From the desk of Wally Dawkins, Director of Athletics:

When I first arrived on the Brook Hill Campus in June of 2008, I slowly began to learn the ins and outs of the Brook Hill Athletic Program. Being a much smaller school than Whitehouse, where I had retired from after working there for 21 years, I understood that things would definitely be different at Brook Hill.

Even with a much smaller student population, having around 270 students in high school compared to the 1400 enrolled in Whitehouse, Brook Hill still competes in every sport that WH fields a team in – with approximately 1/5 of the number of students.

As a coach who believes in developing younger players in a way that will allow them to be ready when they reach varsity level competition, I was surprised that BH did not put more emphasis on not only our JV programs, but Middle School as well.

I learned quickly at BH, even before becoming AD in January of 2009, that the attitude on campus was that if you were on the JV team it was considered an insult, and that Middle School sports weren’t really that important.

That thinking began to change in February of 2009.

At Brook Hill “sub-varsity” teams are considered to be of the utmost importance. We have JV teams in most all of our team sports. Our coaching staff has done a great job of educating our student athletes, that being on the JV team means that our coaches are counting on you to be a varsity player in the not too distant future. This is an attitude that I have worked hard to develop with our coaches, mainly due to the experience I have gained over the past 39 years.

At Whitehouse, my JV and Freshman Basketball teams received my attention day in and day out. I knew that soon those guys playing in the hand me down uniforms would soon be the featured attraction.

Case in point: In 2004-05, my varsity basketball team at Whitehouse ended the season at 25-6, and everyone on the team was a senior. All 13 of them. When all 13 graduated, that meant that as a coach, I lost every point, every rebound, every minute of experience. This also meant that the 2005-06 team would be comprised solely from boys who played on the freshman and JV teams the year before.

The 2005-2006 team went 24-8, and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs. How could that happen? Obviously those players were good, but because they had been playing on a sub-varsity team, when it came their turn, they were ready for varsity competition.

Another part of sub-varsity is Middle School. At Brook Hill, the Head Coach,Varsity Coach, and all the members of his staff work with the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade players every day during the season. This means that Middle School athletes at Brook Hill are receiving the same quality coaching as the varsity players. Because they (Middle School athletes-male and female) are that important. So if you are on a Middle School Team at Brook Hill, your coaches will be the same people who will also be at the varsity practice.

Every day at MS Boys Basketball practice, I am assisted by Head Coach Jacob Agnew and Assistant Varsity/JV Coach Kyle Ford along with Coach Nathanial Mattay, 22 boys, four full-time coaches, teaching the skills, fundamentals and strategies of the game of basketball.  All of our programs work this way.

So here is the bottom line: If you are the parent of an athlete, or perhaps if you are an athlete reading this, and he or she is on a sub-varsity team at Brook Hill, utilize this time to gain expertise from quality coaches who are intent on improving the player as an athlete and a person. Sub-varsity experience at Brook Hill equals being prepared for Varsity competition when the time comes.

At Brook Hill, our sub-varsity teams…JV and Middle School…male and female, are extremely important to the BH Coaching Staff. They are indeed our much cherished future.

And that’s another reason to be “ALL ORANGE” …All The Time!