:08:38 - (Colin Johnson): I think. I think it's going to happen.
0:08:39 - (Brenda Brown): We have. I believe. You know what? Okay. I'll say that. I believe we can.
0:08:45 - (Colin Johnson): I like it.
0:08:46 - (Brenda Brown): I do believe we can. I believe in this team. We Are interesting. Nine new players. You know, the climate of college athletics has changed a lot. I don't know if anybody knows that. I guess I think there's probably some.
0:08:58 - (Colin Johnson): Awareness that are aware of the nil portal.
0:09:01 - (Brenda Brown): Nil portal. The ever changing landscape, how to navigate all of that. It's just not like the good old days.
0:09:09 - (Colin Johnson): Not like the good old days. I used to go sit on somebody's couch and tell them ETSU is the best place to be and they would sign up and be here for four years and good to go.
0:09:18 - (Brenda Brown): So what is that? You have to adapt or die. And so. But I think there's a happy medium there. I'd still like to recruit young players and develop. That's still our philosophy. But you know, obviously we've got some kids on our team this year that we got from the portal. Braylon Nilsen came from the Big 12. She was at Cincinnati. We got a grad transfer. We love Bella Hunt. I think she's taken more charges.
0:09:42 - (Brenda Brown): If you don't know what a charge is, it's a great defensive play.
0:09:45 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. To hurt a little bit and hurt.
0:09:46 - (Brenda Brown): A little bit or we get a.
0:09:48 - (Colin Johnson): Foul and get the ball back.
0:09:49 - (Brenda Brown): So that's always right. So we have benefited from the portal and then you know, there's. Obviously we lost. Can be hurt. We lost some people to the portal, so that's going to be something to navigate. But back to our team. Nine new players, four returners. And under those circumstances, or I should say considering those circumstances of having to meld all that together, I like where we are because we continue to get better. And like you said, they do really play for each other. They're exciting and fun to be around too.
0:10:17 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I think they have meshed very well to be nine new players. You wouldn't know it. Watching.
0:10:23 - (Brenda Brown): No, no, no. Or coaching them on a day to day. I mean there's, you know, if you're in athletics or if you're in any job, there are days where you're just. Do I, you know, do I want to deal with this group of people or do they want to deal with me? Listen, I'm not always a bowl of cherries either. What? That's hard to believe. I know.
0:10:40 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:10:41 - (Brenda Brown): Paul's right there. But I don't feel that way about this group. You know, I look forward. They are energy givers. They're not energy takers. They're funny.
0:10:52 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:10:53 - (Brenda Brown): I think the group has a great personality. You got some, you know, it's just. It's a. It's a Great group of girls and that's. And I want it for them too. And we do have kind of cut from the old cloth. We've got a fifth year kid. She just scored her thousandth point. Courtney Moore.
0:11:09 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:11:09 - (Brenda Brown): From Gainesville, Florida, speaking of the Gators, but she's from Gainesville and so I would want, I want nothing more than for her to win. You know, I'm her third head coach. So we've had some transition in the women's basketball program in the past five years and I'm her third head coach. She stuck it out and has done really well. She's having a great season and so that's all to celebrate her. That would be great.
0:11:37 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:11:37 - (Brenda Brown): And of course, our program, ETSU women's basketball has never won and a Southern Conference tournament championship until this year. Until this year, 2025.
0:11:49 - (Colin Johnson): It's going to happen. We're going to go to the NCAA tournament and it's going to be awesome.
0:11:53 - (Brenda Brown): You've heard it here, right here. February 11th.
0:11:56 - (Colin Johnson): Secret, top secret. That's going to happen February 11th.
0:11:59 - (Brenda Brown): Right.
0:12:00 - (Colin Johnson): Right today. And so coaching, like that's, that's not law. Like, did you just feel like the Lord made you to be a coach? Like, what do you love most about coaching?
0:12:14 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, that's interesting. So when I was exploring, you know, getting into coaching, it's kind of like a natural progression, right? You're a college athlete. Not that all college athletes make great coaches. I mean, but it, there, there's a lot of probably the skill sets that I had that, that fit nicely into coaching. But I didn't want to be a college coach. And I wasn't also really seeking the Lord or praying at that time. That wasn't part of my life. It is now.
0:12:42 - (Brenda Brown): And so now with, I can look in the rearview mirror and go, ah, yes, I do believe the Lord's hand was on my life, obviously, even though I wasn't Lord, you know, is this what I should be doing with my life? I was kind of like, okay, you know, I kind of, I always say I feel fell into coaching, but now that I look back and see how all the dots are connecting, you know, I do believe that was, that was the call I had.
0:13:06 - (Brenda Brown): I love people, young people, obviously. I mean, college age students. I mean, who wouldn't want to work with college A students? I mean, coaching is stressful, it has its challenges. But when you, you got that 35,000 foot view and you're looking at your life and what you get to do instead of what I have to do, it's easy. You know, there's a lot of other things that would be harder than this.
0:13:28 - (Colin Johnson): That's just a mindset. Right. I mean, like, you can say, oh, I've died to do all this stuff, but I love it that you changed to. I love to get to do these things.
0:13:36 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. Development and growing, being a part of that in any company. I mean, you. You've got a lot of people working with you and for you and that you're responsible for and you're leading and you're trying to figure out how do you. Because our job is not to dominate. It's. It's how to make them. How do we bring out their. Their greatness and strengths and those kind.
0:13:56 - (Colin Johnson): Of things and let them down the path to success? And if we get. If they're all successful, you win.
0:14:01 - (Brenda Brown): That's right. That it behooves us, even if we didn't care about people. That's why I tell my players, I care about you, but if I didn't, it behooves me that you are your best. So we can win. So let's just all work together and make this happen. Come on.
0:14:14 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, we can do it.
