Role models showed Coach Dave Brous the way

DN alumnus helps out two coaching staffs

Del Norte High boys varsity basketball assistant coach Dave Brous talks to the team during a game against Hoopa at home on Dec. 17. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

He found them in three basketball coaches who guided and encouraged him in all facets of his life.

Years later, Brous is returning the favor, helping the next generation of youths as a longtime assistant coach on the boys varsity basketball and baseball teams at Del Norte High School.

Brous is a familiar face to many Warrior fans and has become a key right-hand man for Del Norte head coaches in both sports.

The 1970 Del Norte graduate grew up in a single-parent household with a mom struggling to make ends meet.

Playing sports was a positive outlet and helped him stay on the straight and narrow as he learned valuable life lessons.

Without these positive influences, his life could have turned out a lot different, Brous said.

It started in middle school at Crescent Elk when he was coached  in basketball by Larry Amos. It continued at Del Norte with junior varsity coach Dale Thomas and then with varsity coach Wally Maciel.

“I was truly lucky with the coaches I had,” Brous said. “They taught me a lot ... They taught me discipline and how to stay focused. They showed me the right way to win and the right way to lose. You have to learn how to cope with losing and how to get better and win.”

Although not realizing it at the time, Brous said he now understands that these three coaches were the male role models he needed. They helped him become the man he is today.

“I still love to coach,” he said. “I just really enjoy working with and helping these young men ... When you’re  young it makes a difference to have someone believe in you.”

Brous is close to all three coaches, who still live in the area. Thomas continues to be active in Del Norte High sports and is an assistant coach on the Warrior boys freshman basketball team.

Brous still keeps in touch with many of the kids he’s worked with over the years and hopes he has been a help to them the way his coaches were to him.

“When you get a phone call or a text from guys you had seven or nine years ago, that always means a lot to me,” he said. 

After a hiatus in basketball starting when current head varsity basketball head coach Blaine Lopez left in 2008, Brous returned this season as the assistant coach when Lopez came back.

Brous is a terrific ally on the bench, Lopez said

“He’s got a great rapport with the kids,”Lopez said. “I think that many times he’s been the sounding board  for them ... We work well together. We’re both ultra-competitive but we have different ways to get our point across to the players. He loves being there and working with the kids.”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t have  returned without his help,” Lopez added. “It’s great to have him around.”

 For Brous, “It’s great to be back,” he said. “I’m 60 this year and I still feel the same energy and excitement when I enter the gym that I did when I was playing here. That’s why I still do it.”

Brous said he and Lopez have similar outlooks on coaching.

“I’ve known Blaine since he was a little boy,” Brous said. “He has so much knowledge and passion for the game. He is a great coach and really loves the boys he teaches.”

The team is young, with only three players back from last season and a good number of sophomores and juniors.

With such an inexperienced group, Brous said it has taken time to gel, but he said he enjoys working with these players.

“When you get young players like this you try to mold them in a particular direction and teach them the system,” he said. “We’re taking baby steps and working together. Hopefully we’ll eventually win a conference championship.”

Brous, who works as a carpenter at Pelican Bay State Prison, calls coaching a labor of love. The position is unpaid.

“He does it because he likes it and wants to help,” Lopez said.

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