About the series
With the Northeastern varsity football program approaching its historic first game later this month, reporter Sean McLernon took an in-depth look at some of the personalities involved with the startup squad in a four-part series.

Part 1
Northeastern junior Justin Michalak has been waiting his whole life to play high school varsity football. In fact, Michalak, a cancer survivor, credits football with helping to save his life. Read More

Coach Brendan Brown didn't view the Northeastern program as a risk. Rather, he saw 'a potential gold mine.' Read More

Part 2
When the Northeastern Football Association needed help raising the $250,000 necessary to launch the program, Joe Griffith was just the guy they were looking for. Read More

Griffith's fundraising efforts have been considerable. But some in the community are still worried by the threat of higher taxes. Read More

Part 3
Rebuffed for the head coaching job, assistant Troy Jensen was reluctant to join Northeastern s staff. Two years later, his impact on the program is undeniable. Read More

Part 4
Tyler Wolgamuth is one of the few seniors on the varsity squad. He spent the past two-plus years working hard so he could have one season one shot at gridiron glory. Read More

Behind the scenes
Sean McLernon blogs the behind-the-scenes story behind the Northeastern series on The Lineup Card, our sports blog. Read More

Photo gallery
See some of the faces behind the Northeastern football program up close. View Gallery

Football had nothing to do with Brendan Brown getting a teaching job at Northeastern High School.

Seriously. Absolutely nothing. When then-assistant principal Mike Alessandroni contacted Brown for a long-term substitute teaching position in the spring of 2004, it was solely because he had the necessary teaching credentials for the job.

Even Brown wasn't anticipating running the football program. At that point, it didn't look like there would be any football program in the district for a long time.

"I was just coming over here because I wanted to get a job teaching," said Brown, who previously served as an assistant football coach at Reynolds High School in Greenville. "I knew coaching was going to happen somewhere. When I first

Northeastern coach Brendan Brown has had two years to prepare for his varsity debut this season. Brown coached the freshman team in 2006 and the junior varsity in 2007. (Daily Record/Sunday News - Bil Bowden)
got to Northeastern, the money wasn't there and it wasn't even close."

So Brown looked south to York and joined Matt Ortega's staff at William Penn, coaching special teams in 2004 and 2005.

When the money suddenly started flooding in and the Northeastern School District gave the go-ahead to launch the football program in early 2006, Brown was accidentally in the perfect position to get the head coaching gig.

The only question: Should he take the risk of committing himself to a new program that might never be able to drum up enough interest to have success? A few more years and Brown could probably land a job at a more established program.

In his eyes, Brown had no reason to wait.

"I saw the kids walking around the hallways and I saw the success Northeastern had at other sports and I didn't really view it as a risk," said Brown, who teaches business at Northeastern. "That may be because I'm stupid. Maybe I'm just a little too optimistic sometimes, or I'm just not afraid of failure.

"Honestly, I considered this to be a potential gold mine."

The 34-year-old who broke 10 school records in football and basketball at Oil City High School and was a football standout at Division III Washington & Jefferson College is now less than four weeks away from his varsity coaching debut. He's had more than two years to prepare, coaching the freshman team in 2006 and the junior varsity in 2007 with many of the same players who will suit up for the varsity this fall.

His emphasis remains on teaching the game, assuming that "the players know nothing, because in some cases they completely freeze up or forget what they learn in the past." Assistant head coach Troy Jensen said one of the things that made joining brown's staff appealing was their shared belief that "character development is important" when it comes to student-athletes.

Brown keeps practices routine-oriented to help build muscle memory and make the game seem second nature to his players. Strategically, he's keeping it simple.

"In high school football, you don't need 100 plays," Brown said. "We're going to get good at a few things. That's what we believe in. Defensively, we're going to be able to tackle and we're going to line up right. Offensively, we are not going to jump offside, we're not going to get penalties and we're going to execute. If you do those things in high school football, you're going to be successful."

smclernon@ydr.com; 771-2045