0:14:16 - (Brenda Brown): They're looking at me like if I didn't care.
0:14:19 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:14:19 - (Brenda Brown): I want to do everything in my power to help you succeed.
0:14:22 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:14:22 - (Brenda Brown): But I do care. I mean, I think if. There. That's. That's what. I guess with the transition, I'm. Because I'm a relationship space coach. I mean, results through relationships. Because that's. That's what brings the joy to me. I'm a competitor, but I. I've been around people and leading. So when I was out of coaching two years, which is kind of odd. Most coaches don't do that. You know, I was in collegiate coaching 18 years.
0:14:44 - (Colin Johnson): Took a pause.
0:14:45 - (Brenda Brown): Took a pause. Got married.
0:14:46 - (Colin Johnson): Got married through.
0:14:48 - (Brenda Brown): My husband said, you're not coaching anymore. Just kidding.
0:14:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:14:51 - (Brenda Brown): That's not what happened.
0:14:52 - (Colin Johnson): You're staying at the kitchen.
0:14:53 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, staying in the kitchen. Cooking and cleaning.
0:14:56 - (Colin Johnson): He didn't say that. He was the most loving gentleman I've ever met. Like, I love your husband. He's the best.
0:15:02 - (Brenda Brown): He's the best. But he had a. He felt led to pursue a doctorate in engineering, which I understand nothing about, but he felt led. And, you know, during my last season at UNC Asheville, that was in 2019, transitioning into 20, right before COVID I know no one remembers that and the impacts that had. So, anyway, we decided in the spring of 2020 that that's where the Lord was leading us. So I walked into my athletic director's office and that was the toughest decision of my life. Of my professional sweaty palm moment.
0:15:37 - (Brenda Brown): It was. Heart was beating. The moment that was leading up to that was far. There was more nerve wracking than after I said it and we had that conversation. I felt such peace and I really felt like God was pleased that I followed through with this. I just felt this release. Not that we'd figured everything out. I had no idea what I was going to do. He had something obviously, so he knew what he would be doing. I had no idea at the time what I would be doing. But.
0:16:08 - (Brenda Brown): But yeah. So I was out of coaching for two years and I think that. That what I missed most was that team. I miss being a part of a team.
0:16:17 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:16:17 - (Brenda Brown): I mean, there's just nothing like that. That's what I tell our kids. Like, you're never going to have this experience.
0:16:24 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, I know. Yeah.
0:16:25 - (Brenda Brown): I mean, to. To be. And Colleen, you're traveling together.
0:16:29 - (Colin Johnson): You're.
0:16:29 - (Brenda Brown): I mean, and winning really. So we coached two championship teams at UNC Asheville that did go to the NCAA tournament. And those girls, they are thick as thieves, man. Still love each other. They. They send pictures. I mean, we're all still connected. So obviously you don't have to win a championship to stay connected as an athlete to your university or the team, but it sure helps. Those championship teams are rock solid.
0:16:55 - (Brenda Brown): So, yeah, super grateful. Super grateful to be here in a great city doing what I get to do every day.
0:17:02 - (Colin Johnson): It is. I mean, it looks like a lot of fun from an outsider looking in. What's the toughest thing about your job?
0:17:08 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, I think managing expectations. So obviously, as a competitor, coaches, is there anyone that really wants to win more than we do or expects more out of the program? Probably not, but still I am. And I don't know if you're into enneagrams and all the things, but we're done. We talked about that. Yeah, we have. We've talked about your. I am into CliftonStrengths Finder. I know you've taken it and I can't remember your top five, but we share some of the. Some of the same ones.
0:17:37 - (Brenda Brown): People to be happy. I want to meet expectations and you know, so I think it's managing why I do what I do, staying connected to my purpose of developing young women of, you know, again helping them excel, reach their potential, figure out what they want to do in life. Like that part of it with the expectations of, you gotta win. I Mean, there's a bottom line here.
0:18:00 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:18:00 - (Brenda Brown): And you understand that that's what they brought me here to do.
0:18:03 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:18:03 - (Brenda Brown): You know, I was hired by Doc Sander to recruit, develop, win a championship as quickly as possible.
0:18:10 - (Colin Johnson): So here's your bullet points. Do it.
0:18:12 - (Brenda Brown): You want to. In that squeeze, keep. Keep the main thing. The main thing, you know, and that's what I have to. Again, the foundation is faith, glorifying the Lord. And there's nothing wrong with still being a great competitor and pursuing excellence in that. But I have to keep the foundation. As soon as I take my eyes off of that, that's when the pressure I feel is projected onto the people I'm leading. And so I think that's the most challenging thing is, no matter what's going on on the outside, keeping my focus on the Lord and how he wants me to lead and what's the next best thing I need to do for this program, to lead the people and to make sure that the environment that I'm creating is one that they can thrive in.
0:18:57 - (Brenda Brown): And we have to shoulder that. But do we. You know, I'm not alone in it. Right. I mean, obviously, you have your family, I have Jeremy, and so. And we. And we have the faith piece. You know, we know that there's something greater than this and that I'm going to be held accountable for something more than wins and losses one day. But, yeah, of course we want to win. We want to win. So I think that's probably the hardest thing, is you want to, you know, because you win, you know how your identity is in winning and losing as an athlete, as a realtor, you know, whatever you're doing.
0:19:28 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:19:28 - (Brenda Brown): The outcomes of what you're doing seem to define us more than how we're doing it. So when I'm focusing on the outcomes more than how I think that's where I go wrong. Yeah, but that's. Again, it's challenging. Yes. You ask the challenge. It's challenging.
