For nearly 50 years, Gene Brownell was a teacher, coach, and educator in South Dakota. Most recently, he was the long-time athletic director at Aberdeen Central. Brownell is also one of the key people who has helped organize the 'B' boys basketball tournament over the years.
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Forty-nine years in public education. You were 26 years as a teacher and a coach and then 23 years as administrator. But to get things started, you were a Henry Owl. You went to Henry High School, just west of Watertown.
That's exactly correct. My mom and dad lived in that community and that's where I went to school. Did have kindergarten yet, because that was a long time ago. I started school in the fall of 1952. And so, the 1st through 12th grade were there.
Of course, in a small school... of course, definition of small can be different for everybody, but certain Henry is/was, currently, they're with Florence now, co-oped, but Henry a small school. I assume you probably did everything at Henry in high school.
Exactly. That was kind of the expectation. In the fall we all played football and in the winter we all played basketball. And in the spring we all went out to track and field. And then the summer we played baseball in between whatever jobs we happened to have.
What was your first job in high school?
Well, actually, my first job was working for a neighbor. He had a little construction company over there. And after my eighth grade year, I became one of the hay boys on the construction crew.
"Hey, come over here. We got a job for you"?
Well, yeah. It was kind of like that. He lived across street, said, "I need you to come and help me." So, that's how that happened.
When did you first think about you wanted to be a teacher?
Well, I've always really liked the school environment. I liked going to school as an elementary student and middle school student and high school student. And then, as my high school career wound down, I had to decide what I wanted to do. The thing that really attracted me was, obviously, competition. I enjoyed competition. And so, I had an opportunity to move on to Northern State College, at that time, to be in the cross country and track program, under Dr. Bill Jordan. So, I took that opportunity. And when I got there, of course, people began to ask me, "Well, what's your major going to be?" I said, "I want to coach." So they said, "Oh, you're going to be a teacher." I said, "Well, I guess that's what I'm going to be then."
I heard you were a pretty good distance runner at Henry.
Well, I don't know if I was pretty good or not. But I was better than most of them. And most of them could beat me and some of them couldn't. And that's same thing when you go to college. You'll beat some people and some other people beat you.
I did mention that Henry is merged with Florence now, and they're the Falcons, as the combined school. Was Florence the hated cross country rival? Or wasn't it that way back when you were at Henry?
No, not really. We played in the Little Eighth Conferences, it was called. And it was Wallace and Garden City and Bradley and Raymond and Henry and Vienna and Florence. And we had conference rivalries, of course. But if we could beat anybody, we were just happy.
Boy, you sure mentioned a lot of towns there that they haven't had schools for a long, long time.
Yeah, a very long time. And Henry and Florence, I think, are the two survivors. The rest of that conference is all gone.
You were in the Army. What was that like?
Well, that was quite an experience. I got out of college and I was draft. And so, I went in to the military immediately after college and went to Fort Knox, Kentucky. And then I went to Fort Polk, Louisiana. And then I went to Fort Holabird in Baltimore, Maryland. And then I went overseas. And of course, I survived the whole thing. We used to always say, "They can kill us, but they can't eat us." And so, I survived it, made it back. And 17 days after I returned from overseas, I was coaching in the fall. Started as an assistant football coach in the fall and teaching school. So, I didn't have a lot of decomposition time. But that was good. It kept me out of trouble.
Well, as a kid from Henry, South Dakota, you probably didn't travel much until you go into the Army, right?
Well, not too extensively, no. My mother was from the East Coast and we used to go back there and stay with my grandmother when I was a kid. But I did travel extensively, obviously, in the Army. But always wasn't traveling where you wanted to go. You just went where you were told to go. That was the time. My dad was a veteran. My grandfather was a veteran. My dad's brother was a veteran. My mother's two brothers were veterans. So, that was the norm in our family.
You ran distance at Northern, too, right? So, you kind of ran from high school, ran into Northern, and ran distance there. Why did you choose the long distance when it came to track?
Well, I couldn't run fast enough to run the shorter one. Well, I could run farther. A lot of people could run faster, but I could run farther. So, that's how that kind of happened.
I'm assuming a lot of those were on cinder tracks back then.
Yes, I was never on an all-weather track, a rubberized track, until the [inaudible 00:06:57] Conference in 1968 in Rapid City. That was the very first all-weather track that I had the experience of running on.
