The potential for irony was hard to ignore, but we’ll get to that.
After his New York team fell, 35-0, to Pennsylvania in Saturday night’s 47th annual Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic, Frank Brown was a picture of resignation.
Last year, he and his staff at Wellsville High School had committed to the game … only to have it canceled due to coronavirus restrictions.
But they agreed to return for the second try at No. 47 in 2021, though their situation has changed.
In early May, Brown, after two head-coaching stints at Wellsville totaling seven seasons, agreed to take the job at Coudersport, another Big 30 school, but in Pennsylvania.
Following Saturday’s loss, Brown, who led New York to a 46-37 win in 2010’s 37th renewal, allowed of the Coudy offer, “It was a great opportunity … there was a door closing in Wellsville and there was a door opening in Coudersport.
“I left like a gentleman so I’m basically not doing an exit interview.”
He declined to amplify that answer.
But he went on to say, “Coudersport has a strong tradition in football and Coudersport is a football town. It was a golden opportunity for me, not only to go over there and coach but also to take my family over there and finish raising them in that community.”
Brown, president and CEO of Warehouse America for 39 years, has the main operation in Philadelphia, which is now run by his son, while he also has a corporate office in Wellsville.
HE WASN’T exactly looking for a new coaching position, but said, “There were some people who sent me (a copy of Coudersport’s advertisement) through a text or a screenshot and they said there was an opportunity there.”
In the spring, veteran coach Tom Storey resigned from both his football and wrestling jobs so, according to Brown, “I just figured I’d go over there and have a conversation and see what the program was about.
“I was pretty impressed not only with the facilities but also the administration. We had some nice meetings, everybody had their cards on the table, and it went well … I’m happy I made the move.”
Brown’s credentials were strong, even if his record was deceptive.
His first five years at Wellsville, he went 23-24, but that mark included the only two winning seasons in the previous 19 campaigns. That stretch included three Connors & Ferris championships in 2008, ’10 and ’12. In 2011 the Lions also claimed the Section 5 Class C championship, a first in Wellsville history.
Brown was the Big 30 Coach of the Year in 2009 after a 6-3 season which, in part, caused him to be invited to coach the New York team in the Charities Classic the following summer. He was also tabbed Section 5 Class C Coach of the Year in 2012.
“Every year we coached at Wellsville was a good time … especially the first stint, we were building it from the bottom up,” Brown said. “The fact we were close, the second year, to getting that first sectional title made us hungrier to win it which we finally did a year later.”
However, in his second stint — 2019-20 (ultimately ’21 due to Covid-19) — the Lions went 1-13 (1-7, 0-6) and his relationship with the school seemed to sour a bit.
TWO OF Brown’s assistants — Wayne Stonemetz, a former Wellsville head coach, and Bryan Riccaldo — will accompany him to Coudersport.
Meanwhile, it’s been confirmed that the new head coach at Wellsville will be Bob McMorris, who formerly held the job, as did his new top assistant, Larry Peacock.
That irony?
By switching states, if circumstances dictated, as coach of Coudersport, which oddly had no players in this year’s game, Brown could coach on opposite sides of the Big 30 Charities Classic field in consecutive years. Another first.
(Chuck Pollock a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
