"Brad Lawson Demonstrates Excellence in Assisting"
Life gives a person chances to lead as well as times to follow. For Bradley Lawson, his career at Maple River has given him plenty of both. As a middle school teacher, he is the captain of his own ship, guiding students through curricular and developmental lessons on a daily basis. In this regard, Lawson leads a hundred learners as he shepherds his flock from September to May. Yet Lawson has proven himself to be one of the more valuable assistants within the Maple River community, bringing him a small bit of notoriety this past spring as the Section 2A Assistant Coach of the Year. So why does Lawson choose to play the part of noble Samwise Gamgee and let the Frodos in his life get all the attention? (Strike that metaphor. He started in the English department yet moved to the social studies department). So why does Lawson choose to play the part of Gerald Ford to Richard Nixon (Strike that metaphor too. Politics are far too divisive. Perhaps I’ll stick to a sports metaphor). So why does Lawson play the part of Steve Kerr to Michael Jordan?
Like Kerr, he’s a team player willing to help others get the ball. But don’t forget! Michael Jordan only won six rings. By waiting in the wings, Steve Kerr helped the Bulls to three titles, helped the Spurs win two more, and once he had the chance, he guided the Golden State Warriors to four more titles.
Stealing Home
Lawson’s love of sports (especially baseball) began as a Belle Plaine Tiger. “Baseball, obviously, is my number one sport,” Lawson explained.. “Basketball is the other sport I played. I only played one year of football in high school, but baseball I played ever since I can remember. Belle Plaine’s a big baseball community. That whole area up in the Minnesota River Valley is big in baseball.” Lawson’s break into varsity baseball came by being in the right place at the right time. Belle Plaine’s baseball team takes a trip to Florida every three years, which happened to take place when he was a lowly freshman.. “My dad was an assistant coach on the varsity baseball team, and so they were looking for one other guy to bring with to catch and just strictly catch. And so I volunteered, or my dad volunteered me. So I went down to Florida and I caught. No choice., Every. Single. Inning.” While this experience was exciting enough for a freshman, this experience gave him enough confidence when a varsity player was suspended, giving him a chance to play varsity baseball as a freshman. “Those first couple years were rough trying to play with the big boys and there were multiple D1 pitchers in our conference, so hitting was not the easiest as a freshman and sophomore, going against D1 or D2 pitchers.” Lawson’s Tiger team made a deep run at the section title his sophomore year yet they came up short in a controversial ruling, a memory that he carried with him to counsel his current team through tough breaks.
Following high school, Lawson’s love of baseball led him to continue playing in college. His first two years were spent in the Twin Cities area playing for Dakota County Tech. While he had a chance to play at D2 Augustana, he ultimately chose to play closer to home at Bethany in Mankato.
Prioritizing “home” became an important factor in Lawson’s decision making.
After meeting and marrying his wife in 2012, they chose the small town community first and let the job follow. “We looked at houses in Lake Crystal. We looked at houses in Vernon Center. We looked at houses in town here (Mapleton), St Clair, Janesville, and found one here in town that we liked. She was working in Mankato already. I didn't have a full time set up job so I was a little bit more flexible with teaching in schools everywhere. The rest is history.”
Dishing Out Assists
After subbing for a year, Lawson’s patience paid off and he got a job with Maple River in 2014. With an athletic background and an eagerness to help, he quickly found plenty to do.
As the assistant baseball coach for Jeff Cole, he now gets to do what he loves. According to Coach Cole, “It's nice to have an assistant coach that you can throw ideas out to and get opinions with. And he's just got a very high baseball IQ. He does a lot of the little things for me, like organization, doing some of the computer work, putting things into the computer, and doing the bus schedule. He does a lot of our in-game scouting and things like that. So he just does a lot of things that people don't see.”