So, was Tulare your first school as a teacher, right out of the Army?
Yes, that exactly where I started.
How did that work out?
Well, it worked out pretty well. Tulare was a small community, so I knew what I was doing, as far as what the people were like. And we had good kids and good parents and I had good people to work with. Martha Kester was my first principal. And Martha Kester put 51 years into public education. So, I learned a lot from Martha and I learned a whole lot more from the kids and the other people I worked with. So, it was a good experience.
What did you teach?
Well, I'm a PE and social studies major. So, there I did elementary PE and I did high school social studies. I was the assistance football coach, assistant basketball coach, and I was the track coach.
Herreid was next. How many years at Tulare before you went to Herreid.
I went two years at Tulare and then I went to Herreid for two years, before I came back to Northern as the GA.
And then, was Kimball there before you got to Aberdeen?
Oh, oh. I'm sorry. I left Herreid, I went to Kimball for a year. I'm sorry. I forgot about that. I went to Kimball for a year and then I had an opportunity to come back to Northern to be a graduate assistant, under the gentleman who I finished my collegiate career with, Al Solley. Al was still the cross country and track coach. So, I came back during that period of time and spend a year here and got my master's degrees.
All those small schools. What did you take out of teaching and coaching at Tulare, and Herreid, and Kimball before you got the job in that big city of Aberdeen?
Well, more than anything else, I had to realize, just like a lot of young coaches and young teachers, it wasn't about me. I had to learn that my role was to make the kids to be the very best that they could be. And just because I was there, that didn't mean they were going to get better standing next to me. I had to get out there and had to figure out how to do things the right way. And most important of all, it helped me shape my attitude and my philosophy about what I was going to be as a teacher and what I was going to be as a coach. Those first five years or so of teaching are a real challenge. Because it's just like anything else. You just have to learn. And when you're young and you're a little headstrong, sometimes it takes you a little bit long. But I learned some things and I had good people that I was around. So, I was very fortunate.
Who were some of those mentors as coaches, those first five, six years in your profession?
Bill Adnee was at Herreid. I don't know if you knew Bill Adnee or not, but Bill Adnee was a very longtime coach in football and in track and field. And most of the other people that I actually coached with at that time, were about my same age. Ed Wickley was down in Kimball. And Ed was the principal and became the superintendent at the time. And Ed had an extensive background in coaching and he helped me a lot too.
With your love of track, were you kind of giddy when you became the cross country and track coach at Aberdeen?
Well, I certainly was. Having the opportunity to coach at a AA letter school was really a blessing for me. And I'm very thankful. And I really had such good people to be around. Bob saw me in cross country. And John in track and field. And Mark Murphy was there in track and field at the time. So, I had a lot of really good people that I had an opportunity to work with.
1998, you finish runner-up at the State Girl's Track and Field Championships. What was that time like for you that year?
That was a very good group. We'd won the conference championship and we had a lot of really good people. We had the jumpers, we had the throwers, we had the sprinters, we had some distance runners. It was a really good group. Rapid City Stevens beat us, I think 90 to 81. It was by nine points or whatever. But our kids had a good meet, did the best we could. And that was just, we were fine with that.
Did you have to try to convince kids to come out for track and field? Were you a motivator to get them to come out?
Well, you always do. At the end of the year, all the athletes have worked hard all year long. And the athletes we had at Aberdeen Central or any other schools that I taught, when it comes to the springtime of the year, those kids are tired and they're worn out. But we tried to convince them that track was such a building program for all the other activities that they wanted to do. And we would teach them to compete in a different way than they were normally competing in basketball or volleyball or wrestling or whatever. It was always hard then, and I think it still is hard now, is getting all the kids that you want on your team. And numbers, of course, are critical at any level, but particularly at the AA level. Because you have to have a lot of kids. They have 60 starters now. You got 20 events and you got three kids in each event at a conference meet. So, 60 starters is hard to come up with.
Eventually, Gene, though, the job of athletic director came up at Aberdeen. And what were your thoughts about applying for that job, and maybe knowing that you'd have to maybe give up being a coach to become athletic administrator?
