- May 11, 2024
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Atlantic baseball coach Antwan Brown looks on as one of his players tries to bunt. Photo by Ray Boone
Sharks coach Antwan Brown gives instructions to a batter. Photo by Ray Boone
Atlantic's Daniel O'Brien sprints home for a score against the Buccaneers. Photo by Ray Boone
Sharks coach Antwan Brown gives instructions to a batter. Photo by Ray Boone
Atlantic's Dalton Hurst catches a pop fly against Mainland. Photo by Ray Boone
Atlantic starting Pitcher Mike Navarra releases a pitch against Mainland. Photo by Ray Boone
Antwan Brown vividly remembers his unemployment.
Brown, a substitute teacher and head coach of the baseball team at Atlantic High School, was fired after he was disqualified from substitute teaching after a standards investigation by the school district in August. He wondered how he was going to pay bills, buy food, provide for his family. He had offers from several schools. But something in the back of his mind was telling him to stay.
He put his faith in God.
“That’s where I tested myself,” Brown said. “That’s where I finally said that was going to give it over to him and watch him work.”
After protests by parents, students and players, Brown was rehired on Oct. 3.
Mike Navarra, a starting pitcher and the Sharks’ lone senior, can still remember the feeling of learning his old baseball coach was coming back to the team. After a three-hour practice with the Brown Baseball travel team, where Brown served as an assistant coach, players and parents were called into a meeting where they were going to find out who Atlantic’s next baseball coach would be. No one expected Brown to come out from behind the curtain.
“We were all in shock,” said Navarra, who transferred to Atlantic two seasons ago because he wanted to be coached by Brown. “No one really knew how to react.”
The Sharks celebrated Brown’s return with a come-from-behind win over Mainland on Feb. 19, at Atlantic. The Sharks fell behind 3-0 after the third inning, but used timely hitting to win 6-5 on the Sharks’ opening day.
The Sharks won a total of five games all of last season. They didn’t win any in 2016. The uncertainty, the adversity over the past few years: It laid the foundation for the Sharks’ new and improved baseball program.
“Everything we went through earlier in the year — it made us,” Brown said. “I think that was the start of who we are. It brought us closer together as a family because it showed me that they don’t want to lose me. They want me here, and they cherish me. And that’s what we needed for the beginning of our program.”
With Brown now home, there’s a breath of fresh air around the program. There are only three upperclassmen on the team, giving Brown the chance to build “from the ground up,” and for the first time in 10 years, there’s finally a junior varsity team.
But above winning games — above crafting talented baseball players — Brown wants to make those who come under his tutelage better men.
“I could win 100 games, but if I don’t have better men, then I’ve failed,” he said. “I know how to be a winner. I just want them to win on and off the field.”
