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Email: "Brown steps down at Southern Local"
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SALINEVILLE — Being the head football coach at Southern Local was a labor of love for Jim Brown. Brown, who was a last-second replacement when Dan Saling died of a heart attack June 7, said it was difficult juggling his job and being a head coach. He said he will not return as head coach after the Indians’ final game last Friday. “I took the job only as a one-year thing,” Brown said. “I told the team the last week of practice as we were preparing for Jackson-Milton. I had told the administration I could only take it for one year because of my job.” For the third year in a row, Southern Local will be looking for a new football coach. “I’ve been coaching football or basketball for 10 years,” Brown said. “I enjoy it, but it wears on you.” Days of going to work early and getting home from football late were every day. Brown works for United Water, a company which runs wastewater treatment plants. He is responsible for New Waterford’s. During football, he had to get up at 4:30 a.m. so he could be at work by 5:30 a.m. If everything went well, he was at football practice by 2:15 p.m. “I loved working with the kids,” he said. The Indians posted a 3-7 record a year after going 7-3, which was the Indians’ winningest season in 30 years. “The offensive line was young and I knew that,” Brown said. Brown said he may or may not be back helping coach the team. “There are a couple of guys on the staff who are interested,” he said. “If told them if they would get it, I would come back and coach as a volunteer.” Brown, a 1978 graduate of Southern Local High School, was appreciative of his season as a head coach. “One of the things I learned most — Dan told me it many times, but it never really sunk in — is how much the community relies on high school football more than any other sport,” Brown said. “Southern brings people out for home games and away games. It’s because of football.”

 

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