0:19:46 - (Colin Johnson): It's challenging to stay focused on the who's, the who's in the house, as opposed to the what happens if we get all the little pieces right? It's going to come together and we're going to win, but you got to. You got to stay. Stay in it. I was listening to a podcast yesterday about people say, what do you do? And you go, well, I'm in real estate. And they never say, I'm on real estate, was what the guy was saying. And he was saying that a lot of people feel bad about being in their business. And, you know, working on and in the business at the same time. So you're definitely on the coaching side of it and you're in the middle of it all the time. So, like.
0:20:23 - (Colin Johnson): But there are things you do that aren't just player development. It's. I gotta go figure out the. I gotta recruit.
0:20:29 - (Brenda Brown): Right.
0:20:29 - (Colin Johnson): And then I've gotta also raise funds to do stuff and I gotta figure out travel schedule. I mean, there was a lot of it, but, you know, and you can get distracted with all that and not even focus on the players. Right. So there's a huge tension and you just got to manage it all and.
0:20:43 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, correct. I think early on, as an assistant coach, when you're again. And I don't think I was connected still to the why I was doing it. So as I remember being at UN or UNC at University of Florida as an assistant, that's the pressure cooker right there. I'll tell you anything, sec. You know, you always feel like somebody's chasing you. But I realized that when a player would come into the office, I was hurrying through that discussion or whatever it was to get to the next thing that I had to do, you know, for my head coach at the program to. For me to the excellent. You know, it was more of a what can I do to get.
0:21:20 - (Brenda Brown): Get ahead or climb the next rung on a ladder? And, man, I missed it, you know, And I think it was in my first couple of years at UNC Asheville that I really connected. Okay, this is about the people. This is it. This is about the who's. But I think I had to connect with the faith piece for my eyes to be opened to that.
0:21:38 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I think if. When we learn, it's not about us, right. It's about how do we help somebody. Whatever that looks like. That's where the true joy comes from, I think. I mean, when we're helping somebody this, like, it's. You're living your best self, you know, it's just fun. Like, how can I help somebody today? That's kind of my prayer a lot. You know, I just want to help people. And so sometimes that's putting them in a house, Sometimes it's going and shoveling mud or, you know, going and picking up somebody and taking them to a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. So it's just part of life.
0:22:08 - (Colin Johnson): And I think it's. It's cool. Who are some of the. The coaches that are, like, really impacted you and your coaching style and like, how you're like, man, if I look Back. I want to say thanks to this. This coach.
0:22:18 - (Brenda Brown): That's a great question. So I work as. I was an assistant, like I said, for 10 years. Seven of those years, I worked for a coach named Amanda Butler. She's a Tennessee gal. All right, cool. Not University of Tennessee. She played at University of Florida. This is how we, you know, got to Florida.
0:22:34 - (Colin Johnson): I get it.
0:22:34 - (Brenda Brown): She's from Mount Juliet.
0:22:35 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah.
0:22:36 - (Brenda Brown): Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Born in. My buddy lives there. Played at Florida. Was an assistant at Austin Peay.
0:22:44 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:22:44 - (Brenda Brown): Was an assistant at UNC Charlotte. And when she became the head coach at UNC Charlotte, I went to join her staff. And then we were there a couple years. Florida opened, big job, and she got it, so went down there. I was fortunate enough for her to invite me along.
0:23:01 - (Colin Johnson): Does that happen a lot?
0:23:02 - (Brenda Brown): Like you.
0:23:03 - (Colin Johnson): Some staff.
0:23:04 - (Brenda Brown): You see it go both ways.
0:23:05 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:23:06 - (Brenda Brown): That is hard, isn't it? I mean, when a coach get fired, gets fired, or maybe they. They move up to another job, and maybe the staff that they have might not fit that job. And then you got to part ways. It's difficult because coaching staffs do become like families. It's hard to explain that we're spending.
0:23:22 - (Colin Johnson): A lot of time together.
0:23:23 - (Brenda Brown): A lot of time. Too much time. But I mean. And I. And I think she did a good job so that what I'd speak to. She's a great basketball coach. She then became. She was a head coach at Florida for 10 years. She was at Clemson for six. She's now an assistant at Louisville. So she's, you know, she's hung in there through some adversity, but what she did was cultivate that family environment.
0:23:44 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:23:45 - (Brenda Brown): You know, she really modeled how you should treat your assistant coaches, what kind of environment, you know, and we're two different people, so you don't have to do it the same way. But bringing them along, pouring into them, being generous with them. So some of those things I learned and then obviously, you know, style of coaching, and a lot of that came from her. And then, you know, you kind of. You. You really steal from a lot of people.
0:24:08 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:24:08 - (Brenda Brown): And I think a lot along the way. A couple of men's coaches, and one of them is from Elizabethton, Mike Morrell. Some people know him. He's the head coach at UNC Asheville. He's been a great friend. You know, you work with you. You. You run into people, men's staffs a lot, or other coaches at. At the universities. But I would say she's probably been the biggest influence, basketball wise, on me.
0:24:30 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool. Yeah. What would be some advice if there's another coach listening beside. I mean, I think I'm. I would love to learn something from Coach Mott. What would you tell him?
0:24:43 - (Brenda Brown): You know, I think that it would probably. Well, this is just from personal experience. I would say ask questions not only of other people, but of yourself. I think knowing your why, that's kind of cliche. I get it. But still, very important question. What's the motivator? Why. Why does God. Even if it's not why am I here? What. You know, how can I pour in? How can I add value? Try to step outside your circumstances and, And. And see the situation and ask good questions.
0:25:18 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:25:19 - (Brenda Brown): Again, of those around you that you're interacting with, but also of yourself. Yeah, I think that. I mean, we're always learning. You know, the two years out of coaching were the hardest two years of any. I mean, I.
0:25:31 - (Colin Johnson): What did you do?
0:25:32 - (Brenda Brown): Well, exactly. What did I do? What didn't I do? It was the most humbling yet rewarding experience. I mean, because, you know, I think coaches. I know this is going to shock you. You've never heard anything like it. We can be pretty full of ourselves and prideful and arrogant and I know, shocker. But big personalities, and look at us. We're so. And really, we're not. You know, we're not.
