Blinders Block you from the Blessings with Coach Steve Brown

Today's Play: Olympian and educator Steve Brown shares the incredible story of how sport shaped his identity—from a fearful 10-year-old in D.C. to representing Trinidad in the Olympic Games. Steve reflects on the hurdles he faced—literally and figuratively—and the unexpected people and institutions who showed up for his dream. He reminds us that keeping an open heart, and open mind, just might be the key to discovering the support you didn’t know you had.

Today's Coach: Olympian Steve Brown is the founder of the Steve Brown Academy and creator of the Complete Your Square curriculum, designed to support student-athletes in athletics, academics, character, and service. He competed in the 2000 Olympic Games for Trinidad & Tobago after a standout multi-sport career at Wake Forest. With degrees from Wake, Duke, and UPenn, Steve brings over 15 years of experience in independent school admissions and leadership development.

To learn more about Bryant College Coaching, and download our new e-book, click here or go to www.bryantcollegecoaching.com

Picking Teams: A Playbook for Parents is produced by: Amy Bryant and Sasha Melamud

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Transcript

Hi everybody, we’ve got a treat for you today. I’m chatting with Steve Brown, Olympian from the 2000 Olympics.  This is part 1 of our conversation - have a listen.  

Amy Bryant  2:23  

 Let's start by telling the listeners about your journey, because sport has been such an important component of your life, and it's taken you now to this stage where you're about to graduate with your PhD after doing a dissertation on sport, right? I mean, you're coming full circle here to give us the rundown, start to finish. I know we could talk about that for hours, but, you know, give me the summary. 

Steve Brown  2:53  

I’ll give the summary. So growing up Washington, DC, you know, 70s, 80s, so I was just like any other typical kid, we played the sport in season. So in the fall, we played pickup football, and then the winter, we play basketball behind someone's home. And then the spring, I was actually afraid to play baseball, afraid of getting hit. So eventually that turned into to track and field. So my first organized sport was football for an actual team, and the guys in the neighborhood had to talk me into going out for full tackle football. I was 10 years old, and I was scared to death. I didn't want to go out there, I didn't want to get hit, but they convinced me to go out there. And I was a decent athlete in my neighborhood. I don't know if you're familiar with what we affectionately call the DMV, which is Washington, DC, northern Maryland and Southern Virginia. So that DMV is right? And there's a ton of talent that has come out of that area in all different sports. Caleb Williams, for example, went to my high school. Right quarterback now is Chicago bear so so try it out with the football team. Made it my first organized team after that was play a little basketball and some Catholic leagues and things like that. There are a lot of parochial schools in Washington, DC, but my first track team, organized team was a summer track, and I was 12 years old. Went to Gonzaga college, high school, Jesuit High School, few blocks down from the nation's capital, all boys school, again, tons of talent. My father didn't allow me to play football in the fall of ninth grade, I had to establish myself as a student first. So I'm a proud I played left bench on our ninth grade basketball team. Very proud and very excited about that role. Somebody had to watch the water. So the next year, I was, you know, JV football, but didn't really play much. Started running track my sophomore year for the school, and I wasn't fast enough to run the one or the two. He said I wasn't strong enough to run the four and eight, so he put me in the hurdles. I was like, dude, nobody ever runs the hurdles. I literally fell every other race. Literally, that 10th grade year, I didn't play varsity football until my senior year, again, talent in front of in front of me. And then inevitably, I realized, over time, you'll improve on things. And so in the hurdles, let me back up in 102 100, you might have 40 or 50 kids in the hurdles. You'll have like 15. I remember one time I got third place, and there were three people in the race, but I scored, yeah, everybody contributes to something. I was also young going into school. I was a January, interestingly enough, January 6 baby and and so my senior years, when I finally got to play football, organized football, or quarterback, was a two time All American. So I got noticed by a few schools. Wake Forest was the only division one school, and then they were Delaware, Boston, just three other schools, and that was the only attention I received in terms of an athletic scholarship or college recruitment, if you will. And I wanted to run track. I didn't want to play football again because they hit too hard. But because of my age, I was 17 when I graduated. I didn't turn 18 to my second semester at Wake Forest. So I chose Wake Forest when I walked on campus the fall of my freshman year. I hated it. Why? Because I was a man and the coaches didn't know it, and I was a man and the girls didn't know it, and school was a little harder. So if there was a transfer portal, I was going to be in it, right? Not that I was going to tension, right? And I was waiting for my father to talk me out of it. He was like, I'm behind you 100% of whatever decision you make. And I was like, for real. He's like, Yeah, and if you I know we received some scholarship dollars, but if we need to find some somewhere else, we'll, we'll find a way to get that done. And I was like, for real. But then the advice he gave me, I still use to this day, he said, Who's to say the next place is going to be better? Right?

Amy Bryant  7:42  

The grass isn’t always greener, is it? 

