Back to basics: Brown hired as Spartan baseball coach

GRUNDY CENTER – The time was right for Pat Brown Jr.
 
After starting a family and coaching his son and daughters through little league baseball and softball, the opportunity arose to take the head coaching job at Grundy Center baseball, a position he passed up two years ago.
 
"I did a lot of praying and soul searching and thought this would be the time to do it," Brown said.
 
A former Spartan baseball player himself, and a participant on the 1993 state-qualifying team, Brown, 42, now takes the reins of the Grundy Center baseball program in a hire approved earlier this year.
 
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Brown's inaugural voyage will be with the 2018 Spartans, a young squad coming off a 1-21 season in 2017 and a program that hasn't seen a .500 season since 2006. (Editor's note: Grundy Center's overall win-loss record from the 2007 season forward includes a three-year span of postseason excellence from 2014-2016 not mentioned in this article. The Spartans won district titles in 2014 and 2016 and reached the district final round in 2015. This omission was unintentional and a clarification recognizing Grundy Center baseball's recent playoff success will be included in next week's edition of the Grundy Register. I apologize for the error in reporting on Grundy Center baseball history.  - Jake Ryder, Grundy Register Sports Editor)
 
Before Grundy Center focuses on turning around the win-loss column, Brown wants to look at changing what it means to be a Grundy Center baseball player off the field.
 
"We're focusing on being a better person, being a better athlete, a better son," Brown said. "Once we become that, then we go all the way back to basics and learn the fundamentals. … Everybody wants to reach for something big and they end up walking over the little things to get there. but if we do the little things, everything else comes in the future."
 
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