0:25:58 - (Colin Johnson): You guys are. You put your pants on like one.
0:26:01 - (Brenda Brown): Leg, like everybody else does every day. Even if you're getting paid a million dollars or two dollars. I mean, we're. But I think it. It really taught me the lesson of. And so going back to coaching. Let me. Let me tie this together for you. No matter where you are, if you're the. The manager, the graduate assistant, the assistant coach, you know, if you're the last player coming off the bench, whatever you're doing, it's not the role, it's how you do the role.
0:26:25 - (Brenda Brown): Colin. I was. I was a delivery driver. I went from, you know, being paid well, being a head coach at the Division 1 level. There's only 360 of them, and I was one of them at UNC Asheville. And now I'm a delivery driver. I'm working for a moving company. I'm substitute teaching. You know, that was. And some of those things I stepped into, not because I had to, I felt led into some of these, why, Lord, why here?
0:26:52 - (Brenda Brown): And it's probably because I needed to see that. So I hope. And again, he was gracious enough. I got back into coaching, but it's helped me Understand that it doesn't matter what we're doing in every position, we can add value. It's how we're doing it. And another thing, I would say that be where your feet are. It's true. Be present there. There's someone there. There's a reason you're there. You may not even realize it until years later.
0:27:23 - (Brenda Brown): You may never realize it. But the conversation you had, the attitude you had within that position, the person you helped or the person who helped you, because I think that was something. Allow yourself to be helped.
0:27:36 - (Colin Johnson): You don't know it all.
0:27:37 - (Brenda Brown): Ooh. I mean, that's tough. I wish somebody would have really imparted that into me as a first year head coach. I felt like I had to know everything and I made so many mistakes. So I think in that two years opening, I had a great community. We found a great church. The Lord just really to be hidden in Christ, you know, to be. Have that quiet period did so much for me.
0:28:02 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome.
0:28:03 - (Brenda Brown): So. And I'm not applying that perfectly here, but. But it is something I come back to. There's a piece there and I needed to learn those lessons.
0:28:12 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. If you don't mind, I'd love to have you share kind of like what's your daily routine and. And tapping into the Lord and like allowing him to lead you. What does that look like on the regular?
0:28:24 - (Brenda Brown): I'm a morning person.
0:28:25 - (Colin Johnson): Same.
0:28:26 - (Brenda Brown): I'm a morning at night. You know, I have tried that to connect there, but first thing in the morning. I also love coffee. You know, coffee in the Bible and just spending time. I've done different things over the years. I do like to be studying something specifically right now, actually, with a group of women. Your wife happens.
0:28:47 - (Colin Johnson): Yep.
0:28:47 - (Brenda Brown): So you're here this morning at Redstone. We are, you know, studying the book of Genesis, but then there's a smaller group of women, your wife being one of them. And we are going through. We went through the book of Daniel, so just going through books of the Bible, very small chunks, you know, maybe five to seven verses a day. And really unpacking that. I like to pray before I read, read, think, just ask again, asking questions. You know, what does this say about Jesus?
0:29:15 - (Brenda Brown): How does this apply to my life? And we snap pictures of the notes we take and just kind of share that in a thread.
0:29:22 - (Colin Johnson): I think that's so much fun.
0:29:23 - (Brenda Brown): It is. I mean, community, obviously, having the solid, having the solitude and individual time. But I think some of the best growth I've had is in community. Learning from others with Others, you know, the Lord has really worked through other people in my life.
0:29:39 - (Colin Johnson): Crazy too. Like, you're. There are a lot of times you'll study something or read something, and then you'll get something out of it. And then that day you'll run into somebody and you'll be like, well, I just read this. You know, this is something that I should pass on to you. And so it's just cool how he shows up like that. Or, you know, the next day you read the same package again, you see something totally different, and then you can again apply it that day. It's just neat how it's living and breathing and active and it is.
0:30:02 - (Colin Johnson): It's just cool.
0:30:03 - (Brenda Brown): And I. It's. It good. And I'll joke with my staff sometimes, you know, I hadn't had my quiet time in the morning. Now, that is not an excuse, but I can actually tell when I have not. We can go. I mean, prone to wander, right? I mean, we can go off the rails pretty quickly, you know, and I've been thinking a lot about the fruit of the spirit and how that self control, being one again, how do you. And this is for, you know, another podcast conversation. But being a Christian coach, that is something interesting to walk out. I'm certainly not the only one. There's many of them. But the result, the pressure, the response, the accountability piece. How do you coach? How do you speak to your young women or young men or all of that?
0:30:45 - (Brenda Brown): I think it's something we all wrestle with.
0:30:47 - (Colin Johnson): Right?
0:30:49 - (Brenda Brown): There's actually a great group out there, and they just started on the women's side, but it's a. It's a group called nations of Coaches. Oh, that's cool. And, you know, we also have a lot of people in the community know Earl Shute, and he's come along as a character coach. I mean, we are at a public school, and obviously I want people to feel comfortable in our program, and I'm a believer, but there's a lot of unbelievers on. On our team, on the campus. I mean, we want everybody to feel welcome to, you know, explore their faith, what their beliefs are.
0:31:17 - (Brenda Brown): But he. He comes alongside. He's a character coach. So just an encourager, but great guy. He's part of nations of Coaches now. And. And what they do is supply coaches with character coaches. So they'll work in the community to connect you with somebody who can kind of walk alongside you, mentor you and help you in some of these battles. You know, how do you navigate these situations? Because our student athletes Colin. Are facing a lot. I mean, there's a lot of.
