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Parenting is a must-win game. That's true for all of us, including some of the most accomplished coaches and leaders in athletics across the country.
Presented by Black Raven and Little U Productions, Championship Parenting is a weekly master class on parenting and leadership from some of the top coaches, administrators and executives across the landscape of American sports — each of whom have children of their own, and a wealth of relatable stories and insight to share.
Kolby Paxton (00:04.279)
One is the head football coach at West Virginia University. He's fresh off a nine win season and a victory in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Set to embark upon a 2024 campaign wherein West Virginia is by all accounts a legitimate college football playoff contender. The other seated to his left, my right, is his better half, a former kindergarten teacher, the CEO of the Brown family and the First Lady of the Mountaineers. It is an absolute privilege to welcome Neal and Brooke Brown.
to the Championship Parenting Podcast. Thank y 'all so much for making time for me.
Neal Brown (00:38.924)
Glad to be on. Appreciate you having us and this is a worthy endeavor. So I appreciate you embarking on it.
Kolby Paxton (00:45.911)
Absolutely. I always like to start with your upbringing. At some point I should probably switch that up just to keep the listeners on their toes. But I think so much of who we are as parents and leaders is a result of where we come from and what we experienced and how we were led. So Brooke, I'll start with you if that's all right. If you just want to kind of give me the 30 thousand foot view of how you grew up, where you're from you know, that sort of thing.
Neal Brown (01:11.054)
Sure, and thanks for having us again. So born and raised in Danville, Kentucky. My mom was a kindergarten teacher for 35 years. My dad was a high school teacher and a high school basketball coach. So raised by a coach and married one. Guess I didn't learn there. And then I also went into education myself. Like you said, I taught, I was an elementary school teacher for six years.
before having babies. And Neal and I actually went to high school together. His dad was my high school principal. So fun fact there. I think too it's important. Both sets of our grandparents were farmers. So I think that's an important piece of it too. Yeah, born and raised on a farm, but didn't go that route.
Kolby Paxton (01:54.635)
No, that's awesome. don't have to, that covers off on my next question on how y 'all meet. We've covered that. Brooke, I hope you stayed out of trouble though, if your principal became your father -in
Neal Brown (02:04.318)
I did and he likes to remind my children of that often. I never had to go see the
Kolby Paxton (02:11.159)
Neal, know, you know, I'm not gonna tell your story for you, but obviously a three sport athlete, a star athlete in high school, I believe the number two all time receiver in the state of Kentucky in high school. Again, everything you read on the internet has to be true. So that's fact, but just kind of talk me through Danville growing up and what the experience was like for
Neal Brown (02:35.982)
Yeah, we use that star very loosely. But I actually grew up in, I actually grew up in Bartstown, Kentucky until I was 12 and really 13. My mom's an elementary school librarian. My dad was an administrator. He was a coach and then a guidance counselor and then an administrator. And then his first principal job was at Boyle County High School, which is in Danville. And that's where I went to high school.
complete educational family, educational based family. Three out of my four grandparents were educators. And so my dad's dad was a coach. My dad's mother was a typing teacher. My mom's mother was a teacher at third grade for 40 plus years. And so, yeah, that's my background. I moved to Danville, attended Boyle County High School.
with Brooke, I played basketball, baseball, football, really blessed to be able to do all three all the way through high school. And really fortunate, I think both of us would agree of, I'm very proud of where we're from, and proud to call Danville our hometown.
Kolby Paxton (03:55.925)
Yeah, no question. Three kids, two girls and a boy. Can you just tell me a little bit about each of them?
Neal Brown (04:03.79)
Yeah, you wanna go? Sure. So our oldest daughter, Adeline, she is 16. So we have a new driver this summer, which has been equal parts terrifying, but also like a new convenient phase of life. So we've kind of eased into that this summer. So she is a rising junior in high school. She is our softball player. So she plays that year round. And then our second daughter, Ansley, is going to be an eighth grader
and she plays also plays softball and she's a big soccer player. So they both keep us very busy with those schedules. And then our son Dax is nine and he is going into third grade and he plays whatever's in season. So all the rec sports just finishing up some baseball this summer. He'll do flag football this fall. So they keep us very busy, but I wouldn't have it in any other way. We've also got it.
So we've got a one year old dog, ace, and that's like having another toddler. So that's the addition here in the last year.
Kolby Paxton (05:16.875)
Yeah, that puppy parenting is not for the faint of heart.
Neal Brown (05:21.558)
Yeah, we got out like naps and babysitters and we were really, you know, coasting and then let's get a dog. Why not? not? The kids wanted a dog, right? And they were going to do all the work. yeah. And so, but we have primary caregiver in Brooke and secondary caregiver in me. And so now that's where, that's where we're at with, with ACE.
Kolby Paxton (05:33.084)
always. Yeah, of course.
Kolby Paxton (05:44.071)
My my son's been asking for a new dog and I gotta tell him like your little sister is gonna have to be your pet for a little while guy because I we're trying to figure out how that works so I can't reintroduce a dog at the moment but that'll be coming y 'all are y 'all are ahead of me so I'm gonna continue to follow up with you for advice and at some point I'll ask you about raising a puppy again
Neal Brown (06:07.027)
Yeah, we put it off for a long time, but, you know, it's been
Kolby Paxton (06:12.969)
So, you know, Your two oldest are girls. listened to, was watching the receiver documentary on Netflix. Davante Adams said he was glad that he had a girl before he had his little boy because he felt like given his profession, he would have been too hard on a boy if that would have been his first born.
For me it's flipped so that will be a challenge, not to say that I'm the best receiver in NFL, but I got where he was coming from. I'm interested to hear your perspective on it though, just the differences in raising two girls versus a little boy. Take it wherever you want, but broadly speaking, also specific to just bringing them up in sports.
Neal Brown (06:59.256)
Yeah, I think it is different without question. I think probably unfairly the boys have because of what I do, the boys, our son probably has a little bit more expectations than our daughters. I'm not saying that's fair or this way it should be, but that's probably the accurate way to look at it. And he's only nine, so he's not old enough where he really understands that, which I'm very grateful for.
And I hope that's something he never does feel. But my assumption is probably coming. You know, we've got a 16 year old and 13 year old. And first of all, I'm a huge believer in what athletics does for you. Like, so our oldest Adeline, she's played basketball, volleyball and softball. Softball is our primary sport. That's what she's really focusing on now. You know, my hope is that she'll continue to pursue it.
I really think about like life experiences that I've had and Brooke can speak to this probably to a little lesser extent because her dad was a coach is I've had so many life experiences and I'm very proud of my educational background, but I'm also quick to know like life lessons. I probably learned more life lessons on a basketball court, a baseball field or a football field than I did sitting in a classroom. And so I'm really pleased
that all three of our kids are pursuing sports. And there's just so many things to learn and not just like the game, but hard work, how to deal with people, right? How to communicate. I think about just experiences you have because sports, it shouldn't involve any, it should be diverse. It should be where economics don't matter. Religion doesn't matter.
And it's one of the few areas now where that really doesn't come into effect. And so as far as being a sports parent, you know, that's a little bit different. I'm probably a lot calmer than people probably think that I'm going to be at my kids' games. I think people are always surprised at that. They're like, you guys are so calm and laid back. I'm like...
Neal Brown (09:23.766)
Y 'all, this is nobody's livelihood. We're just, learning to be on a team. I mean, we want to win, but I think they are always surprised at how we're both, you know, very, very calm. I'm like, it's not exactly the same as being on Mountaineer field.
Kolby Paxton (09:39.703)
Right, right. A few years ago when Chad Morris was a head coach at SMU, we were doing a short documentary on his program and I had the privilege of accompanying he and his wife. I don't even remember what little town in Texas we went to, but his son Chandler was playing a high school football game and I was really struck by their demeanor versus the demeanor of the rest of the parents and how calm they were as well.
And Brooke, you spoke to it. mean, do you think that that, I mean, you said as much, but if you could elaborate just on the context that the two of you have, having seen sports played at such a high level when livelihoods are on the line, and, you know, for parents that maybe don't have that context, mean, what is a tactful way to try to explain to somebody, like, relax? Because at the end of the day, this should be fun.
Neal Brown (10:38.488)
Well, and I think just remembering what you're trying to get out of playing that sport at that level. You're learning to be on a team. You're learning to be a good teammate. You're learning to work hard, try your best. I mean, those are things that we talk to our kids about. Again, that doesn't mean you don't want to win and you're not working hard to achieve that and to accomplish the most that you can. But, you know, and with our younger one, just, you know, learning how to
coached by someone else, learning how, you know, a different authoritative figure. I mean, those are all things, doing hard things, working through adversity for our older girls, time management. I always say they're better busy. Their moods are better, their sleep is better, their eating is better, their schoolwork is better. So you're learning time management too. Those are all life skills that don't have anything to do with the sport. And so I think just remembering to keep the important things, the most important things.
is kind of what how we try to strike that balance. Yeah, perspective is so important and Brooke did a great job. This she did way better job explaining that than I did earlier. But I think it's about why? Why are you doing this? We were very fortunate. Our oldest Adeline won a state championship and softball and it wasn't too long ago. I was talking to her and we were kind of talking about athletics just in general and and I think the topic of it when I was talking to her was
you've got to learn how to do hard things better, right? And given examples of what that looked like. And I made the comment to her in which I believe if all you have to show is a state championship and all your time in softball, that's not, that's been a failure. That's not what it's about. You should have all these life lessons that you should learn. And the other thing too
This is really important to me. I think Brooke understands like, and I try not to be weird about it, but I usually kind of get out of the way for our kids events. I very seldom everywhere a West Virginia logo, I very seldom, because I think it's really important that that's their stuff. You know, they have to be drawn in whether that's good or bad to, to what I do. And I want that to be about them.
Neal Brown (12:57.919)
And I think that's important. And we're trying to draw as little attention as possible because we want it to be about them and their teams, not about anything that we're
Kolby Paxton (13:09.505)
Yeah, that makes complete sense. you all feel like you're more or less the same in your approach? And I use the word same, not aligned, because I don't want to... You're clearly in step with one another, but just in your personality, your demeanor, your approach to parenting, are you more different or are you more complimentary, if you will, or are you more the
Neal Brown (13:35.064)
think probably complimentary is the best way to put it. mean, personality wise, we definitely have some yin and yang, but I think that's really important, especially juggling three kids and three personalities, and they need three different moms and three different dads in a million different scenarios. So for us to be exactly the same, I think would be tough. I mean, we definitely have strengths and weaknesses, and you'll definitely see
maybe one child's gravitating towards one of us, you know, over the other in that scenario, but it's gonna change like tomorrow or even later that day, it might change. And so, and raising teenagers, that's, you know, something that we're still learning. But I say often, I'm like, well, one of us has got to stay in tune, you know, like if you're the bad guy today, I need to be the good guy and we can trade later. So I think it's like complimentary.
Definitely Ying and Yang. And then you've got to show up as a different parent for different kids in different scenarios constantly. So the fact that we can play, you know, we each have different strengths and weaknesses, I think is probably a good thing. We certainly don't have it all figured out. Yeah. I think too that because of the time demands is Brooke, a lot of times is the lead on things, right? And if
you know, a situation or what one of our teenage daughters thinks is an emergency, right? And we use that again loosely. Like a lot of times she's the lead. And so I have to support that, you know, and I think it's really, really important when you are parenting, even if she doesn't necessarily agree with something that I've done or said, or if I don't agree with something she's done, we have to, we have
we can't show that to our kids. We've got to put forth a unified kind of front. And a lot of times she's the lead and I've got to be the support. And so it's hard. Like parenting is really, really hard. Like people, and especially with teenagers, and we're doing this for the first time. And so like we see goodbyes and we're asking questions to other parents a lot because...
Neal Brown (15:56.942)
It is, it's a really hard thing, but it's also, it should be the most rewarding thing that we do. And we say often to our 16 year old who you feel like sometimes that first one is a little bit of a guinea pig, but we're like, this is our first time parenting a 16 year old, but you often remind her that we were both 16 at one point. like, while it's new for us, like what she's going through maybe isn't new, you know, to us as parents,
Kolby Paxton (16:12.811)
Right.
Neal Brown (16:25.622)
Yeah, it's simultaneously like wonderful and frightening all at the same
Kolby Paxton (16:33.077)
Yeah, I mean, I'm already frightened and my oldest is three. So terrified, actually. I mean, one of the reasons I kind of the genesis of this show in general, right. And we talked about this a little bit before I record, but I wanted to bring folks like y 'all into a public forum to speak to parenting and leadership in general, because number one, you have established track records.
Neal Brown (16:38.03)
Enjoy that
Kolby Paxton (17:02.839)
as leaders. But also, like, right now we're speaking to, you know, you have to parent each of your three children differently. And I think a lot of us have at least been made vaguely aware of that concept. for you to, and correct me if if I'm wrong, but I mean, you got 100 guys that you're also kind of, you know, I mean, like, coach, I'd imagine the same way that you're talking about needing to support Brooke when she's the point person on
conflict or a discipline is a similar way that you have to approach your players with the rest of your coaching staff. I could ask a question and my question would just be how do you approach this with your student athletes? Are they a part of the family? Are they in the house a lot? Do the same kind of rules apply?
Neal Brown (17:53.358)
So we try. So we're getting, when guys come to us, they're really, it's in a, it's one of the reasons I like doing this because they're at a really influential time of their lives. They're coming here at 17, 18 years old and hopefully we're going to have them for three to five years. And so you get, you're getting them at a point where this is the first time they're kind of independent and they're figuring out things on their own.
And we don't ever, and I say we, I'm talking about we as our coaching staff, we're not ever trying to replace anybody's, you know, people use this father figure, you know, I don't really, that's not something that I necessarily believe in is what I do believe in is the student athlete that shows up here for the first day of summer school before his freshman year is what we.
are really blessed to do is take that young man from whatever background. So, whether it's a mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle, whether it's a guardian, whatever, they've got instilled in that person to that point. our job is to take that and grow that individual and to grow him from a character standpoint, continue that growing from a student standpoint where he's going to get a degree.
growing as a football player and take that and try to treat that young person just like you would one of your kids from a caring standpoint. And to me, it's about just invest like people always like if I was going to give parenting advice, my number one parenting advice would be parent by presence is you don't have it figured out. Like, you know, we're trying to we try to be vulnerable in front of her. And like I was I was telling my daughter the other day, like I don't understand.
Like I don't, I don't know. I don't really understand. I don't know how to deal with this situation. And like the vulnerability of it is, is, is important. But what we try to do with, with our players is invest time and really build relationships. And yeah, they're at our house some we're at dinners. We try to really, I've got a philosophy here in our building where I just walk around a lot, you know, a training room, locker room, cafeteria.
Neal Brown (20:20.492)
because some of those one -offs that aren't really necessarily planned, those are really important. And the more you get to know whether it's your kids or whether it's our players, is body language, facial expressions, like those things, like you can get a really good pulse on where a certain individual is, and you're able to kind of pick them up and hopefully help them. But that's our job is to take them from however, whatever...
point they're at when they get here and really grow and create a better them in each of those phases. But we're not trying to replace anybody, if that makes
Kolby Paxton (21:01.259)
Yeah, no, doesn't. I parenting by presence too, I've never heard it put like that. if I'm absorbing the teaching there, it's effectively, know, and correct me if I'm misunderstood, but as a father, as a mother, you don't always, it's not your job to have all the answers. It is your job to always show up, to always be there. Is that fair to say?
Neal Brown (21:24.504)
Yeah, I just, want our, I want our, and I don't want to speak for Brooke, but I want our three kids to remember when they look back to know that we were there at their sporting events, at their school stuff. And, you know, as simple as taking them to school, you know, that's a really important time. And the older our kids, especially our two daughters get,
that time in the car is so critical. And I want them to understand that there's a presence there. And even though we both may have a lot going on, like they're the most important thing. And I think you can't tell people that, you know, like to me, you've got to show, you know, that they're the most important and the best way to do that in my opinion is being present with them. And some of the ways
I think early in our marriage and early in starting to have children, you know, I think it's really important that as a spouse on the staff here, we believe in like, we kind of come alongside. My kids are here all the time. Our staff kids are here all the time. And I think it's really important as far as the development of our student athletes that they see their coaches as husbands and as fathers.
And that when we talk about a family atmosphere, it's not just lip service, we're actually living it out. And so sometimes our family time might be here in the building or after a practice, especially when our kids were younger and their schedules allowed it more. And so I think just demonstrating that, being present, I think it's important that it also, that family dynamic, and we sort of bring that to football and.
That's really all our kids know. And so they are a part of what dad is doing here as well. And I think that's important for our student athletes to get to see that also. Yeah. And by no means, we don't have it all figured out. But what I hope is for our players that we're modeling the type of parenting or we're giving them a good model or good example for them to follow. Right.
Neal Brown (23:47.822)
Like yesterday, yesterday our 13 year old daughter Anzalee, she was in soccer camp here at WVU. She finished soccer camp and she went and she was here. She had lunch with our players. Her and I had lunch right with our players. She was in the office like, you know, the day before our nine year old son was here. And so they see that and it's not that
Ainsley was here because I didn't have time to take her home and Brooke had Dax, right? And so it's not like we were making a point. I want to show, I want to show our players that I'm going to spend time with my daughter. Now that's not the point, but she was here and I hope that they're going, there's coach. You know, he's taking time to have daughter with, or have lunch with his daughter. Hey, that's important. You know, and subconsciously they're thinking, all right,
maybe down the road they're going, yeah, I need to make sure I take time when I have kids or whatever. That's kind of the hope just through modeling the right kind of behavior.
Kolby Paxton (24:57.643)
Yeah, I want to ask you a question really kind of the inverse of that, right? So your players see you as a parent through that lens and having the family around the program and around the athletes. Just like very quick story about my son, because again, he's three. I couldn't be any greener at this, but I'm trying to be good at it.
Something I've noticed, he loves baseball. I mean, loves all sports. I've successfully indoctrinated him to all the things, but he loves baseball. Took to it really quickly. We're 15 minutes away from the ballpark in Arlington. So we go to ranger games all the time. He watches it on TV with me. A a few days ago, I took him to the, home run Derby and I thought dad of the year, right? Like this is, this is incredible.
and it was, we had an awesome time, but then one day later, he's watching whatever, I don't know, the pregame for the all star game or whatever. he, dad, let's, I want to, I want to hit, let's go in the backyard. want to hit. And he's doing great. but he's hitting ground balls. And after about four or five, he's, he's over it to me. He's like visibly upset because he wants to hit home runs now because he's seen.
pros hit home run after home run and he thinks that's the objective. I tell the story just to relate it to the way and I guess I'm really asking more specific to Dax because he plays football and these guys, you know, in some ways sort of big brother figures to him. I would imagine how do you approach parenting through failure with Dax as it relates to all sports but football in particular whenever his perception of being a football player is watching some of the best players in a country.
on a daily basis who typically are having success at doing the thing that they want to be doing. Advice for the idiot rookies like me who are trying to figure out how to not make their kid hate the sport, but also expose them to great players.
Neal Brown (27:11.35)
Yeah, so I think he's nine. And so he's starting to figure it out. We have really made an effort not to push him. He loves sports. He loves Legos. He loves trucks. And they're all about equal. And we try to expose him to a bunch of different things. went to, he was in our art camp last week. He's doing baseball. He's playing baseball right now. He's in a baseball camp.
this week and then next week he's going to engineering camp and like, so we're trying to expose him to all these things. But for sports, what we've tried to do is with him, cause it is, it is different, is I want him to have fun and I want him to learn. And if he wants to go practice, if he wants to do stuff, we do that. I'll ask him if he wants to, like, do you want to hit? You want to go throw? And if he says,
Yeah, then we do it. If he says no, I kind of let it go. But I want him to really enjoy the sport right now. And so he'll continue to play, whether it's flag football, basketball, baseball, I want him to really enjoy it. And when he does fail, right, he's got a real carefree spirit. And so like he I say this and I say it funny, but it's true. Like he lives his best life, man. Like he's like, he's he's having a great time. He gets to do some fun stuff.
He has a really good demeanor about him. And he doesn't really get, he's really even killed. He doesn't get too high and he doesn't get too low. And so, but he had a baseball game and this was, and the season hasn't gone exactly the way he would like wins and losses. And there was one game where he was particularly upset and we were riding down the road. And my point with him
I was trying to tell this to a nine -year -old and the best way I can talk to a nine -year -old is like, you have to earn the right to be upset if the outcome's not what you want. So like if you're highly invested, then you've earned the right to be upset. If you haven't put in the work, then you haven't earned the right to be upset. And so what my message to him was is,
Kolby Paxton (29:31.467)
I love that.
Neal Brown (29:35.98)
Hey, we're playing this to have fun, to get better. But if you're really going to start caring about the outcome, then your level of investment has to increase. And so that's an example. I don't know if that's exactly what you were kind of looking for, but if not, you can follow up with it. But that's an example of how we're trying to handle with DAX.
Kolby Paxton (30:03.445)
Yeah, no, I mean, think that's first of all, great, great response. That's gold. And what I'm hearing from you a lot there is the emphasis on being process oriented over results oriented, right? Trust the climb, which look, everybody has not everybody. A lot of programs have a version of that, but I've always been drawn to trust the climb with your program because it emphasizes being process oriented, which
Neal Brown (30:17.229)
Thank you.
Kolby Paxton (30:30.519)
A challenging thing for any of us to learn and I found it very difficult to teach, especially with a small child. So, you you really effectively spoke to it, but if you have anything to add again for the novices out there on how you've implemented it, I mean, you implement it with student athletes who are, you know, 18 to 22 on an annual basis. But in terms of applying that to your children, is trust to climb on the walls in the house or how have we?
How have you approached
Neal Brown (31:00.162)
Yeah, they I get I get client they they get on me all the time about don't talk to me like I'm one of your players. The coach speak sometimes he'll bring that coach speak home. I'm like, whoa, buddy, drop that at the door. Well, sometimes it applies, but with teenage daughters, very uncool, you know, that's that's don't get choked up at that. They're going to think you're pretty soon too. But although you got to sneak it
Kolby Paxton (31:22.612)
I choked on my water on that one, that was good.
Neal Brown (31:29.39)
because it actually usually does apply. And especially the older our kids get, they've got the screens up here in the facility, which I think it says, better your best right now. And so like, don't think I don't like file that away and pull that out in a parenting scenario for sure. But yeah, they joke, they're like, the coach speak. And then I have the kindergarten teacher speak too. So they got it coming from all angles. They, yeah, I think too is,
Kolby Paxton (31:54.616)
I love
Neal Brown (31:59.598)
with young players. And I'm in full transparency, like I'm not a good, bad player coach. So like I coach, most of the people on our team were selected. They were, I think it's less than like 1 % play, powerful football of all high school. So I'm coaching really good players. I'm not a very good, like teaching extremely young people.