That was the hardest part, because I had a great job. I was teaching advanced placement history courses, I was coaching cross country with Shawn Wheelock and I was coaching track and field with some really good coaches. And so, it was a difficult decision. But my wife and I sat down and it really came down to answering this question. Did I think I could make a difference? Did I think I could make it better than it was? We thought we could do that. And so, we applied for the job and went through the interviews. There was six or seven of us who interviewed. And I was fortunate enough for them to offer me the job and away we went. It was, undoubtedly, the first year in particular, was a great learning experience for me. But I was fortunate. I had Dusty Crock in [inaudible 00:14:12] to help me, and Mark Wendelgass in Huron to help me. And Harvey Hammrich in Watertown to really help me. And Steve Berseth in Brookings, and Bob.
And so, I really had... I wasn't young, but I was dumb about the end of the business. But when you have those kids of people at the end of the phone... and I'm not very smart, but I am smart enough to know when people know a lot more than I do. And those people were very helpful to me.
That was a great list. That was a great list of athletic directors across the state that you mention. So blessed to have, not only back then, but even today, we have some great administrators. But what skillset do you need to have to be a high school athletic administrator?
Well, I think first you have to have a philosophy. What is it you're going to do? And I had learned from Jim Kretchman at Northern. Jim was the first one really, as I took the physical education classes from him, he was the first one to introduce to me... didn't use the term, but he was the first one to really introduce to me the concept of servant leadership, the idea that this is not about me, this is about we. The idea that my job is to make your job as successful as it possibly could be. I think in one of the classes Jim said, "The thing you need to do is put your athletes in a position to be successful." And of course, that's what I tried to do as a coach. And then when I became an athletic director, that's what I tried to do with the coaches, is to put our coaching staff in a position to be successful and then ask them to put their kids in a position to be successful. So, it started right there with my approach to doing things I had learned from other great people, like Jim Kretchman.
How much different is that skillset today, when you compared it to when you started in the late '90s?
Well, I don't think there's any difference. You have to start out with a philosophy. What are you there for? Who are you there for? Don Meyer and I became good friends during his tenure here at Northern. And part of the reasons for that is because we had both had the same kind of approach to how we were going to operate. In his case, the basketball program. In my case, all of the programs. And he was a very, very sound believer in the concept of servant leadership. So, we had a thousand different discussions about how things should go. And he was very beneficial for me when I first started out also. But the other things that you have to have. You have to have leadership skills. You have to have communication skills. You have to be able or organize. You have to be able to motivate. You have to be able to be the person who sets the example. And then you have to be able to hire great people. The first two people that I hired as the athletic director at Aberdeen Central, one was Mike Flakus. And Mike spent 20 years as our head football coach. Took us to the dome three times.
And the second one was Dawn Seiler. And Dawn Seiler obviously speaks for herself. She's the winningest female head coach in the history of South Dakota. And she is now the new athletic director at Aberdeen Central High School. So, those are the things that you need to be able to do. But you need to be able to start with, "What is my role here?" I always felt that I was in charge and I was totally responsible for the athletic department, but I also didn't think that it was about me. It was about the coaching staff and it was about the kids.
You mentioned Mike Flakus, your first coach's hire. He was a good football coach. But then Dawn Seiler was your second coach you hired. How did that interview go with Dawn? She's a, what? McIntosh at the time.
Yeah, she was at McIntosh at the time. And Jack Roby was the girl's coach at Aberdeen Central. He was going to go to be the boy's coach. And so, we opened that position up. And I went over to the district service center, and on a daily basis, kind of picked up who had applied. And I saw that she had applied. And the first thing I had known of Dawn, for a long time, and she had been at McIntosh for 15 years. And Jim Calhoun and I were friends. And Jim had coached at McLaughlin, and he was at White River at the time. And I called Jim and said, "Jim, what do you know? Is this a serious application? Or is she out on a fishing expedition?" And he said, "I don't know but I'll find out." And then within a day he called me back and said, "She's serious." And so, I sat down with her, a long with Cindy Hickle, our principal at the time, and we interviewed her at the office at Central High School. And obviously, she is, without a doubt, one of, if not the most pragmatic person I have ever been associated with. And she's just grounded and she's down to earth.
All that came through at the interview and she just knocked us dead. She went out to get in the car and we both knew we were going to offer her the job. But we talked a little bit. She got away from us. So, we had to wait until she got home. But we offered her the job and she took it. And I knew, from that point on, girl's basketball was going to be in great hands for as long as she could be with us.
