- November 4, 2024
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Pull quote: “With the Gamecocks, we went to the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. We had enormous amounts of success, but my personal life was a train wreck.”
CHRIS BROWER,, First Baptist Christian Academy head basketball coach
Chris Brower has enjoyed successful high school, college, Russian professional basketball and college coaching careers over his lifetime. And, at the height of his coaching career, Brower was winning NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament games as an assistant coach for the University of South Carolina in the early 2000s, but, he walked away from it all in 2004.
“With the Gamecocks, we went to the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight,” he said. “We had enormous amounts of success, but my personal life was a train wreck.”
Brower functioned as the recruiting coordinator for the program, and he spent over 300,000 miles in the sky annually, which crippled his marriage with his wife, April. Seeking a change, he transitioned to a medical supply sales career and moved to Palm Coast.
After being away from the game for 10 years, Brower was summoned to a First Baptist Christian Academy basketball tryout, by Academy Director Kevin Lautar, who was seeking to establish a basketball program. At its conclusion, Brower was asked to become the head coach of the team, which he accepted.
“I know I’ve made the right decision, returning to the game,” he said. “That’s been revealed many times to me. People often look around and try to find their ministry; some people get it really quick. It took me a while, but I’m pretty sure this is mine.”
Since living in Palm Coast, Brower has rededicated his life to God, attends First Baptist Church of Palm Coast, and his focus as the head coach is to help them see an example of a faithful man who not only talks the talk, but also walks it.
“Kids often hear about God, but they need to see God in what we do and what we say,” Brower said. “That’s the biggest part of what this basketball program is, on top of allowing kids to compete and learn respect.”
Not only has Brower returned to the game, which has made up so much of his life, but, this time around, his family gets go along for the ride. He coaches his youngest son, Cole, on the academy’s middle school team, and April says about her job description, “It depends on what day it is.” With their oldest son, Caleb, and daughter Addie Grace, whom they adopted from China in 2011, most of the games are a family affair, which they wouldn’t have any other way.
“We’ve enjoyed getting back to a relationship that we had gotten away from for a long time,” he said.
