Coach Brown's Unforeseen O’Dea Journey by Owen Raup

SEATTLE- At O’Dea, it is common for students to have parents that are alumni, or to have other friends that are attending as well.

Varsity Basketball Assistant Head Coach Ryland Brown was afforded neither of those luxuries when he first arrived at O'Dea.

“I had no connections. No family. I was the first one.” said Brown.

Having gone to Washington Middle School, O’Dea was not the obvious decision when it came to which high school Brown would be attending going forward.

“I went to Washington Middle School, so I would have flowed into Garfield, and almost all of my friends went there,” said Brown.

But Brown's aunt had a son that had been attending O’Dea, and she had nothing but good things to say about his experiences there. So, Brown's mom had been exercising the possibility of sending him there as well.

“Man, honestly I didn’t want to come. At all,” Brown emphasizes.

It wasn’t up to him though.

Ryland Brown was going to attend O’Dea whether he liked it or not.

Having no one else to lean on during school, Brown would have to find a way to meet new people and adapt to the unfamiliar environment that he had been placed in.

One of the ways Brown had met people in the past had been through sports.

” I played soccer for a long time, I played baseball, through seventh grade I ran track, and I did football one year,” Brown states.

Brown had been surrounded by athletics all his life, but one stood out from the rest.

“Basketball was the one. It was a big sport in the family. My dad played; my uncles played. So really just watching them, seeing the joy, the spirit, the competitiveness, and the skill. I started playing when I was five or six. As soon as I could start playing for parks and recreation. So, I played there as much as I could, and then from there I played AAU for a couple years for Seattle United,” says Brown.

Luckily for him, O’Dea happened to provide some of the most competitive sports programs in the state, one of them being basketball.

”Freshman year I played on the freshman team,” said Brown.

Thanks to basketball, the transition from Washington to O’Dea was made much smoother.

“I had legitimate brothers… Having that relationship, that brotherhood, is real… I am extremely thankful. Extremely. The guys that I came in with were an extremely talented group, and a really motivated group.”

Little did he know that this group would go on to achieve one of the most historic accomplishments in O’Dea's lengthy existence.

“We won all of our games freshman year, we were undefeated, junior varsity, both years (I played), and then when I played varsity we lost one game, we lost in the semi-finals, and then we won them all senior year. So, I gotta say, I’m extremely fortunate. I just came along with an extremely talented bunch of selfless dudes, and competitive dudes. And you know, I only lost one game.”

Despite his ever-present humility and constant praising of fellow teammates, Brown played a crucial role on every team of which he was a part.

“Junior year and senior year I started at point guard, the whole time.”

After his senior year at O’Dea, Ryland Brown was faced with the decision most high school athletes are faced with. Whether or not he wanted to continue to play basketball in college or pursue something else.

“I had a couple interests, locally around here, but nothing too crazy. So, I was fortunate to get an academic scholarship from Hampton University in Virginia. So, I was like, man, I’m 5’’8, I ain't going to the NBA, so if they’re going to pay me to go to school, I’m just going to get this academic scholarship rather than fooling around playing minor league basketball.”

So, Brown chose the Virginia life.

Some people may go into college unsure of what they want to study as a career path.

Brown is not one of those people.

“I wanted to teach all along. I got a degree in elementary education and psychology, and then I came here, and went to City University to get my master's in teaching.”

Brown's immense passion and knowledge for teaching and psychology is what led him back to the game that he owes so much to.

“I’ve always been fortunate to have awesome coaches…so that kind of transitioned into, how can I share these lessons that they gave me, with people who are from my community. When I graduated, I started (coaching), since 2002, so almost twenty years.”

A number of those years have been spent back at O’Dea as an assistant coach of the varsity basketball team, assisting in 3A state championships, and the development of numerous college commits such as Paolo Banchero (Duke) and John Christofilis (Creighton). Brown continues to use the wisdom he developed during his playing days as a Fighting Irishman, to further develop students, and assist in building a similar brotherly environment to the one he was a part of in 1997.

“The main thing (for me) is learning how to relate to different types of guys, making them feel seen, giving a guy a high five, or just shooting the breeze on the bus or in the hallways. Just making sure that everyone knows that we are a part of a team.”

Starting as something Brown had dreaded and had little interest in pursuing, Brown's relationship to O’Dea has truly blossomed into a mutualism that has lasted far longer than the required four years of high school.