You made an effort to tell parents, and I'm told you made it clear, that they, the parents, needed to be a supportive part of any team.
Exactly. Well, everybody at an event, or at a game, or a program, everybody's got a role. Our coaches, their job is to coach. Our kids, their job is to play. The official's job is to officiate. And the parent's job is to support their child, and the children of the other families that are on our teams. So, parents are a great blessing to you. Sometimes parents get a bad knock, because there's this story or that story about what people do. And those things happen. But my experience with parents has been, for the most part, very positive. Now, we would have our kickoff meetings at the beginning of each season. And I'd explain what everybody's role was and then I'd say, "You can visit with our coaches about anything you want, except these three things. You're not going to visit with them about playing time. That's their decision. You're not going to visit with them about coaching strategy. That's my job. If they're not doing that, that's my job to do that. And you're not going to visit with them about other student athletes on the team."
Now I said, "You can visit with me about that all you like. You want to sit down and come in the office and it'll be totally private and none of the coaches will ever know that we have spoken," but that's how it was. And people learned over the years that they had a role to play. And if they got out of their lane, they we were going to probably have some conversations that would be done in a professional manner. Their child is their child. I loved my children when they came through athletics. And I didn't always see their abilities the same way a coach did, but I had to trust the coach. And I had good relationships with 99.9% of the parents. There's always parents, or sometimes coaches too, that we don't always solve all our problems.
How tough was it to tell a coach they maybe were not living up to their expectations?
Well, it's not really that difficult, because they already know. All the coaches that we had are professional educators, almost every one of them. As a result of that, they understood teaching and learning. And they also understood that you can't fail at teaching and learning. And my philosophy about sports is pretty simple. Our athletic endeavors are just an extension of our classroom. What we're trying to do is to have kids learn and grow and do so in a competitive environment, which I think is very good for kids. But sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And when it's not working, it's not like we wait until the last day of the season and say, "We're going to do something different next year." We would have had a multiple number of conversations prior to that happening. But it is difficult, because you establish a relationship with the coaches. And you don't always want to be the one to tell them this isn't going to happen this way in the future. But that's the process and you have to follow the process and trust it.
Aberdeen Central has a great facility. The high school, the sports complex. But I remember, Gene, when the Aberdeen football field was on, what, the northeast corner of town and then it was moved. What was that experience like? Moving the old football stadium/?
Well, it was a very interesting experience. Because when we moved to the new high school, our belief was we wanted to try to get everything we did on our campus. And the old Swisher Field became a gridiron rather rapidly. Because Roncalli played there, Aberdeen Central played there, and Northern played there. And it was a grass field. And so, when we moved to the new location, in my conversations with our board members... and we had a great board. The board understood that we needed to do something and it was not going to be for free. So, what we did is we organized a group of people and we visited with our colleagues at Northern. And we were actually asking them to give up their home field to come over to play at our field, and this is why we think you ought to do that.
Well, that's not a simple thing to do. But they realized that what we were going to do was the right thing and they came with us. And really, getting out of the old Swisher Field to the new Swisher Field was a step in the right direction for them. And of course, eventually they realized that they had to have a quality field and it had to be on their campus. And they had some very smart people put together the right plan and they were able to go out to get the money to do that. And of course, Dakota Bank Field is just an absolutely beautiful, beautiful facility.
I think its worked out well. But what was it like cooperating with Northern and Presentation College up there, Aberdeen, Roncalli, all of you working together, at least for a while, sharing the same football facility or the same athletic complex?
Well, it worked better than you think it should. And at times, of course, there were always issues that came up between people. But we had a contract between Northern and ourselves, that spelled out everybody's responsibility and spelled out everybody's access. Well, just because it's spelled out on the contract, doesn't necessarily mean that's going to solve all the coaches' problems. So, very early on, what we decided to do was to have what we just called a scheduling meeting. And we got the Northern's football coach and our football coach and Roncalli's football coach and PC's football coach, because it was the fall that would obviously be the issue. And then later on we had to include our soccer coaches as soccer came on board. And we would have a meeting and I would not attend the meeting and neither would the AD at Northern. And the AD at Northern and myself, we would simply put in our competitions, "These are the days that we're going to compete. Between the hours of these times." Then we put that in the coaches' hands and we said, "Hopefully the two ADs or three ADs or four ADs will not have to solve any of these issues. So, we're going to rely upon you to solve them." And they did it.
