Brian Swain Sr. always envisioned having his sons follow him into the coaching profession. Two of his sons, Brian Jr. and Aaron, joined Brian Sr. in the coaching ranks, while his youngest sons, Dante and Jason, are still in college.
“It is a great honor to have my sons follow me into the coaching profession,” Brian Sr. said. “When they played at Alexander, I would see them on the field. I thought it would be great to have them on the coaching staff with me, and it came to fruition that two of them decided to go into teaching and coaching.”
Brian Sr. was his sons' first coach in elementary school and patiently waited for them when they finally arrived at Alexander High School. He enjoyed watching them develop into great athletes and being on the sidelines to coach them, but the goal has always been to have them on the same coaching staff.
“Hopefully one day we all can be on the sideline together,” Brian Sr. said. “Right now, Aaron is at Clark Middle School, and Brian Jr. is at LBJ. I would love to be on the same staff with them.”
Brian Jr. and Aaron look forward to one day fulfilling that notion and coaching alongside their father as they call out plays.
“He's mentioned how it would be cool for us to all coach together, but we are all very competitive,” he said. “My siblings are as competitive as can be, and our dad is the same way. So, I do think it would be fun and a nice experience to one day coach together also with one of my brothers, but right now the competitiveness in me wants to beat him. He's beaten me every year so far; the competitiveness in me wants the bragging rights. Plus, we all have the same goal of being a head coach and being the best at it. So, I think that would be nice also. We all are competitive, including my sister, who is not even in the coaching profession."
At the inception, Brian Jr. was apprehensive about following in his father’s footsteps, but he saw firsthand the impact a coach has on a student-athlete’s life. He wanted to have the same impact on the next generation.
“It wasn't something I initially set out to do growing up, but it always was in the back of my mind. Growing up, all I heard was ‘your dad is cool, he gives good life advice,’” Brian Jr. said. “It was cool seeing everyone talk about him and seeing the impact he's had on people... so that rubbed off on me wanting to make a positive influence on people and athletes.”
Aaron did not think about coaching until his college playing days were over, but he felt he had more to offer his community. He also saw the impact all his coaches had on his life, including his father, so he followed his father into the coaching profession.
“Coaching is not something I always saw myself getting into. It wasn't until I was done playing that I realized I was still passionate about being around sports and wanted to continue being around them,” Aaron said. “That's when I began taking steps toward becoming a coach. It wasn't an easy decision. Growing up, I saw the countless hours coaches have to put in, and that made me hesitant, but seeing the impact a coach can have on a child or athlete's life helped push me to become a coach.”
All four Swain brothers were coached by their father at Alexander High, and they knew the expectations of being a coach’s kid. The extra pressure of being a coach's kid could have been their demise, but the trio rose above it with the guidance of Brian Sr., who taught his sons to be resilient, work hard and never give up no matter how dire the situation might be in a game.
“Being coached by my dad in high school was a unique experience that had its pros and cons,” Aaron said. “On the positive side, I knew he was looking out for me, so it was nice to always have that unconditional support around me. Having my dad as a coach gave me more personalized attention and a better understanding of what I was good at and what needed more work.
“However, the situation was extremely challenging. The pressure to perform felt heightened; there were a lot of expectations that I felt I constantly needed to live up to. There was never a time I felt I could relax and take it easy. Having to balance the coach-player dynamic with the father-son relationship is more difficult than one would think. Other players can mess up, play badly and they might hear about it for a few minutes from a coach. With your dad as a coach, you'll hear about it at the game, after the game, on the way home, the next morning, text messages."
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