By Hayden Rollison

Collegiate’s new Sports Performance Assistant Coach, Justin Brown, didn’t quite know where his future was heading in college. Attending Virginia Commonwealth University, Brown initially “enrolled at VCU as a biology major with a pre-med focus,” but after two years in the grueling course load as a biology major, Brown decided to change his major and instead focus on exercise science. Brown had previously been interested in fitness training in high school, as he liked the way it made him feel. Brown remembers that he “liked the way I felt about myself, the way I looked, my confidence level, the way girls looked at me, and that the football guys were impressed with me as well.” College gave him the perfect opportunity to dive deeper into the science behind it. 

Brown grew up right down the road from Collegiate in Chesterfield, where he attended Falling Creek Elementary School, Falling Creek Middle School, and Meadowbrook High School. Although Brown enjoyed playing sports like football and basketball in high school, he looks back at that time now with laughter, since he “mostly rode the bench.” When JV football didn’t work out as Brown had hoped, he turned to a weightlifting program his junior and senior years called “A Fifth of Life.” This program was the start of his love for strength and conditioning. 

When asked about his favorite memories in high school, Brown said one of the things he remembered most was his experience in the school band, where Brown played the tuba. Brown started his tuba career in 8th grade, playing all throughout high school.  Once at VCU, Brown had an audition for the Spirit Band, but he “procrastinated and didn’t practice the audition piece enough, only halfway knowing it for the audition.” After thinking back on this mistake, Brown said that “it is super important to have a good first impression,” which he lacked in his Spirit Band audition. 

When Brown began applying for colleges in high school, he wanted to stay close to home, applying to VCU as his safe school, and UVA as his first choice, ultimately ending up at VCU. When asked about advice for the application process, Brown stated, “for the experience, look for something out of state. It is important to go to a new school, meet new people, and have some independence, because college is the time to do it.” 

Brown mentioned independence a few times when talking about college, since he “wasn’t used to having so much independence in college that I didn’t do as well as he thought I was going to do.” Witnessing firsthand the amount of independence that comes with college, Brown struggled with his course load. He states that “biology in high school was probably the first chapter in college.” Brown decided to use his biology knowledge and love for weight lifting when he changed his major to exercise science. 

In order to fulfill his degree, Brown had to complete a 120-hour internship and a 240-hour internship. His first internship was held at Moss Sports Performance in the Powhatan area, owned by former Collegiate strength and conditioning coach Adam Moss. Brown worked with high school athletes that played baseball, football, wrestling, soccer, and girls lacrosse. Brown thanks Moss Sports Performance for teaching him how to work well with kids. He states that although “Physical Education was my major, I never learned about any Physical Education inside a school system, only the science behind sports performance.” He learned that missing piece of interacting with kids at Moss Sports Performance. 

Brown completed his 240-hour internship at the University of Richmond, where he worked with women’s soccer, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s golf, and shadowed the football team. At Moss Performance, Brown learned the fundamentals of a strength and conditioning program, but he says he learned “the playbook and the Xs and Os at Richmond.” The college level required more advanced programs than the fundamentals of a high school program. Brown is thankful for his experience at both Moss Performance and the University of Richmond, as they both taught him completely different things about Sports Performance that have helped him in his career. 

Grover Jones Field. Photo courtesy of Collegiate School.

At Collegiate, Brown works with almost all ages, ranging from third grade P.E. through varsity sports. In the Lower School, he primarily works with fourth grade P.E. but occasionally helps out in the third grade. Brown focuses on teaching specific movement patterns like “skipping, grapevining and carioca, shuffling, catching, throwing, and rock climbing.” For seventh and eighth graders, Brown works collaboratively with Head Sports Performance Coach Chris Peoples, teaching the students in the weight room. Because all JV and varsity sports at Collegiate are required to lift twice a week, Brown creates sport-specific programs for the teams that he works with primarily. During the fall and spring seasons, Brown works with the athletes on the main campus, while Peoples works with the athletes at Collegiate’s Robins Campus. Brown mentioned that he also works with Athletic Trainers Shannon Winston and Tara Tate to create specialized programs for athletes that are recovering from injury. 

Outside of Collegiate, Brown remains busy playing rugby, practicing Muay Thai, watching football, or playing with his new puppy Juniper, a Pembroke Corgi. Brown decided to give rugby a try when looking for something to do in his free time at VCU. He explains rugby as “a combination of both soccer and football,” where there are no specific positions given to any player, and everyone collectively plays offense and defense. Brown states that “it has been one of the best experiences of my life.”

While spending the majority of his Saturday watching UFC events, Brown has been influenced as he decided to take up Muay Thai, a form of close-combat using the entire body, on his own. Brown mostly finds classes for Muay Thai on weeknights when practices end early. After work every day, Brown states “I have ‘play duty’ with the puppy until she goes to bed, then I get my true ‘free time’ where I enjoy playing video games.” Currently, Brown’s favorite games are Fallout 4 on Xbox One, Mass Effect Collector’s Edition on the PlayStation 4, and Pokemon Legends: Archeus on the Nintendo Switch. Brown also looks forward to spending time with his cousins at family cookouts on many Saturdays during the summer. 

After being at Collegiate for almost a full year, Brown’s favorite memory came from a fourth grade PE class, where he is a teacher’s assistant, working with different classes about every other week. One student who “could barely do a modified pushup came up to me a few weeks later, excited that he could now do five regular pushups.” When his fourth grade students come back to him excited about the little things, he says “it’s great. It’s awesome. That has to be my favorite part is seeing kids get so excited about the little things.”