Steve Brown  7:44  

No and it really shifted my mindset, because I was blaming everyone else for my circumstances, and I and I had a lot more control over my destiny. So thankfully, was red shirted that first year. The next four years, I started every single game except one. I was on a full athletic scholarship to play football, but actually walked on to the track team and became their first track all American in school history. And what event, 110 meter high hurdles. And was fortunate again to graduate with a math degree. There was only two math majors on the football team, wow. So the other math major, he's a vice provost at Appalachian State. No way. He always says half the math majors on the football team were Olympians.

Amy Bryant  8:37  

You're right for our listeners. For your listeners, Steve was an Olympian. I'm sure he's getting to that too. So just

Steve Brown  8:44  

We get into that, we get to that. So I tried out with the Chicago Bears as a free agent. I literally got the snot knocked out of me by Mike, all Hall of Fame linebacker, Mike, singer Terry, true story in practice, wow. Played, played a few preseason games, was released, and went up to Canada and played for the Hamilton Tiger cats for that remainder of the season in 91 but was cut in 92 so to give you the history of the Olympics, was I tried out in 88 I was a two time US Junior National Champion, and was fourth In the world at 18, and second in the world at 19,

Amy Bryant  9:24  

incredible. 

Steve Brown  9:27  

So 88,I tried out for the Olympic team and didn't get out of the first round. 92 I was released from Canada, so we weren't prepared for the trials in 92 so my mother and I went as spectators when I was at Wake Forest, Wake Forest had a total of four hurdles. And I don't know if you're familiar with an indoor race, but you couldn't even run an indoor race. Indoor race is typically five hurdles. So yeah, I would, I would go to go over those four hurdles like they would know tomorrow. But I was fortunate to be introduced to Doctor Leroy Walker. He was North Carolina Central President Emeritus. He coached the first Olympic gold medalist back to back gold medalist Lee Calhoun in 1956 and 1960 so he was in Durham. I would drive two hours to Durham on my own time to train with him. And then he put me in touch with his protege, who became my Olympic coach, Charles Foster he was Olympian in 76 world, former world record holder in the hurdles. So now I'm going two hours to Chapel Hill to watch film with him. Wow. And so I don't know if how I try not to use too many curse words on here, but I remember watching film with him, because here I am a competing athlete within the same conference, and one day I asked him, he ended up actually coaching Allen Johnson for a hot minute before Curtis fry came in after. So I said, Coach, can I ask you a question? He's like, Yeah, I see. Are you concerned with me beating your guys? He's like, he's like, No, I trained my guys to kick your ass, so I'm not worried about you. Excuse My French. But he said, If I could you ask for help, but if I could help you, I would in which he did so. Doctor Walker became the first African American president of the US Olympic Committee. He oversaw a lot of the Tanya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan issue, for example. So they relocated here as the organizing committee for the Olympic Games in 92 and I follow coach foster down here in 93 when I was released in 92 I became a full time high school math teacher, and I said, I'm going to devote the next four years to train to make the 9016 so fast forward everything that started teaching at the Lovett school, okay, which was a private K through 12. There was pre K through 12 school here in Atlanta in Buckhead.

Amy Bryant  12:22  

Were you teaching math? 

Steve Brown  12:24  

I was an upper school math teacher, a Wake Forest alum, had his two daughters at Lovett, Rick Decker was his name, and so that's how I got introduced to love it. So again, another true story. I shared this on all of my admission tours. One of the claim to fame of love it was that we denied Dr King's oldest son, Martin the third if you were to visit the Center for center, center for civil and human rights down in the Olympic Park, yeah, the king papers are on display throughout the year on the first floor. And so you would see the letter from the love of school in 1963 expressing, this is our first Negro application, and we don't want to serve as a test case. And Dr King and Coretta Scott King wrote back, we don't want to serve as a test case. We just want a parochial school for our children. But that was a very volatile time for all schools, right, all the offspring for civil rights leaders. And so a lot of people don't realize that a lot of civil rights children had to be removed from both public and private schools because they couldn't ensure their safety, right? So there are a lot of folks today like you did not. Dr King Sung. It was a different time. It was, it was a, it was a nobody wanted to be in the room to make that decision, right, right? Um, fast forward. So when I arrived in 1993 I'm the only black male teacher in the entire school pre K

