Franklin High School's Louis Brown Is Coach Of The Year: Packers

FRANKLIN, WI — Franklin High School's Coach Louis Brown was named the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association/Green Bay Packers 2021 Coach of the Year on Tuesday, according to a news release from the Packers.

The award comes in Brown's 11th season of being the head coach for Franklin High School, according to the release, and shortly after the Franklin Sabers won the WIAA Division 1 state championship at Camp Randall in Madison on Nov. 19.

The championship victory over Sun Prairie in November allowed Brown and the Sabers to finish the season out with a perfect 14-0 record.

"Any time you win a state title, it starts with a great group of leaders, and a great senior class," Brown said in the news release. "We felt very shortchanged (last) fall with all the COVID stuff, we only ended up getting five games in. Then they did a two-round playoff; we were going to be in with a couple of other really good teams, then our school shut down and they shut down football. I think a lot of those juniors felt—and obviously the seniors that graduated did—really shortchanged and that helped motivate them in the offseason. And it was tough, we came in ranked No. 1 in the state, and we had the target on our back. We scheduled a very tough Appleton North team that we ended up playing twice this year and we had our backs against the wall in both of those games. But this is a special group of kids that don't quit, and they played to the last whistle."

Brown Has Long Coaching History

Brown comes from a military family that moved around several times during his childhood before he settled in Waterloo, the news release said. He participated in football, wrestling and baseball at Waterloo High School where he graduated from in 1986.

There are decades of coaching experience behind Brown. His career began in 1991 as a freshman football coach for Kankakee High School in Illinois. Only about a year later, the news release said, Brown became an assistant coach in Franklin. He became the head coach of the Sabers in 2011.

But even after all those years of being head coach, Brown said he couldn't have received the award without the work of the other coaches around him.

"Really, it's reflective of my assistant coaches," Brown said about the award in the news release. "My offensive coordinator and my defensive coordinator are both tremendous coaches. I think they both could be head coaches someday. I'm very lucky to have Brent Thoen and Drew Ambrose. It's very humbling; the main reason I coach is watching the success of teenage boys become young men. But then to have fellow coaches acknowledge how hard you've worked, you know your wives always know how hard you work, your kids know, your community knows, but it's cool to have the state know. So, it's very gratifying for sure."

The High School Coach of the Year program is led by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association and the Green Bay Packers. The Packers and NFL will award $2000 to the Franklin football program for Brown's naming as Coach of the Year, the news release said. Brown will also be honored at a WFCA Banquet at Lambeau Field.

The WFCA has handed out the award since 1976 and the Packers joined in 1998 to present the same award, according to the news release.