WHS Grad Newberry Leads Navy Football as Head Coach

 

 

"Go Army, Beat Navy!" and "Go Navy, Beat Army!" were first heard after a pickup game in 1890 between U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen and West Point Army cadets held on The Plain field at West Point. The established Navy football team challenged and beat the newly formed Army team in November and the nation has enjoyed the annual match-up ever since.

 

For 1992 Westmoore High School graduate Brian Newberry, that phrase means much more as he leads the U.S. Naval Academy football team as head coach.     

 

Newberry started playing youth football as a 4^th-grade student at Kingsgate Elementary. He played at Brink Junior High for 7^th and 8^th grade and with Moore West as a freshman. At Westmoore he played football, basketball and ran track.

 

“I was a really shy kid and would watch kids playing football at the park close to my house. I wanted to play so my Dad told me to go ask the coach if I could play. I did, and the rest is history,” said Newberry.

 

Newberry quickly recalls Westmoore teachers and coaches who made the biggest positive impact on him and, in a way, steered him toward teaching and coaching. 

 

“Judy Clowdus taught PE and was my teacher in junior high. She transferred to Westmoore and was so involved with students and she cared about us. Still today, she sends unprompted, handwritten letters of encouragement. She wanted all of us to be successful,” he said.

Newberry was a student of the first graduating class to complete 10th through 12th grade at WHS after it was established and opened for the 1988-89 school year. He remembers the significant influence that his WHS athletic coaches had on his college path.  

 

“I had tremendous coaches when I was there. Wayne Estes was the head coach, Everett Mahaney was the defensive coordinator, David Jones was my quarterback coach, Ty Prestige was our offensive coordinator, Jeff Adams was my defensive back coach; I remember those guys like it was yesterday.

 

“They were a special group of men who cared about the players and instilled a lot of great things in us when I was there. Those were the guys – not during college - but during my high school experience - who made me gravitate toward wanting to coach,” Newberry said.

 

Newberry was the first college graduate from both sides of his family and he said while growing up, higher education was not often discussed at home. However, he created his pathway into college as a standout quarterback for the Jaguars, earning a scholarship to play for Baylor University starting in the fall of 1992. With a set of grandparents living in Waco, Newberry said he still had a home away from home.

 

Initially thinking he would pursue a pre-medical degree, Newberry changed his mind and declared education as his major.

 

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do; I thought maybe business and if not that I could get back to a high school coaching and teaching,” he said.

 

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in science from Baylor, he worked as a tour guide for one year at the Glacier National Park. During that time, he decided he wanted to be a full-time coach and things started falling into place. He worked with the American Football Coaches Association after reconnecting with former Baylor Coach Grant Teaff, who served as the association's president.

While working at their national convention, Newberry made a connection that led him to his first graduate assistant (GA) position at Southern Arkansas University.

 

“When you’re trying to get a GA job you want to get one at the highest level I mean, FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) and there just weren’t many opportunities at the time,” he said.

 

As a GA, Newberry worked on an MBA and said he fell in love with coaching while there.

 

I’ve been extremely fortunate. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be sitting here as the head coach of the Naval Academy.

-  Brian Newberry

“There’s a saying in our profession that, ‘You’ve come up the hard way,’ and I certainly did that. I’ve coached Division II, Division III, I coached FCS (Football Champion Subdivision) and now I’m coaching FBS here at the Naval Academy,” he said.

 

Before taking the helm of the Naval Academy team in 2019 Newberry said he did plenty of “grunt work,” everything from painting fields to cutting grass and cleaning bathrooms. But he also said while thinking back on his moves and coming up as a coach the hard way, every stop was critical for his development as a coach.

 

Newberry worked as a coordinator for most of his career and five years ago realized he wanted the position of being the head coach for a team.

 

“I didn’t feel that way until I got to the Naval Academy. I worked for the former head coach Ken Niumatalolo, an outstanding human being, and a great leader but I wasn’t sure I could be a head coach and responsible for so much,” said Newberry.

He also wondered if he could balance it all as a father to two young children and a husband. Today, he is responsible for a roster of 180 players and a staff of 35.

  

"You work a lot of hours as a coach and especially as a football coach - crazy hours - but since my last two jobs, I've never thought about the hours that I work.

 

When you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work, and that's certainly been the case for me," said Newberry.      

 

Newberry said the U.S. Naval Academy does not participate in the Transfer Portal and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) programs with their athletes. He said the Naval Academy is a true developmental program and a “unicorn” among programs where teammates stay together for the time they’re in college and can create strong bonds and care for one another.

 

With a young family, Newberry also wants his team and staff to focus on a healthier work/life balance that coaches will not find with other teams. They have family dinners when work and practice runs late and his staff is off on Sundays – something he says is unheard of in college football.

 

He encourages his players to be the best versions of themselves and says the psychology of athletes and the business side of the game are much different than when he played. In larger programs, players can be seen as commodities, and coaches can lose sight of why they started coaching because of the pressure to win.

 

“You shout praise and whisper criticism (to players) and I believe strongly in positive reinforcement. The players have to know you care about them before they go and do the hard things you ask them to do,” he said.

 

"Eighteen to 22 are such important years of your life and you grow so much during that time... The Xs and Os are important, but we're trying to pour into these young men to make them better fathers and husbands when they leave here," Newberry said.

 

Newberry said the difficult lessons learned while playing football reflect what his players’ lives, work ethic and leadership roles as Navy and Marine officers will be like. He also emphasizes that his team should play without the fear of failure and if they make mistakes to do it full speed, at 100 miles per hour. 

 

“You do hard things and it tells you a lot about yourself and other people…This program is a brotherhood that will last them the rest of their lives,” Newberry said.

 

When asked about the Navy traditions he’s grown to appreciate Newberry said, “It’s such a historical place. You start with the Army-Navy Game; there’s nothing like it. You swell with pride and patriotism being a part of that game…and we celebrate the men and women in our Armed Forces.”

 

Newberry also mentioned the Herndon Monument Climb, the culmination of plebe year at the Naval Academy where plebes build a human pyramid and remove dixie cup hat at the top of the vegetable-shortening-covered monument and replace it with an upperclassman’s hat.

 

 

That experience is what led me to be a coach. It was the impact that the people at Westmoore had on my life. The phenomenal teachers and coaches who cared about us and poured into us and made me a better person. I wanted to have that same impact on other people,” Newberry said.

 

The 2024 Army-Navy Game is scheduled for Sat., Dec. 14.

 

Learn more about the U.S. Naval Academy at www.usna.edu and explore Newberry’s football program at www.navysports.com/sports/football. