Joe Brown has been coaching
baseball for more than 20 years.
This year, Coach Brown is taking on a new challenge here in central
Vermont.
After
two seasons with the Sanford Mainers, Brown has found himself back in the New
England Collegiate Baseball League managing the Mountaineers.
“I’m
exited to have him aboard,” said lefty pitcher Nick Naradowy. “He brings a very positives attitude to
the team.”
Aside
from coaching in the NECBL, Brown is the head coach at SUNY Cortland. Brown has led Cortland to a combined
479-131-3 with 13 NCAA Div. III tournament appearances. In 20012 Brown had lots of success
leading the Red Dragons to a 41-9-1 record with a SUNYAC title.
Brown has been successful in the NECBL as
well. He won a championship in
Sanford. Sanford actually lost to
Vermont in the semi-finals as well when Brown was coaching there.
Perhaps
the most impressive fact about Brown, however, is that his .781 winning percentage (prior to the 2012 season) was
the best of any active coach nationally (NCAA Div. I, II or III) with at least
10 years experience, and the third-best all-time among all Div. III coaches with
10 years as a head coach.
Brown
has been successful in the NECBL as well.
He won a championship in Sanford.
Sanford actually lost to Vermont in the semi-finals as well when Brown
was coaching there.
“That tells you that I have been in
the same place for a long time,” said Brown. “Coaches get way to much credit
and way to much criticism in all sports.”
Brown comes off as one of the most
humble managers that I have ever met.
He doesn’t credit his incredible winning percentage to himself, but GM
Brian Gallagher says that his high winning percentage is because of the work
that Brown puts in on a day-to-day basis.
After
Brown finished his two years in Sanford, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to come
back to the NECBL once he received the call from Gallagher. But once Brown had time to make up his
mind he decided to come to Vermont for the 2013 season. “It’s a unique opportunity,” said
Brown, who was afraid that the new job might take away from his recruiting and
other jobs at Cortland. “Being a head coach, I didn’t know if I could or should
take the job,” said Brown.
But the decision for The
Mountaineers to bring in brown wasn’t so hard. “He’s a really high caliber coach,” said Gallagher. “He was
really the guy we wanted.” And according
to Gallagher, Brown has come through so far just fine. He told me that “(Brown) has been a
great coach so far.”
Brown’s
love for the game of baseball began long before his coaching days. He grew up in Maine and then graduated
from Ithaca College in New York.
He played baseball there.
“I wasn’t the best player on my team by any stretch of the imagination,
which meant that I had to work hard.” Said Brown. Working hard is exactly what he did and after graduation
from Ithaca with a degree in Science and Physical Education, Brown’s playing
days were over but he moved right on to coaching.
A
few years went by and Brown had made his mark in college baseball. He then, in 2006, was inducted into the
Canandaigua Academy Athletic Hall of
Fame. After that, Brown stayed in
the game as a coach and had moved up to become a head coach. Currently, Brown has finished his 16th
year as a coach in college baseball.
Another
interesting thing about Brown is that he always brings in former players of his
as his assistant coaches. “They are guys that know me. They know what I expect
of them,” Brown told me after I asked him about the decision to bring back his
former players as coaches. This
time Brown brought in Justin Fredenburg Travis Ratliff.
As
for his coaching personality, just as LHP Naradowy put it, He is very positive. That style works well for GM Brian
Gallagher. “(Joe’s positive
attitude is) big. Every team go team goes through losing steaks but it’s the
one’s who have trust in eachother who get through those streaks.”
Joe
Brown and the Mountaineers picked up their first win on Sunday over the
Saratoga Brigade. They are back in
action today trying to get their revenge from the North Adams Steeplecats who
blew them out on opening day 8-0 in five innings.
Follow Jasper Goodman on twitter: @Jasper_Goodman
Check out Jasper’s
blog:
www.goodmansports.blogspot.com
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