Aragon badminton coach and physical education teacher Linda Brown recently won the California Interscholastic Federation Central Coast Section (CCS) Model Coach of the Year award for 2016.
This CCS award is given to one coach a year for every sport for their contributions to the sport and their team. The selection process and criteria is quite high. Coaches must first be suggested by Sports Committees as nominees the previous school year. For spring sports like badminton, these suggestions are due in early June of the year before. Nomination forms and voting ballots are then received and administered by CCS before a final decision is made. The criteria for this award include service to the sport, coaching accomplishments, role model to athletes, parents, other coaches, and the public, and keeping professional conduct. Brown was presented her award at the CCS tournament on Sat., May 14 at Independence High School.
Brown has been coaching various sports for about 23 years. She has coached high school basketball, softball, tennis, volleyball, and badminton. Brown began coaching at Aragon back in 2007 and has been coaching badminton for eight years now beginning in 2008. She has also taken her coaching experience beyond the team and into community and school activities as well. She served on the Peninsula Volleyball Association for two years, was Aragon Department Chair for three years, and was the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Badminton Representative for five years.
Brown says, “It’s an honor. [There are] a lot of teams in CCS that go all the way up to Daly City and all the way down past San Jose.”
When asked to describe her coaching style, Brown says, “I’m flexible because I’ve coached so many different sports and they’re so different in how you approach them and what your philosophy is … I think my strengths are I motivate the team well. I’m a fairly relaxed coach. I like the kids to have fun but I’m also very competitive.”
“She [gives] us our own space to learn things ourselves. She nudged me towards being a better player,” says badminton player sophomore Rochelle Leung.
Under her guidance, Aragon badminton has grown in presence. Aragon’s badminton team competes in the Bay division, often sending many players to compete in PALs and CCS. Some of the sport’s previous accomplishments include having a back-to-back undefeated season in spring of 2011 and 2012, finishing second in league behind Mills in spring of 2015, and third in league this season with a 9-5 record.
Badminton player sophomore Chris Cisneros says, “She really focuses on your playing style and focuses on the key points that you lack. She works with you to help improve or strengthen your skills.”
To add on to Brown’s influence on her players, Leung continues, “She knows what she’s doing and has a lot of experience coaching badminton as well as teaching students, so I feel like all of her efforts to push us in the right direction are all to help us become better players. She’s always helpful and though she’s strict sometimes, it’s to benefit us.”