Amy Bryant  13:58  

wow, wow. 93

Steve Brown  14:02  

right? I wasn't the first, but for some reason, I was the only teacher that okay, okay, male teacher, so my ignorance and my prejudices, I was raised not by my parents, but I was raised by my peers, folks who look like you. Don't look at the people who look like me, right? And throughout my life those there were times where that that myth was dispelled, that Gonzaga was dispelled at Wake Forest, and I get to to love it the first day. I'm there, everybody, welcome to me with open arms. I'm a football coach. I'm there prior to school starting. The football coaches welcome me, then the guys, then the trainers, the young ladies, everybody welcome me with open arms. So I was my ignorance and my prejudices had to change, right? Going into the Olympic year, I wasn't even ranked in the top 50 in the US, right? So I tried out in 88 wasn't ready in 92 it's 95 there's nothing on paper that says I'm going to make the the Olympic team. So I was going to quit again, right? Um, so I applied to business schools, got into Duke University of Chicago, had a full ride to Cornell, and I was going to give up my dream. And the Head of School at the love school at the time, was a gentleman by the name of Dr Jim Hendrix, and he said, What do you think about love? It sponsoring your efforts, right? So teaching five classes was a full time love they cut me back to three. Still paid me a full time salary so I could train more. Got me a membership at the local Athletic Club. It's a private club called the Vinings club near the school, had fundraising activities. Had Steve Brown T shirts made. I have one hanging in my office. They had an aluminum can drive in the middle school. The Lower School had a penny drive. They raised over $2,000 in pennies, and over $35,000 within two weeks, had an all school assembly. Everybody had my image on their back. No way. They brought my mother down from Washington, DC. My father passed away my senior year at Wake Forest. And I, I'm saying to myself during the during the assembly again, excuse my French. They don't realize I suck. There's no way of a big deal that training, and even the training leading up to that point was just what I needed, and that extra help. So we go into the first round of the Olympic trials. I win my heat. I run the fourth fastest time in the world, 10th fastest time in American history. And two rounds later, we get to the finals. Top four make the semi finals. Top four make the finals. I make it to the finals. And of eight of us in the finals. Olympic gold medalist from 88 and 84 Roger kingdom, Olympic silver medalist, Jack Tony D's. Olympic bronze medalist, Jack Pierce, number one hurdler in the world, Allen Johnson, number two hurdle in the world, Mark crear and then local math teacher and two other people,

Amy Bryant  17:18  

local math teacher

Steve Brown  17:21  

they take the top three to make the Olympic team. I'm fourth by seven 100 of a second. Oh, three days later, I'm in Paris. I finished that year ranked number 10 in the world. And so you go through these conversations the next year, now, I feel like I can compete with these folks. I get, I don't know if you've ever heard of this rule. It's a long rule. It's, I mean, it's an old rule, but it's sometimes enforced. So the next year, I know I can compete on this level. I know I can compete overseas. My confidence is high. I get to the first round, second round, we get to the semifinals. Back then they would give you two false starts. I got a false start. Charged two other second false start. They say, lane four. You have to leave the track. I said, Sir, I'm not leaving the track. He said, No, you've been dq, you have to leave the track. Now you have to call security. You're going to have to call security because I'm not leaving and I ended up eventually having to step off the track. If it wasn't for my coach, I'd still be out there. But they said that I didn't get charged with a false start, but I was I reacted quicker than what was humanly possible. So there's a rule now that this been in effect for about three, three or four decades, where if you react to the gun with the electrodes to the starter within one 1000 then that's considered a false start. Same thing happened with Devin Allen in the Olympic trials. And maybe two Olympic Trials ago, and he was point 999, and his It was devastating, because he was going to meddle that year, or maybe even win the gold. His father had passed away. The trials were held at University of Oregon, where he was I mean, it was a devastating technicality, if you will. So I had a buddy of mine said, Have you ever thought about representing Trinidad, where your father's from? And I said, Well, you know, the US team is the most difficult team to make, and that's the team. He was like, shut up. Who cares how you get there? Right in 96 when I was ranking number 10 in the world, out of the top 10 of us, six of us were from the United States, and so looking to it, was granted dual citizenship in 1998 got a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, and then represented Trinidad and the Olympic Games in 2000 in city, Australia. And so to walk in Olympic Stadium under my father's colors was extremely powerful, and that was for Olympiads from 80 890-296-2000, I mean, close to 16 years. It's about 13 years of jacks like but when I almost quit in 96 from 96 to 2000 I compete in over 60 cities in 25 different countries. So all that to say so many people supported me in that endeavor, right? And so many people who I didn't expect to support me in that endeavor did right, and the reason why I share the love it story and so many other stories like that is that love it didn't have to do that for my dream, right? And I tell people be careful not to have your blinders on or your prejudices on, if you will, because that could blind you or block you from the blessings they may come forth, right? 

Amy Bryant  21:02  

A great lesson, yeah, so, so it's a

Steve Brown  21:05  

So, that was a long journey, and then return to business school at Duke, thankfully, they let me back in, and the goal was to go to Wall Street and make all the money I didn't make as a teacher. Summer after 911 I did my internship at Merrill Lynch, which was right next to ground zero. So I used to walk by ground zero every day, very powerful, and made a lot of money. But my my heart wasn't energy in in that world. And so returned to love it in 2005 our daughter was born in 2006 and as I mentioned you before, she and I are graduating this year together. She from high school because she's been a lifer there, and me from the doctoral program at U University of Pennsylvania. So special time. Funny thing is, there's individuals in her class where I've taught or coached their parent. Wow, in the 90s, when I first got there. So, yeah, folks in Washington, DC, Gonzaga, Wake Forest, you know, love it. I mean, there's a whole bunch of people that have been on this journey with me, and so now it's time to give back to other individuals who have similar aspirations, right? Um, so yeah, long story to a short question.

And we’ve got lots more questions to ask you so we’ll definitely get to those in part 2 of our conversation with Coach, Olympian, Teacher, Father, soon to be doctor,,, Steve Brown’s interview.