'I Want Them To Feel Good About Themselves:' TC West's Tom Brown Reflects On Decades Of Coaching

Don’t ask Tom Brown to name the best kids on the team. That would be missing the point.

Brown, 71, has been coaching for a long time. Cross country, football, track, basketball, boys, girls, you name it. And while he’s seen hundreds of kids across all ability levels, it’s not necessarily the best athletes that stand out in his memory – it’s the ones who squeeze the most out of themselves.

Maybe they didn’t start every game. Maybe they didn’t medal at regionals or light up the stat sheet. But they got better. They worked hard and they improved. That’s the magic. That’s the goal.

 “We had a kid in track who ran 32 seconds in the 200 as a freshman, but by the time he was a senior, he ran 24. He still wasn’t a speed demon, not one of our top three or four or anything, but that improvement just from working hard makes you feel good and it makes him feel good,” Brown tells The Ticker. “Some of my favorite memories are the kids that maybe didn’t excel, but they improved.”

Above all else, Tom Brown hopes a Tom Brown-coached kid has fun and learns that in sports and in life, good things happen when you push yourself.

“I hope they see the value of hard work and that success is measured in a lot of different ways. It's not necessarily about winning, it's about giving your best effort,” he says. “I want them to feel good about themselves.”

Brown started his coaching journey with legendary football skipper Jim Ooley in 1978 and has been coaching at Traverse City West in one form or another since the school opened almost 30 years ago (he also taught math there before retiring about eight years ago).

He’s now the head boys cross country coach and an assistant boys track coach, though he also works closely with girls distance runners as the teams often train together. The boys cross country team has consistently been one of the best in the state under his watch, though he insists the kids get credit for most of it.

“We’ve got a really good group right now, with some really good seniors as leaders,” he says. “And last year’s seniors were a really good group. It’s just been building, every year a little bit better than before. I think the kids believe in what we’re doing, and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

Brown has coached it all, but he’s a measured, soft-spoken person who has found that running sports seem to match his intensity.

“I’m more laid back. I’m not a yeller or a screamer. I'm going to lead by example and by showing up every day,” he says. “And I’m always going to try to be positive with them, lead them and encourage them the best I can.”

He enjoys seeing the kids he coaches build strong bonds that transcend the sport.

"If you talk to kids from five years ago, they don't remember that we won this meet or we won that meet, but they do remember the team dinners we do before the meets. They remember playing team handball or (going swimming), or meeting every day at 7:30 in the morning," he says. “Yeah, I suppose if we win a state championship, they'll remember that, but for the most part they remember those other things a lot more."

West senior cross country runners Austin Taft and Liam Wierzba both say Brown is constantly doing something to benefit the kids he coaches, up to and including picking cherries at harvest time and donating all of the proceeds to the team.

“During the summer he puts on our summer running program. We meet every morning, (and) in my five years of running with him as my coach, he has never missed a single day,” Taft tells The Ticker. “No matter what time you go to the high school, you’ll probably see Coach Brown there…mowing loops for us to train on or measuring distances for our workouts. He is almost always there working on something to help us succeed.”

Reese Smith is a 2026 West graduate who now runs track at Oakland University. She calls Brown a “selfless person inside and out” and the “nicest guy” who “truly gets to know everyone on his team and makes meaningful connections with everyone.”

“He always gave me unwavering support in sports and in my personal life,” she tells The Ticker. I always appreciated his support before and after my races, especially during the crucial parts of my running career. I am so lucky to have had him as a coach…even when the workouts were tough, he would always make me smile every day.”

Fellow 2026 graduate Peyton Tucker (now running at Wayne State) has similar things to say.

"Coach Brown puts his whole heart into the team and makes everyone feel important no matter how they perform,” she tells The Ticker. “He always had a smile on his face and made me laugh every time I talked to him. I feel so lucky to have someone in my life that genuinely cares so much about me.”

West Athletic Director Jason Carmien says Brown has “given decades of steady, reliable leadership to TC West.”

“I have always admired his consistency and his genuine commitment to TC West athletics,” Carmien tells The Ticker. “He’s in our school every day doing the little things, the behind-the-scenes things to help our school.”