And they did it. Now, not everybody got everything they wanted, but not everybody did. They were able to sit down, as coaches, they knew when they needed to be on the field for a particular reason. They could convince each other of that and they did it. Now, they all walked away friends and everybody did what they had to do. Now, there were times, of course, when you had to adjust. Something would come up, we would have a snow storm, we would have this, we would have that. Sometimes as ADs we had to step in and make those final decisions.
Of course now, Northern has its new football complex. And I know Presentation kind of has theirs. And so, things have changed a little bit over the past few years, haven't they?
Yes, they have. Roncalli's going to go over and play football at Dakota Bank Field this fall. So, for Dawn, that lessens the issues on Friday night, where Roncalli would want to come to practice at certain times. So, that's kind of alleviated that. Northern hasn't played there. They didn't play there during the COVID year. And then, of course the field opened up. So, right now, it's a much better situation for everybody.
Well, Aberdeen, I know, is very famous for hosting the Class B Boy's Basketball Tournament. What is it about the folks of Aberdeen opening their arms to the teams at the tournament?
Well, this is a community that is definitely a basketball community. I mean, we love all the other sports, but there's a reason why, year after year, Northern leads the nation at Division II in attendance. People like basketball in our community. But it's just not basketball. They like sports. We're up in an area where, if you were to look at our tourist attractions, the only tourist attraction that we have, other than out at Wylie Park, where we have a beautiful spot for people to camp and so forth out there, basically, our tourist attraction is going to be sports. Whether that's the fall, winter, spring, or in the summer. So, people are used to doing athletic things in our community. And we're fond of saying we're just a big, small town. And what the message is there, that if you come here, there's going to be hospitality. We're going to welcome you into our community. We know you're going to be here. And we're going to do everything we can to make your stay as good as it can possibly be.
And of course, the university is a great host. The community, I think, is a great host. Our school district has just bent over backwards to make sure that we would have the personnel to operate the tournament the way it needed to be done. So, when you bring a state tournament to Aberdeen, it's a community function. And the community's very appreciative of that.
I've been to Aberdeen for many, many state tournament games and matches. And I second what you just said. The people are beautiful and they're wonderful and you guys are gracious hosts. Which Class B tournaments stick out as your favorites?
Well, let me back up and tell you my first experience with the Class B State Basketball Tournament. It was the year 1959. My dad was a sportsman. And he took me to the 1959 State D Boy's Basketball Tournament here in South Dakota. And that was the biggest building I'd ever been in, in my life, until that particular time. And of course, I got to watch all those games. It was, let's see, Freddie Knife was there. Keeler Condon, Chester Condon, the Bagolas, I think Gus Cole coached the group. But I was so fascinated and just absolutely just overwhelmed and wowed at a state basketball tournament. And I've always had that same feeling about state basketball tournaments since attending that particular time. And as a result of that, every tournament has been really, really exciting. And a lot of the reason for that is because the small schools, Class B schools, it's a community event. It's not just a small group of parents that live in the community. It's everybody that lives in the community.
So, I think probably one of the most exciting ones recently that we watched, was obviously when Louie Krogman was up with White River, with Eldon. And he set the scoring record and then they were the state champions. That was a very exciting time. But they're all exciting. I helped this last time a little bit with crowd control and I worked at the scoring table for a while, and fully enjoyed myself.
You mentioned Eldon Marshall. He is with White River. And you and Eldon have become great friends over the years. Well, you should, because White River boys have been now to 17 straight Class B Tournaments in Aberdeen. It's like their winter home. But you recently received the Star Award from Eldon. What did that mean to you, Gene?
Well, it meant the world to me. It's hard for me to explain how I feel about it, because I'll get emotional about it. But the Star Quilt, of course, for the Native American people, if they give you one, it's their way of honoring you. And it's not a trivial thing. And it's given to people when, in the opinion of the people who are presenting the award, feel that you've done something for them that's meaningful to them. It's also an example of the generosity of Native American people. And it totally shocked me. Eldon and his wife, Mark, and Perry Strain, Mark's mother, she's the principal at White River, we've known each other for a long time. The oldest boy Dylan, was one year old when they came to the first tournament. And now, he and his brother are both starters. Dylan and Nicholas are both starters. So, it meant a lot.