0:31:40 - (Brenda Brown): Not just student athletes, but students. Sure. 18 to 22 young people navigating all this. No, I wouldn't want it. I do not envy them with the social media, with going through Covid as a young. I mean, there's so many things that are impacting them mentally. So how do we resource them yet hold them to a high standard? You know, we can't drop our expectations because of the chat. That's where I think sometimes we go wrong and we try to get that balance right, you know, because I think we always drive straighter with a heavier load. So I don't think we want to absolve them of all their responsibilities.
0:32:17 - (Brenda Brown): You know, I mean, I like that we don't want to, but we want to be compassionate.
0:32:21 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:32:22 - (Brenda Brown): So that balance of. It's a dance.
0:32:24 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. You can't do it all for them. Yeah, they. They need to experience their own mistakes at times.
0:32:31 - (Brenda Brown): Struggles.
0:32:31 - (Colin Johnson): Kind of struggles. And. Yeah, we got two in college right now, and I. Yeah, I'm. I'm right there with you. Yeah, you help them become their best. And so, yeah, I think it's cool. Let's say there's a recruit listening to this, because, I mean, if I'm maybe a recruit, I would probably listen to this podcast, and then I'd tell my parents to buy a house from this guy. But let's say, what would you say to a recruit about coming to etsu? How would you sell that person?
0:32:58 - (Brenda Brown): Well, first of all, I would. You know, some of the things we've talked about in terms of how we develop and build the program, so kind of going from the inside out, looking at the inside first and then branching out from there. The culture that we try to create, whether you're there for one year, two years, you know, or five years, four years, five years. We hope.
0:33:18 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:33:19 - (Brenda Brown): That your experience is going to be elite, that you are going to feel safe and challenged and have fun in our program. It's going to be enjoyable. You know, I always say I don't want to be something our student athletes have to overcome, you know, because you're always going to remember your coaches. I do. I'm sure you do. Yeah.
0:33:37 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:33:37 - (Brenda Brown): You know, did that person pour in? Did that person add value? Is that somebody you're fond of? Or is their cell phone number still in your phone? Or is it like, delete, delete? I don't want to be the delete. You know, I want to be somebody they can call or they're comfortable.
0:33:50 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Forever.
0:33:51 - (Brenda Brown): So that's the. And that we're going to win championships here. I think that that's the expectation. And then etsu unbearable school. It is. I love it. The campus is beautiful. There's so many things. The people are genuinely. And I know we're in the South, I get it. But genuinely nice here. That's our student athletes and our student athletes come from diverse backgrounds. Obviously a lot of students do and they feel very comfortable in Johnson City.
0:34:18 - (Colin Johnson): It's the number. Everybody says the people. Number one answer. Why do you love Johnson City or why are you moving here? The people are awesome and the mountains are beautiful, but it's mainly the people. I came here and I felt loved, felt taken care of, felt a part of a community. That's just cool.
0:34:31 - (Brenda Brown): It is.
0:34:31 - (Colin Johnson): The Lord's doing something. Bringing a lot of people here.
0:34:34 - (Brenda Brown): So campus and then community. I think for college kids, they. They like the food here. I mean some of them are coming from metropolitan areas of the mall, but you know, again, they go there, they walk around, they enjoy that. I think there's. It's just the right size.
0:34:48 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:34:49 - (Brenda Brown): What are we, 75 somewhere in that.
0:34:50 - (Colin Johnson): Mark in the city limits, around 70. 75.
0:34:53 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. So that's. I think that's the perfect. In the College is about 15,000. There's lots of different options. We have 70 majors under. And that's.
0:35:01 - (Colin Johnson): That's a lot of majors.
0:35:03 - (Brenda Brown): The most east of the Mississippi.
0:35:05 - (Colin Johnson): Wow.
0:35:05 - (Brenda Brown): These are the things, you know in your. When you're recruiting. Absolutely.
0:35:10 - (Colin Johnson): You'd like to be an umbrella builder. We can. We've got a major.
0:35:13 - (Brenda Brown): We've got that. We've got umbrella building. You can. I think it's a lighter. It's the miter.
0:35:20 - (Colin Johnson): Maybe an engineering with umbrella underneath.
0:35:23 - (Brenda Brown): Yes, exactly. So lots of different academic options and. And then that's part of our culture too. And these young ladies, they had a 3.6. Our. Our team had a 3.6 cumulative GPA.
0:35:35 - (Colin Johnson): Not only make them dinner basketball. They're going to do good grades.
0:35:37 - (Brenda Brown): I think so.
0:35:38 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:35:38 - (Brenda Brown): Have to.
0:35:39 - (Colin Johnson): Got to.
0:35:40 - (Brenda Brown): That's going to be an expectation because that's for. You know, that's. That's you and you. You know, that's.
0:35:45 - (Colin Johnson): Do you get some kind of bonus on GPAs for your kids?
0:35:47 - (Brenda Brown): We need to put that work in there. I need to work that in there. I need to talk to Doc about that or Brian.
0:35:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I'm sure Nolan's watching this.
0:35:53 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:35:54 - (Colin Johnson): We could probably get that going. You do. You don't Help just college kids. You help little guys at some point, too, right?
0:36:03 - (Brenda Brown): Oh, the camps.
0:36:04 - (Colin Johnson): You got camps in the summer coming?
0:36:06 - (Brenda Brown): We do. We do.
0:36:08 - (Colin Johnson): My friend was always worried about the lunches.
0:36:11 - (Brenda Brown): Yes.
0:36:11 - (Colin Johnson): Jeremy and I talk about lunches, and my husband does the lunch man.
0:36:15 - (Brenda Brown): He's. He's the concessions guy. Lunch man. It's all hands on deck.
0:36:19 - (Colin Johnson): It is for that. But talk about coach mock camps.
0:36:22 - (Brenda Brown): Yes, Coach. Mo camp camps. That's in June. We have a Youth Camp, ages 5 to 14.
