By Cris Greer
WKTV Managing Editor
It’s not an easy task replacing a 28-year veteran coach who has experienced great success.
That’s what Erika Brown is tasked to do as the new coach of the South Christian girls basketball team, replacing Kim Legge.
“I am excited to continue building off the success Coach Legge established over her many years of coaching,” said Brown, who was the varsity assistant for the Sailors for three years and coach at Grandville and Davision for four years. ” I am honored to take the lead here at South. Coaching at South gives me the opportunity to share my faith and help encourage young ladies to be the best versions of themselves.
“Teaching them the game of basketball is the icing on the cake.”
Brown kicked off her new role with a 56-40 win over Grand Rapids Christian last Tuesday.
“I am proud of our hard work on Tuesday night,” said Brown, whose husband Danny is South Christian’s football coach. “Grand Rapids Christian has been a tough opener over the years. I felt we played well and I was happy with our energy and effort. We talk a lot about our effort, attitude and our connection with each other. These are things we can control and we put lots of emphasis on them.
“Our leading scorers for the night were Sophia Prins (19 points) and Lizzie Wolthuis (15 points). Sophia is our floor general, and as our point guard she is the extension of the coach on the floor. She embraces this role with everything she has. Lizzie is our shooting guard. When she finds her rhythm we roll with it and great things happen.”
“It’s pretty special to have two players who began their high school career together on varsity, continuing to be great teammates and leaders in their own unique ways.”
The team captains are senior Ashley Thomasma and junior Lily Nitz.
Brown takes over a Sailor team that finished second in the Gold at 10-4, 16-8 overall.
“Our goal this year is to get better each week, to compete at our best each game and to embrace the process and journey we are on together.”
South Christian Athletic Director David Kool had much to say about Coach Brown and former Coach Legge.
“We are so excited to have someone the caliber of Coach Brown taking over our program,” Kool said. “She has been involved with the program over the last couple of years as an assistant so her familiarity with the girls and our community is top-notch. She brings past experience as a varsity head coach at different programs and a vast array of knowledge in the basketball realm. Coach Brown is a relational coach who’s life mission is to love kids and show them the hands and feet of Jesus every day. She is going to make our girls better as players and human beings and that is very exciting for us.
“Coach Legge is and will continue to be missed. We are very grateful and appreciative of her leadership of our program over the years. She not only won a lot of games, but more importantly, made an impact on so many girls over her 28 years at South Christian. She was a relationship person and a Jesus follower first who did things the right way and her time will always be remembered fondly here. We wish her and her family nothing but success in the next phase of her life.”
