By Gail Wood
For this one particular game, against this particular coach, Ron Brown, the high school boys basketball coach with the third best winning record in state history, admits he always has an uneasiness about this game.
It’s not, he’ll tell you, a game he looks forward to. Not because Brown, Centralia High School’s boys basketball coach since 1961, isn’t prepared or feels over matched. With over 1,600 games as a coach, he’s used to challenges, used to being the underdog or the favorite.
But even with all his scouting, all his pre-game film watching of the opponent, this is one thing Brown can’t adjust to – coaching against his son, Tim Brown, the North Thurston High School coach. For Dad, it’s a no-win situation.
“I’d rather not coach against him,” Ron said. “If you happen to win, you feel good for your team. But you feel bad for your son.”
For 53 years, Brown, wearing a suit and tie at every game, has loved coaching, loved the excitement of the game. Typically, he’ll call his son after a game and talk strategy, Xs and Os. But this is one time Ron doesn’t call his son after the game.
“Someone is going to win and someone is going to lose,” Tim said. “It’s no fun to be on the wrong end of it.”
But this year’s game – a 54-42 North Thurston win – had a jubilant can’t-lose twist. Dad and son were glad to be going up against each other another time. That’s because Ron had quadruple bypass surgery on his heart in October, about two weeks before turnouts.
But Ron bounced back and didn’t miss a game or a practice.
“I’m doing great,” Ron said. “Feeling very well, not restricted really.”
Amazingly, not even heart surgery can quiet Ron’s contagious enthusiasm. Having a purpose, a reason to get off the couch, helped speed Ron’s recovery.
“Although people thought I was crazy to focus on basketball, I think I didn’t have time to feel sorry for myself,” Ron said. “I was focused and looking forward to doing something I enjoy doing, really love doing.”
At the team’s first practice back in November, Ron sat in the bleachers, watching. A friend sat next to him to bat away any errant basketballs speeding Ron’s way.
“I didn’t feel great that first week, or so,” Ron said. “But I have a great staff that carried out the practices.”
Tim played guard for his dad in the early 1980s. Yet, now one game out of the season, Tim has to try to defeat the coach who taught him how to shoot a basketball as a young boy. Tim’s mom, Janet Brown, pulls for both husband and son. She doesn’t take sides.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Janet said with a chuckle, pledging neutrality. “I don’t want to put my foot in it. I can’t win with that one.”
With Ron and Tim combining for nearly 900 wins, they are undoubtedly the winningest father-son combination in state history. They have coached for a combined 73 years. Ron, with a 7-3 record this season, has 686 career wins. His players have posted his victory count on a wall at school in a countdown to 700 wins.
But don’t ask them what their record is against each other. They don’t know. However, Tim does know that he gets into trouble with his siblings – two sisters and a brother – if his team wins. But since his siblings are Centralia grads, that loyalty has alma mater connections.
“They don’t like it when we win,” Tim said. “The only one in the family who bleeds a little North Thurston purple is my mom.”
Ron isn’t offended.
“The rest of the family accuse her of pulling for her son,” Ron said with a chuckle. “I say I don’t mind. The rest of the family, the kids, all root for me. They love their brother. But they’re Tigers and they support their dad.”
Dad and son didn’t square off until 2002, eight years after Tim got hired at North Thurston, his first head coaching job. That’s because the two schools were in different leagues. Now, North Thurston is in the 3A Narrows League and Centralia is in the 2A Evergreen League. That limits the dad-son rivalry to one game a year.
“It was exciting to play him when I first got the head coaching job,” Tim said. “I wanted to play him. But I could tell he was a little not wanting to. When we played, then I understood. Then I realized one of us is going to go away not feeling very good.”
Ron, who became Centralia’s head coach when John F. Kennedy was president and gas was 25 cents a gallon, trails only Ed Pepple (952) and Pat Fitterer in career victories in Washington with just under 700 wins. While the objective has always been to win, neither father nor son lose scope of who they’re playing when their teams meet.
When the game is over, they’ll meet on the court, cordially shake hands and say, “Good game.” But when the game starts, they’re like any other high school coach – determined to win.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Tim said. “There’s no hard feelings. You have a job to do and you try to do it.”
It’s not like father and son aren’t close. Tim named his 12-year-old son, Ron.
After playing for him in high school and now against him as an opposing coach, Tim is familiar with his dad’s style of coaching. He even has some similarities to his dad’s coaching style. Both are calm. Tim might be on his feet a little more, pacing the sideline. And Ron thinks his son might substitute a little more than he does. But that might have to do more with depth than coaching philosophies.
After high school, Tim played at Centralia Community College for Bob Reimer and then for Dean Nicholson at Central Washington University.
“Three hall of fame coaches,” Tim said with a chuckle. “You’d think I’d have learned something and that I’d be a lot better coach than what I am.”
That’s something his dad would say. Humble. Father like son.