0:36:27 - (Colin Johnson): These are basketball camps.
0:36:29 - (Brenda Brown): Basketball camps, Yep. But we teach. We teach girls, boys, girls. And then Brook Savage, our men's coach, he also has camps just for the boys. I think those are also in.
0:36:38 - (Colin Johnson): Got to keep them separated.
0:36:39 - (Brenda Brown): Keep them y. That's just the recipe for disaster right there.
0:36:45 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:36:47 - (Brenda Brown): I like. Our camp is we do a lot of the fundamentals of basketball, but also the team building. I think that's probably what makes us a little bit different. You know, just trying to talk. Our kids talk about core values. We do some games outside of basketball, too. We have a talent show that's been a huge hit.
0:37:04 - (Colin Johnson): That's fun.
0:37:04 - (Brenda Brown): You. It's. It's unbelievable how talented these young children are in Johnson City. I mean, we've had violins, we've had gymnastics, we've had jokes, we've had comedians. I love it. I'm not.
0:37:14 - (Colin Johnson): I love it.
0:37:15 - (Brenda Brown): And so in the coaches judge and we give prizes, and camper of the day. We do quote of the day. I mean, so there's a lot of other aspects of just learning how to be part of a team and think outside yourself that we try to talk to the young ladies about. And of course, they're getting to play basketball. You know, it's a lot of fun. Then we also have a team camp.
0:37:33 - (Colin Johnson): Team.
0:37:33 - (Brenda Brown): And then we do look like lots of teams from everywhere. In my first year here, we had over 70 high school teams.
0:37:40 - (Colin Johnson): That's one per major.
0:37:42 - (Brenda Brown): And so it's bringing. I think the camps do bring a lot of outside. I mean, think about 70 high schoolers come or high school teams.
0:37:48 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:37:49 - (Brenda Brown): You know, it's a lot of kids. A lot of kids coming on campus. So, of course, we're not recruiting all of those, but they'll. They'll. They'll all be exposed to etsu.
0:37:57 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:37:58 - (Brenda Brown): See our campus. See the cpa. I think we have a wonderful facility over there. Beautiful. And so we do the team camp, and then we do have a high school individual camp that we call elite camp.
0:38:09 - (Colin Johnson): No. Nice.
0:38:10 - (Brenda Brown): So if you really want to be challenged, come On, Come on.
0:38:13 - (Colin Johnson): We're going to run you to death.
0:38:15 - (Brenda Brown): And we do. I mean, we, we run that camp. We, we run it. We. We advertise it as if it's a college practice. I mean, obviously there's 50 girls there, but our kids are in the drills. We're yelling at them and coaching them.
0:38:28 - (Colin Johnson): Your teammates help out with camps.
0:38:30 - (Brenda Brown): Yes, yes. The staff and the girls that all of our.
0:38:33 - (Colin Johnson): That's the kind of playing with the players you are. You're like right up there.
0:38:37 - (Brenda Brown): They're coaching you. Yeah.
0:38:39 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome.
0:38:39 - (Brenda Brown): And I think that's cool for the young kids. Love that. So. Because the last day of our little kids camp, we do autographs and pictures and that's probably their favorite aspect. Let's be real. All this other stuff I talked about, hey, the girls are going to be there, right? You know, you get to hang out with cool college kids and pudding cups.
0:38:55 - (Colin Johnson): Or something like that.
0:38:56 - (Brenda Brown): Pudding cups. I mean, more candy than the kids probably should have. Come on. All that's cocked up on sugar. Here you go. Have your daughter back. So, yeah, it's. It's. June is fun. June is a lot of you ask, what do college coaches do after the season's over? A lot.
0:39:16 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:39:16 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah. Recruit your team.
0:39:18 - (Colin Johnson): How much time do you put in? Like, if you said, all right, let's split it up. How much time is in recruiting? Like, it seems like a recruiting.
0:39:23 - (Brenda Brown): It's every day, you know, every day. So one of the things, one of my assistants, you know, we had this list of kids we're recruiting as high schoolers. She's sending out how they did, you know, this is how so. And so did, you know.
0:39:34 - (Colin Johnson): So they're looking at all the stats.
0:39:35 - (Brenda Brown): They're looking at the stats. And so I can text, you know, hey, so. And so I can't talk, you know.
0:39:41 - (Colin Johnson): You know, 300.
0:39:42 - (Brenda Brown): That's, you know, we're keeping tabs and touches and, you know, we had a couple recruits at Freedom Hall. Our game last Saturday, overtime game.
0:39:51 - (Colin Johnson): That was a close area.
0:39:52 - (Brenda Brown): Close one. Yeah. As a close up.
0:39:54 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:39:55 - (Brenda Brown): So, you know, you're bringing them to campus. It's. It's constant, you know, when. Then when spring hits, that's when the portal opens. If people are curious. That's kind of how that works.
0:40:02 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:40:03 - (Brenda Brown): In basketball, the portals are different, obviously. Football had an earlier one and ours opens up in March. Probably the same for me. I think we have the same window.
0:40:11 - (Colin Johnson): When does that close it?
0:40:13 - (Brenda Brown): I think it's March 18th to the beginning of May this year. It's a 30 day window. It used to be 45, but they shorten that.
0:40:20 - (Colin Johnson): That gives you a little more peace because by the first of May you're like, okay, I know who my team is.
0:40:25 - (Brenda Brown): Yes, likely that they do have to the 1st of May and we've experienced that to experience that.
0:40:30 - (Colin Johnson): So we got it all locked in.
0:40:33 - (Brenda Brown): Oh no, the 11th hour. But you know, some of that it's, it's part of dealing in this profession. Again, you're going to benefit and you're going to lose, as in everything. So just being prepared to roll with the punches.
