Mitchell Brown studied football under legendary Palm Bay High football coach Dan Burke twice, separated by about eight years.
Now, the 2016 Palm Bay graduate is the new head coach for the Pirates program, and he’s looking to make a connection to the best of the school’s football history. Mitchell was officially named to the job five days before Christmas of last year, following a season of Burke returning as head coach to stabilize the program during a coaching transition period.
The 2024 coaching staff already has a familiar look.
“A lot of people are happy to see alumni come back. (We’ve added) my brother (Stuart Brown), Mike (Degory), Bata (Cvetkovic) to the coaching staff,” Mitchell Brown said. “There haven’t been a lot of former guys come around a lot. We want to change that.
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“The administration is happy that there are a lot of alumni that care about this program and where it’s been. Our focus is to get it back to where it was, the tradition part of it.”
Under Burke, the tradition included 221 career wins — the most by anyone coaching football at a Brevard County school — 22 appearances in the playoffs and two state championships. Brown himself played center for Burke, while Degory was an offensive lineman both at Palm Bay and with the Florida Gators. Brother Stuart Brown was a quarterback and Cvetkovic a lineman right next to Degory.
It was during his own playing days that Mitchell first learned from Burke. Last year, he found himself in a similar role, sort of a head-coach-in-waiting, gradually taking more and more responsibility for the team’s activities.
“Really, from the start of it, he gave me a lot on my plate,” Brown said, “whether it was the paperwork side of it, the booster club side of it, scheduling, dealing with the administration. He was a huge help. Those last couple games of the season, he let me run practices. It was great.”
After his dad, who was also a coach, Mitchell’s list of top influencers includes his high school mentor. That is one of the foundations of what a Mitchell Brown team will be.
“I don’t think it looks very much different from a Dan Burke team. We’re going to be physical and disciplined. We’ve had a problem with that. I think it’s something we kind of lost, but I think a lot of teams are having problems with discipline.” Just trying to get these kids focused on playing for each other, work hard for each other. You see a lot of kids on the sideline that complain.”
His own role now will be to handle the overall view and then get out of the way as much as possible.
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“Trust your coaches. You brought them on for a reason. Let them do their thing,” he said. “I may work with the offense a little bit more. I need to be well-rounded, and I’ve been mostly with the defense (in my coaching career). I think I’ll just plug in where I’m needed, let the guys do their job. On game days, I’m just organizing and facilitating at that point.”
And at the end of 2024? His measure of success will be what he saw on the field and what he senses from the guys in uniform.
“(I want to see that) we competed in every game, that we didn’t give up and that the scoreboard reflects that, whether it’s a win or a loss,” he said. “(I want to know) that the kids that stayed enjoyed the season, and they were glad they stayed.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Mitchell Brown now front man for Palm Bay High football
Florida Today