Being part of the baseball program allows Lawson to share what he loves about the sport. “Well, baseball is probably my number one passion. Baseball is where it's something different every game. It's something different every practice. There's always little things that you see happen and you got to jot it down. ‘We got to work on this. We got to work on that.’ And one of the things I think we worked on the most this year was a contact play where you gotta run around third with no outs or one out, and you hit the ball on the ground, the runner on third's gotta go right away, make the other team pressure them to make a play. And we worked on that a lot, and that was, again, another discussion between Jeff and I constantly. Our classrooms are so close together in between classes, it seems like every day is ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to work on today?’ And then we go and teach an hour and we come back.”
Having a seasoned baseball mind on staff could threaten a thin-skinned coach, but that’s now how Cole views their relationship at all. “We don't always agree on things. It's not like in a negative way, but he's not always going to agree with everything I say. He's just going to give me a different perspective to look at.”
While baseball might be Lawson’s passion, he received acclaim this past year for the work he’s doing with the girls’ basketball program. According to head coach Devin Drager, it’s all about the value he puts on relationships. “I really appreciate having Brad. I think the biggest thing is that he connects so well with the players. He can joke around with them and make it really fun but when it comes to needing that extra pusher–the extra coaching, the seriousness of it–they really respond well to him. And I think that comes because he takes the time to create those relationships with them. We just kind of have a good understanding of how one another coaches and when the time is to say something He's always like one step ahead, too. It's funny how in a day, I'll send him a message and he’s like, ‘Oh, I already did it.’ He's so aware of what needs to be done and just so willing to do it.”
Obviously, after working so hard behind the scenes with both the basketball and baseball program, Lawson needs a break away from it all during the summer, right?
Right?
Not so fast. “During the summer, I help out Jay (Byram) with all of the grounds crew stuff, which again is another chance to sit and talk baseball because he's a big baseball, softball guy. It helps to be able to talk about sports, so that's just restlessness.” So the assistant grounds crew assistant certainly has his fill of sports after hanging out with Jay Byram, right? Well, he also plays for the Minnesota Lake Royals.
Leading Off
In the end, Samwise Gamgee saved the day by putting Frodo on his back and helping him to the finish line (hey, the metaphor works here). The mantle of leadership is something Lawson understands well and he’s thought about being a head coach himself. “I have, over the years, thought about wanting to be a head coach, but over the last couple years of seeing how many head coaches are going out with parents and with other athletes and people going after them: looking back on it, being the assistant coach is kind of a nice place to be.”
While Lawson again patiently waits for the right opportunity, he’s already honing his leadership skills in the classroom, the school, and the field. Jeff Cole has seen his leadership first hand. “It's been a lot of fun to watch him grow as a teacher, but he's not just a teacher. He's also the president of the union. In the fall, he runs the clock at football, at the home football games, and then when we have our like the brat stand, you'll see him in the Festag food stand. You'll just see him doing some of those other things that necessarily aren't required as a teacher, but they're one of those things that you do as a teacher because you think it's the right thing to do.”
Drager echoes these observations. “He's someone that teachers can go and talk to and he's willing to listen and you know, take forth, that leadership role in the sense of making sure that our teachers are feeling supported.”
Lawson has also become the head coach of his daughter’s softball team, allowing the sports junkie to share his love of the game with her. “I coach. I do coach Addie's 10U softball team. That's every Monday, Thursday, sometimes Sundays. And then I still play baseball with the Royals myself, and that's on Sundays and Wednesdays. So there was a stretch at the beginning of the summer, when high school playoffs were still going on and Royals were just getting started up, and Addie’s softball was getting started up. And I think we went 14 or 15 straight days where we were at a baseball field or or a softball field.”
Whether it is his daughter or a baseball player, Lawson’s coaching ultimately comes down to his love of teaching. “I think it's easier to be a coach when you're a teacher because all of the athletes that you have, have had you in the classroom before, and I don't think that I'm much different teaching as much as I am coaching, just based on the fact that when I'm coaching, I'm still trying to teach different aspects.”
So while Michael Jordan got the spotlight for a few years, it was Steve Kerr who ended up being the true “Lord of the Rings” by showing a little patience.
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