0:40:45 - (Colin Johnson): Where do you send the future of the portal going? Any idea? Or you have the we can talk portal and then we'll talk Nil.
0:40:52 - (Brenda Brown): I think Nil would be more. How is Nil going to influence how active the portal is? One thing that has made the portal a little more active is this was the, this past spring was the last year that collegiate student athletes had that extra Covid year. So the, the athletes that we have that are. Courtney Moore, as I mentioned, she had a fifth year because of COVID So the. There, there's no, there's no longer anybody in that cycle.
0:41:20 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:41:20 - (Brenda Brown): So seniors that are senior or true seniors now, they do not have that extra year.
0:41:24 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:41:25 - (Brenda Brown): So that, that caused a lot of graduate transferring, but I think Nil will drive transfers.
0:41:31 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:41:32 - (Brenda Brown): Money tops.
0:41:32 - (Colin Johnson): And Nil.
0:41:33 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, money tops. And maybe if your situation.
0:41:36 - (Colin Johnson): Let's talk about Nil. What is like, what does that look like?
0:41:38 - (Brenda Brown): Name, image and likeness. So student athletes a few years ago could be paid ncaa. They could not be up until a few years ago.
0:41:46 - (Colin Johnson): Well, you know, a scholarship's a pretty good thing.
0:41:48 - (Brenda Brown): I think Scholarship's a great deal.
0:41:50 - (Colin Johnson): That's pretty good deal. Free. Free degree.
0:41:53 - (Brenda Brown): It's a great deal. And so, you know, when I look at my experience, I think about how much a Wake Forest degree costs and I'm like, I probably wasn't bringing that amount.
0:42:02 - (Colin Johnson): You still have a student loan going. A few.
0:42:04 - (Brenda Brown): I certainly, yeah.
0:42:06 - (Colin Johnson): That's big money over there.
0:42:08 - (Brenda Brown): My parents would have said, take your tail into. So another college, Carolina even at the time was probably, you know, a third of that. But anyway, it is. That's my point. You still are getting that college degree. Student athletes obviously can't work. I mean they are working for the tuition if they are on full scholarship. And a lot of student athletes. I do want to. There is a misnomer. There's a lot of student athletes at ETSU that are not on full scholarship.
0:42:34 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:42:34 - (Brenda Brown): You know Men's and women's basketball are full scholarship athletes and then football, because in Division 1 men's, women's basketball, you can't, you could not have partials up until this year.
0:42:45 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:42:45 - (Brenda Brown): So that's, that's something too. They either are going to be a walk on or a full scholarship. But anyway, name, image and likeness has changed things. And so because you can be paid, you're trying to figure out, okay, what's the best fit, but then also where maybe can I get the best financial opportunity?
0:43:03 - (Colin Johnson): Right. So you're balancing that and then.
0:43:06 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, that's, that's. I think that at the end of the day, if we, if we care about student athletes, some of this is good and then some of this I think will be things that'll maybe not be beneficial for them in the long run. Again, I'm not against it. I do, I have some concerns about it for sure. So in how we're navigating it, how to navigate it and what it does to the mindset of the student athlete and how that impacts, you know, because not everybody's getting nil.
0:43:34 - (Colin Johnson): No.
0:43:34 - (Brenda Brown): So, you know, can you add value even when you're not the leading scorer? Yes, absolutely. Sometimes those are people, those people are adding more value to the glue of the lot. There's so much more that goes into winning than just throwing a bunch of money and saying, right, A student athlete.
0:43:51 - (Colin Johnson): May get a big pile of cash, but to go to the school where the coach isn't a Brenda Mott Brown, she's going to be maybe not as nice or, you know, or has got her, you know, we have to pay these kids a lot of money to come to this program because it's not the most positive or something like that. You know, like there's. And so weighing that out is like, you know, do you take the short term cash or do you look at a long term player life coach, developer, like.
0:44:16 - (Brenda Brown): Right.
0:44:16 - (Colin Johnson): You know, Right.
0:44:17 - (Brenda Brown): And then some people, you know, depending on what your financial situation is, you get it, you know, you understand, you're like, this is a lot of money. And I do think, obviously there's lots of little details in there of how women are making decisions. Men, the money involved on either side. I mean, so I do think, in our experience, I do think the women are of course looking at that, but they're looking at a multitude of things.
0:44:39 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:44:39 - (Brenda Brown): You know, facilities, culture, all, all of those things they're, they're looking at. Not to say that men aren't.
0:44:46 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:44:46 - (Brenda Brown): Yikes. I gotta back myself into a corner there. But I just have experienced the women, and I do think they're asking more questions than just, hey, what's my deal?
0:44:59 - (Colin Johnson): What am I going to get?
0:44:59 - (Brenda Brown): What am I going to get?
0:45:00 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:45:01 - (Brenda Brown): So there's. And maybe they're just doing that because that's the right thing to do, but I haven't sensed that. I think they genuinely care about those things.
0:45:06 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I do, too. I think. I'm sure that anybody who lands on your program with the. The staff and team you guys have is going to be blessed for sure.
0:45:15 - (Brenda Brown): Well, I appreciate that and I appreciate all you guys do. I mean, really, since Jeremy and I have come here, you guys have been hospitable. I mean, we've gotten to know you through going to Redstone and all the.
0:45:25 - (Colin Johnson): Things, being in church and doing together. It's fun.
0:45:28 - (Brenda Brown): But you have welcomed, and that's a big piece, like when people move here to feel immediately welcomed, you know, so you guys are doing a great job.
0:45:36 - (Colin Johnson): Thank you. Thank you. We, yeah, we love you guys and we're excited. We get to do life together. So thank you. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Anything that I didn't ask you that. You're like, hey, I wish I covered this. We got the. We got the camps coming up. The link to that is going to be in the show notes.