I don't necessarily have the patience. So it's, maybe a better teacher in a lot of ways, going back and trying to teach our daughters and our son, like some base sports stuff. And Brooke will remind me, like he doesn't understand that. Well, that's back to the complimentary thing. I'm like, okay, I have a background in early childhood education, so I could.
I'm like, you say it and I'll kind of, I don't want to say dumb it down, but I'll bring it down to their level. So it's like, okay, we're a good team in that way. It's funny how that works. Again, strengths and weaknesses. Yeah. And I think, yeah. And I think so too, is like the one thing that I've learned and I'm not perfect by this by any means is one of the first things like I always try to all three of our kids, the minute they get in the
Kolby Paxton (33:10.593)
That's it.
Neal Brown (33:26.466)
like after a practice or after a game is, man, I had so much fun watching you. Like I really enjoyed watching you. And then if they don't say anything about the game, then I don't. On the rare occasion, I'll ask my two daughters, son doesn't understand this, I'll ask my two daughters, like if I don't think they gave their best, I'll say, did you compete? And they'll know what that means.
Like did you compete? But almost. Every practice every game like I want to say, hey, I really enjoyed watching you. And then I just kind of let it be and if they don't want to talk about it, then we don't talk about it. Yeah, and if they if they follow up, you know, maybe there's a window of opportunity to to get something in. But yeah, I think it's it's really important that they just understand.
And that's from 16 to nine. Yeah. Like, I loved watching you play. Like, did you have fun? Like, you know, those things are still of the utmost importance no matter what level you're competing. Yeah, and I think, you have to really... We live in a world where everything's comparison -based. And so, I try to always take it back. You know, like, no, we're
we're doing, we're not comparing ourselves against anybody else. we're comparing, it's you, it's about you. Like, how are you doing? You know, did you do your best? Did you compete? Like all those things, it's got to be about you. not, it can't be a comparative deal. I have to be careful. I think this is good advice for all coaches. You have to be really careful of always siding with the coach too. Like, because just in general, like,
the natural tendency is like, I don't know why we did this or I don't know like playing. don't know why I didn't do this or, and if you're constantly in coach and you're defending the coach, then they don't open up to you. And this was learned behavior because I was guilty of, and my dad did it to me too. My dad was the principal. And so like, if I ever got in the car,
Neal Brown (35:45.494)
And I was a know -it -all teenager too. Like if I ever got in the car and like, you know, I don't know why I should have played more. don't, you know, like he was always really hard, like, this is why. And, you know, because he's looking at it because he's in charge of the school. So that's one of his employees and former coach, right. And so early on as a parent, when our kids first started getting involved and they were old enough to like voice things, like I was the coach defender and Brooke was like, Hey, you can't do that. Or they're not, they're not going to talk to you.
And so now I listen and if it's appropriate, I'll give a perspective from a coach, but if not, I'll just kind of listen and or divert it and talk about something else. Well, you sort of have to take off the coach hat and put on the dad hat. And that's something that Neal's always been really good at is sometimes dropping some of that at the door. And then, you you're just dad when we're at home and that's hard.
It's hard not to bring some of that home, but definitely being conscientious of
Kolby Paxton (36:49.623)
Yeah, makes sense. Y 'all have been wonderful. I could have done this all day. Coach, I know we got to get you out of here. So we'll cut it short, but I'll be knocking on your door again, because I've got many, many more questions for the two of you. Fantastic parents and leaders of young people by all accounts. So Neal Brown, Brooke Brown, thank you both so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your time.
Neal Brown (37:14.232)
Well, we appreciate it. We definitely don't have it figured out. So, you know, I think that it's an ongoing process. I don't think it ever for sure stops. And we're learning just like the next people. But, Kobe, I think this is a great venture. Glad to be part of it. Wish you the best.