THE SPORTS DESK
High School Basketball: Brown makes a name for himself
WILDCAT FOLLOWING HIS FAMOUS FATHER
BY TAFT COGHILL JR.
THE FREE LANCE-STAR
When Lucas Brown was a freshman point guard at Mountain View, he admits the pressure from opposing fans unnerved him.
Brown is the son of former North Stafford star shooting guard Kevin Brown, who now coaches his son with the Wildcats.
So when Mountain View visited the Wolverines in Lucas’ first-ever Commonwealth District game, fans chanted “Daddy’s Boy!” to the youngster.
“It definitely got in my head a lot,” Lucas said. “It was crazy. It was so loud. It was the loudest gym I’ve ever been in.”
Lucas scored 11 points in Mountain View’s 66–59 victory that night, but he didn’t feel good about his overall performance.
However, he’s used the memory as motivation. He said he’s become accustomed to the chants at Stafford and North Stafford and they “make me better.”
Lucas’ growth is evident on the court.
He’s now a 5-foot-10 junior and the catalyst for the Wildcats’ standing atop the district.
He’s averaging 15.9 points and 6.0 assists per game for Mountain View (11–2, 7–0 Commonwealth) as it prepares to host Colonial Forge (8–6, 6–3) Friday night in a district clash.
“He just leads this team the right way,” Mountain View senior forward Joe Wilson said. “He can score when he needs to, and he passes when he needs to. He’s just an all-around good point guard.”
Lucas would have made a fine backcourt mate with his father, who was an all-state performer for the Wolverines in the 1980s.
Kevin Brown graduated from North Stafford in 1983 before he headed to Emory & Henry College. He was named Old Dominion Athletic Conference player of the year as a junior in 1986 and still holds the ODAC record with 2,322 career points. He also played one year professionally in England.
“He hears about [my career] all the time, so that’s kind of hard on him, too,” said Kevin Brown, who was hired as Mountain View’s head coach in 2006. “I tell everybody, ‘If he could shoot like me, he’d be unstoppable.’ But I try not to do that too much because he’s his own player.”
Lucas said opposing fans aren’t the only ones who can make life difficult on a coach’s son.
Kevin Brown admits he’s harder on Lucas than his other players. So when Lucas is performing running drills in practice, he hears about it if he’s not leading the pack. And if he begins to walk, his father implores him to pick up the pace.
Michele Brown said that’s because her husband “knows how much he can push his own son without a parent intervening.”
Said Lucas: “It makes me feel bad sometimes but I know he’s just trying to make me better.”
Kevin Brown said coaching his son sometimes feels like a “double-edged sword.”
Michele Brown said he does a good job of being a coach at school and a father at home, but it’s not always easy. Kevin Brown said he tries not to talk about basketball at home, but it’s such a big part of the family’s life it’s unavoidable.
“I’m always thinking and sometimes I’ve got to bite my tongue,” Kevin Brown said. “And Lucas is his own worst critic at times. He’s pretty hard on himself and he internalizes a lot. He’s gotten a little better at that, but he still has some work to do with it.”
Lucas said he’s still a work in progress on the court, and when it comes to handling his emotions. But he and his mother now joke about the chants that once had him flustered.
“I told him, ‘It’s disappointing because I always thought you were my boy,’” Michele Brown said with a laugh. “But he’s definitely grown as an athlete and as a young man from that point to where he is now.”
Taft Coghill Jr.: 540/374-5526
tcoghill@freelancestar.com
