Bulldogs’ leader brings more than 20 years of coaching
experience
Morgan Hill – The new Sobrato head football coach, Dan Brown, doesn’t have time to dwell on the Bulldogs’ short controversial past, he has his eyes firmly focused on the future.
Brown can’t hide his enthusiasm when he talks about his plans and goals for the football program at Sobrato. With more than 20 years of football coaching experience, he sees the job as head coach of the Bulldogs as an “outstanding opportunity” and that the program’s “potential growth is unbelievable.”
On Thursday, for the first time Brown met with about 90 student-athletes interested in playing football for the Bulldogs during a lunch meeting to outline his expectations for the program and the upcoming season, as well as his football philosophy. The new coach was encouraged by the larger than expected turn out and said that he, a few of his coaches and the athletes had a real good interaction and there were a lot of good questions asked.
“There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm. There’s a sense the kids are hungry here to be part of something big. There’s an energy here with the kids about football and they have a lot to prove,” said Brown. “When the meeting ended the kids parted on a ‘Bulldog’ break, which was a good thing to see. It shows a little spirit, pride and ownership. We told them ‘We’re just the coaches, its up to you’.”
Brown, who was a Division II Kodak All-American safety at Cal State Hayward, comes to Sobrato from Wilcox High School in the Santa Clara Unified School District where he was the Chargers’ defensive coordinator and taught P.E. for the past five years. Prior to coaching at Wilcox, Brown coached at Del Mar, where he was the offensive coordinator, Milpitas, Independence high schools. He also has college coaching experience with Cal State Hayward (now called Cal State East Bay) and San Jose City College.
“I’ve taken some things from everyone I’ve coached with, which I think is a strength,” said Brown. “We are going to have a good, experienced staff. We’re retaining two coaches from last season, Joseph Bagley and Jake Gutierrez, and athletic director Dennis Martin is going to coach as well.”
Brown will also be bringing in Wilcox’s offensive coordinator Rusty Bose, who played Division I football at UNLV and as Sobrato’s new defensive coordinator, Brown’s brother Norman Brown, who was a junior college All-American at San Jose City College and played at San Jose State.
“We’re in the process of filling in the complete staff. We have seven paid slots and I would like to fundraise for two more. So far we have some highly experienced people,” said Brown. “We are also trying to get some on-campus teacher-coaches because I think that’s essential.”
Brown added, “We might take it on the chin the first year or two, but if we have a good staff and get the kids to commit to what we’re all about we’ll be successful.”
Brown believes that athletics are all about character in the end and stresses that he is a teacher-coach. As a teacher-coach, Brown says it’s really all about developing kids to become good young men and gentlemen.
“I value the development of the whole student-athlete. To promote the winning atmosphere the one thing I believe in is it’s going to be through the coaches instilling commitment, honesty and pride that’s going to bring out their character,” said Brown. “Kids will follow leadership and people they can trust.”
One of the biggest challenges Brown foresees for the upcoming season is getting the athletes to believe in him and his staff and the direction they are going in.
So far Brown has put together an extremely experienced group of coaches and expressed to the athletes in the meeting that “We’re going to win by the things we do and how we work. We know high school football and the winning will come.”
For the Sobrato football program to be successful Brown said, “Chemistry is real critical. It’s not necessarily about Xs and Os. It’s how the kids get along with one another and how the staff relates to the students. There’s got to be a form of respect and an open form of communication.”
To achieve the respect and communication Brown stresses that he is an open-door guy and has been told he has a good rapport with kids.
“We’re here to work with everybody, we’re not playing any favorites,” explained Brown. “We want to develop kids and we encourage kids to play other sports. That gives them a way to feel connected. I’ve always valued athletics.”
“We will build a program here and in turn I think they’ll have a good experience,” said Brown. “It’s a work in progress to get the kids fully committed, because we are going to roll with summer workouts.”
The Bulldogs football team will be hard at work during the spring and summer to gear up for their first season in the Blossom Valley Athletic League, C division. Brown and his coaches will be opening up the weight room before school at 6:30am for weight training. The players will only have one week off between the end of school and the start of summer workouts and then another week off prior to double-days.
“We’re moving 100 mph about the upcoming season,” said Brown. “I’m really looking forward to seeing who shows up to the weight training workouts in the morning.”
Brown is excited about the opportunity he has at Sobrato and is ready to tackle the challenges ahead of him. According to Brown, Martin and Sobrato principal Rich Knapp have made him feel very comfortable and he left the meeting with the athletes feeling positive.
“Since I’ve been hired a lot of things have just fallen into place,” said Brown.
