Less than a decade ago, Bryce Boyer and Bailey Howard played together for the Brown County Eagles in the Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium. Boyer graduated in 2011 and Howard in 2010.

This season, they’re back on the same gym floor, but on the sidelines. And so is another Eagles basketball standout: Sasha Robinson, from the Class of 2013.

All three are new basketball coaches for Brown County High School. Howard serves as the junior varsity boys coach, Robinson is the varsity girls assistant coach, and Boyer is an assistant coach for the varsity boys team.

Howard led his team in scoring as an Eagle and went on to be a standout player at Franklin College. He studied health science and biology, planning to become a teacher.

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“That kind of went away, and I never thought I would be coaching again,” he said about teaching.

He sells insurance for a company in Bloomington now. “I thought it (coaching) was kind of something that was going to be impossible with working 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I work a job that allows me to do this, so it worked out nice,” he said.

The offer of a coaching job came from his sixth-grade teacher — and one of his all-time favorites — now-Superintendent Laura Hammack.

He couldn’t say no. “And I was really pleased to do so,” he said. “… It feels good to be home.”

Howard had been helping former BCHS head basketball coach Roger Fleetwood with coaching at Owen Valley High School. ”I actually broke it off with him because it was too much. Brown County was a little easier with the location,” he said. Howard, his wife and their daughter live in Unionville.

“When I was younger, it was all about how I could get myself better and make our teammates better. Now I have to focus on how I can get them better, and it’s good,” Howard said.

The day before the Eagles’ home-opener, Howard and Boyer were working with the varsity and JV players.

As an Eagle, Boyer played basketball and football, then attended Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus. In December, he will receive his degree in sociology.

Right now he’s working for Big Woods Brewing Co. and living in Brown County with his wife and two children.

Boyer has been around in various coaching positions in the county since he graduated from high school. He was a volunteer assistant coach at the intermediate and junior high schools. He was approached about applying for the assistant coach job on the boys varsity basketball team, and after meeting with head coach Chuck Hutchins, he decided it was a good fit.

“This has always been a dream of mine,” Boyer said.

“It’s been great to have people like myself, Bailey and Sasha coming back, just because it’s nice to have people who have been in this program, who understand this school, because we do face some challenges that a lot of other schools don’t face in terms of being able to get kids here and get kids into the gym.”

Both Howard and Boyer said they had coaches who impacted their lives, and they look forward to filling those roles for their players.

“Basketball made a big impact on my life,” Boyer said. “I was lucky to have a couple of coaches who cared a lot about me. I think that was something that always drew me back to it, trying to make a difference, trying to be a good role model and be supportive for these guys.”

Howard said Fleetwood had a big influence on him by teaching morals, values and that “winning isn’t everything.”

“One of my biggest points I want to come across to them is basketball is not everything. Once you’re done, you’re done, and it’s the real world,” Howard said. “If I can make them better people, I think that should be the overall goal. You’re only a good basketball player for so long, and you have to be a good person forever.”

Next door in the auxiliary gymnasium, players yell Robinson’s name in excitement as she steps onto the court.

Robinson earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Evansville. She graduated in May with a degree in exercise science.

After that, Robinson didn’t think she would touch a basketball for quite a while, even though she’d played competitively since she was 8.

“I really wasn’t anticipating coaching in my near future or anything,” she said.

“I didn’t really know what I was going to do in between graduation and starting nursing school, so I wasn’t necessarily looking for anything to do, but my mom told me about coaching,” she said.

She attended an open gym this summer to familiarize herself with the program again. “Then I decided, why not? I have nothing to lose and I have a lot of basketball knowledge that I can offer and experience, so might as well,” she said.

When Robinson isn’t coaching, she works as a paraprofessional at Sprunica Elementary School and takes a prerequisite course at IUPUC for nursing school. She also helps with homeschool swim and gym at the Brown County YMCA on Tuesdays.

When she received word she was going to be the JV coach, she was nervous.

“It’s weird being back on the court, but in a different position. Going from playing to coaching is just a whole new ballgame,” she said.

“It is cool. It’s funny because people know who you are and it’s kind of strange, but it’s kind of cool in the same sense. … I remember a lot of them (the players) when they were little, so it’s kind of cool seeing how everyone has grown.”

Robinson said she’s learning as she goes. ”I am really glad I decided to take the job, because it’s just fun being able to teach the girls some things and then watch them actually do it and be successful at it.”

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The girls basketball team is giving back to the community this school year. “It’s something where we’re trying to branch out a little bit and think outside of ourselves,” said head coach Matt Roberts.

On Nov. 28, that branch will grow longer when the team hosts a benefit game in honor of a local woman who is battling terminal brain cancer. The girls varsity game against Mitchell begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium.

Felicia Velez is a mother of three. She has a daughter who attends preschool at Sprunica Elementary School, which is how Roberts heard about the Velez family. His wife is a preschool teacher at SES.

For the past several months, Velez has been receiving experimental treatments that cost $6,000 to $7,000 a month. “As her health has rapidly declined, she has had to quit her job as a surgical nurse. Her husband is continuing to work to support the family,” Roberts wrote in his letter of support for the benefit game.

The team has designed T-shirts to sell during the game. All proceeds from those sales will go to the Velez family.

The Sprunica PTO also will sell cotton candy during the game to benefit the family.

All fans are asked to wear grey, the tribute color for brain cancer, Roberts said.

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