Centralia’s Brown hits milestone

CENTRALIA, Wash. – How’s the air up there?

Centralia boys basketball coach Ron Brown reached some pretty rarefied air when his Tigers knocked off Timberline on Jan. 24, giving Brown his 600th career win – all at Centralia.

In Brown’s 45-year career as Tigers head coach, he has a 600-417 record, putting him in fourth place on the all-time list of Washington’s winningest boys basketball coaches.

Going into this season, according to the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association, there were 73 coaches with 300 or more wins.

Brown could realistically take over third place if the season ends well.

Bob Bafus, who coached most of his 33 years at Colfax, is in third place with 604 wins.

The retired Lyle Patterson of Naselle is also a likely target for Brown soon, as the fiery former Comets mentor has 623 wins.

First place will likely always stay in the hands of Mercer Island legend Ed Pepple, who is still going strong after 45 years. He’s left everyone in the dust and leads handily with a whopping 894 wins.

Brown’s 600th win came with a team that typifies his coaching ability – one without an abundance of talent, but that is in the thick of the Pacific-9 League race.

As always, Brown, 71, took his latest milestone in stride and with humility.

“The first thing I think about when someone brings it up is longevity,” said Brown. “The fact that I’ve stayed with it so long. Most coaches now stay with it 10 or 15 years and move on. But I enjoy it so much … the teaching and coaching … the time has really gone by quickly.”

Two of Brown’s bigger coaching highlights were his State AA championships in 1979 and 1981.

The ‘79 title team included the likes of Bob Peters, Bobby Wollan, Todd Wilmovsky, Greg LeDuc and Paul Coty, to name a few.

The ‘81 group was led by Andy Lucier, Jay Roberts and a German exchange student named Detlef Schrempf.

Brown said he has no regrets staying at Centralia for the long haul. He had chances to move on, but fell in love with the town.

“Once we settled in, we loved it,” he said. “It’s a great place to raise a family.”

He could have advanced into the college ranks, but high school is the game Brown loves.

“I didn’t want the college scene,” he said. “The travel, the recruiting – it would have taken away too much from what I wanted with family life.”

Brown has two sons in coaching – Tim is the head coach at North Thurston, and David is an attorney, and also an assistant coach with the Centralia College women.

Some of Brown’s coaching brethren are in awe of what the Tigers mentor has done.

“In this day and age, it’s truly amazing to get 600 wins,” said Onalaska coach Dennis Bower, who coached against Brown during a short stint as W.F. West coach, and who is also on the all-time list in 28th place at 382-150 in 21 years.

“No. 1, not many people stay in the business that long, with all the pressure and workload,” Bower said. “And then to do it all at one school just boggles my mind.”