And probably the thing that will stick in my heart and my mind the longest was after his initial victory that night, they won the first game that night, and in his interview after the game, they asked him why I received that. And he said, "Because he's family." Whoa, that was obviously very heart wrenching for me. And so, I'm so appreciative of White River and of the Marshall family for having done this for me.
You've always said that you want the kids to be out there on the spotlight. And you've always stepped aside, been behind the spotlight, and don't want to be a part of the spotlight. But you were with that. And also, I've heard that the Swisher Complex is Aberdeen is going to be renamed in your honor, Gene.
Well, that is correct.
That's a great honor. That is a great honor, Gene. You should be very proud of that.
Well, it really is. Especially for me, because the Swisher family and myself, I grew up at Northern with those kids. Clark Jr was there, and Joel was there, and Steve was there, and Clark Sr was there. And they were my classmates and my friends. And when track and field came around, they were out, they were my teammates. And after that, I knew them as adults. Clark and I actually coached track together in the spring of 1985 at Northern. I went over there because Dwayne [inaudible 00:36:20] had taken a sabbatical and they asked me if I would help and I did. So, I'm very close in my heart to that particular family. And of course, I just loved Clark Swisher. Clark Swisher was just a great man. And I don't have the words to tell you how significant this is in my life and how grateful and blessed I am for something of this nature. I didn't expect it. It wasn't something that I had put down as a goal or anything of that nature. And when they told me they were going to do that, in a word, I was flabbergasted.
It's well-deserved, Gene. No doubt. Well-deserved.
Well, I appreciate you saying that.
I've got a couple more for you, Gene. When you go to a high school event today, are you going as a fan, a former coach, or a former administrator?
Well, the first two. I stay out of the administrator business, because we've got a really good AD. And whoever else is managing, I don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. I love to go and sit in the stands and just watch. And what I'm usually doing is I'm watching officials officiate, because that's one of the things that I did. I watch how the coaches coach, I watch how the officials work, then I watch how the kids play. I don't pay too much attention anymore to the fans and so forth. I don't have to worry about the mobs anymore, so I don't do that. But it's really fun. I don't know. I've seen all kinds of Northern basketball games and Central basketball games, and football games and volleyball games. I've seen it all during my first year away from the job, and it's been all good. And I've had a great time doing it.
One note on Dawn Seiler, of course, was the girl's basketball coach, 627 wins, and took over as athletic director when you retired. When did you think Dawn could be the heir apparent to you?
Oh, I think that may have first came into my mind when we sat down and interviewed her the very first time, because she was just such a quality human being. She knew what she wanted to do, why she wanted to do it. And from our early discussions and early time together, I knew that she knew that it was about the kids. And she was a leader, she was an organizer, she was a communicator, she could coach, she could do all those things. She understood people and coach, did all those things. And as my years went by and Dawn's years went by, it became pretty evident to me that she was a great candidate and would be someone that I would feel would be just fantastic for the job. Because you don't want someone to come in that's not better than you. And she's going to be better than me. And I understood that and I'm comfortable with that. And she's doing a great job and will continue to do so.
Finally, there are a lot of young, go get-em coaches out there, no matter what sport it is. What's your advice to them as young coaches?
Well, my first advice is try to coach with a head coach who knows that they're doing, so that you can begin to understand what it is a head coach does. And then you can also use that good head coach as your mentor. And the other things you need to do is God gave you two ears and one mouth. So you need to listen twice as much as you talk. And if you pay attention to what people do, not just our coaches, but what coaches that you get associated with, pay attention to what they do. In our conference and in the AA level, there are so many confident individuals who are coaching teams in all the sports. So, if you pay attention as a young assistant coach, you watch how they do things. And you're going to find some things that you don't agree with. And that's fine. Don't do those things. But you're going to find some things that you are going to agree with and do those. And you're going to find, in looking at them, you're going to find out what it is that got them to the position that they're in now. They didn't get here at the AA level because they weren't good at what they did. So, find out what it was they do and do that.
And the other thing is, maybe the most important thing of all, is build your philosophy based upon, "It's we, not me. And the kids come first."