0:45:52 - (Brenda Brown): In the show notes. Okay.
0:45:54 - (Colin Johnson): You want to sign your kid up for camp?
0:45:55 - (Brenda Brown): Sign your kid up for camp.
0:45:57 - (Colin Johnson): Come on, little Brenda, let's go.
0:46:00 - (Brenda Brown): I don't know when this will be aired.
0:46:01 - (Colin Johnson): It'll come out in a couple weeks, probably.
0:46:03 - (Brenda Brown): Okay, so we do have some remaining home games I would love. I mean, come check us out. Brooks Gym. It's on campus. Y. February 22nd, February 27th and March 1st. Okay, so I bet this airs before that. March 1st. And that's our senior day.
0:46:19 - (Colin Johnson): It may be. We could even accelerate it up pretty quick. So, yeah, we'll speed it up.
0:46:24 - (Brenda Brown): You know that when you have the conference tournament, I think those are probably the most pressing things, is how do we maximize the potential of this year's team and make their experience, you know.
0:46:34 - (Colin Johnson): Besides coming to the games that our community can do for you.
0:46:38 - (Brenda Brown): Yeah, I mean, I think rallying around, you know, I've seen, you know, obviously we've got some great excitement going around both basketball programs. You know, Freedom hall was electric. And so I'm tickled for Brooks. I mean, he's doing a great job. I think we've got a championship caliber men's basketball team. And I think we do have a Championship caliber women's basketball team, I think. Yeah. Just rallying around the women and helping them understand the value that they add and that.
0:47:09 - (Brenda Brown): Because I think sometimes, of course, that happens everywhere. Sure. So, you know, just the appreciation and really that is a lot of. In coming to the games and interacting with them because we have great, you know, great young ladies. So I would say just come check us out, give us a shot and you know, if you don't like it. Yeah, you gave it a shot.
0:47:30 - (Colin Johnson): You won't be disappointed. We're locked in. Colleen. I love it. We love coming. It's so much fun.
0:47:34 - (Brenda Brown): And there's also, you know, I think all the athletics. I mean, I've come to know Coach Divine, who's been a staple in the community. You know, she left for Alabama and now back. I mean, she's done a heck of a job. So kind. Coach of the year. And we share a gym. You know, she's in. In Brooks Gym. I mean, there's a lot of really good programs. I think our baseball program is going to be great. You know, it's family friendly, it's affordable. Our tickets are $5. They start at $5. I think that's pretty good deal. Pretty good deal.
0:48:01 - (Colin Johnson): It's a really good deal. Very reasonable.
0:48:03 - (Brenda Brown): Let me know. Yeah, I got two. I can get you.
0:48:06 - (Colin Johnson): You can get it. You hug it here. If you mention the podcast, you can get a free ticket.
0:48:10 - (Brenda Brown): That's right. There you go.
0:48:11 - (Colin Johnson): We'll do that. I'll help out. If you get too many. Okay, we'll. We'll make that happen.
0:48:14 - (Brenda Brown): But yeah, I appreciate it. And again, I've been, you know, the community's wel. With open arms, Jeremy and I, and, and I love etsu. You know, I think we've got a great administration there. I mean, Dr. Nolan's been great. Doc basketball guy through and through.
0:48:28 - (Colin Johnson): He really is basketball coach.
0:48:31 - (Brenda Brown): We got some exciting things going on.
0:48:32 - (Colin Johnson): I don't know if he's. That he likes to coach, I think from the sidelines. I see. I see Doc get fired up over there a lot.
0:48:37 - (Brenda Brown): He's helpful. He paces, you know, you can. He'll. He'll catch your eye. He can pace at Freedom hall. And he. He walks right alongside those referees.
0:48:46 - (Colin Johnson): He's getting those 10,000 steps.
0:48:47 - (Brenda Brown): He's getting his steps. He probably doesn't like Brooks as much. He pro. He feels a little confined.
0:48:52 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. We should put him over there behind the score table. Yeah. Well, yeah, just thank you for coming on the podcast. Thanks for what you're doing at etsu. Thanks for bringing the women's Southern Conference championship home here in a little bit. We're gonna. We're excited about that. We're excited to. I think Carly and I want to come to Asheville and watch you, dad. So that's going to be fun. And I think it's cool what you get to do and how you impact kids, and that's.
0:49:19 - (Colin Johnson): That impact is it's. It's just going to continue to echo and grow, and it's going to be fun to watch where these girls go and what they wind up doing. And I think it's almost like kids we. Carl and I laughed at. We've got some friends who have eight kids, and we're like, man, their Christmases are going to be unreal later on, you know, and they're. They bring their kids back and I look at you as a coach kind of thinking the same way, right? I mean, you love these girls. You're building these families, and they're gonna just come back and be like, coach, this is what I'm doing. Look at. Check this out. And you help me do this and connect me over here. And, I mean, the reward is just going to be like a tidal wave over time, and it's going to be so much fun. So I love it, and I can't wait to hear all the fun stories. We'll have you back on.
0:50:01 - (Colin Johnson): And may we have you back on pretty quick. Talk about the championship, the national championship. You never know. You never know. I mean, if you win the Southern, you go to the ncaa. You can't win it without.
0:50:17 - (Brenda Brown): I'd be glad to come back on. I've enjoyed this. Thank you for having me.
0:50:20 - (Colin Johnson): Well, thank you. And, yeah, thank you for just all you do. We're excited. Thank you, guys, for listening. If you want to buy a house, if you want to move here and bring Brenda and Jeremy's neighbor, we'd love to help you do that. If we. If you just have questions about our area, we'd love to connect you and come to the women's basketball games. They're coming up and they are so much fun. So click on the link below for tickets. Click on the link below for sending your kid to coach mock camp and have a great day. Thank you so much for listening.
0:50:46 - (Brenda Brown): Thank you.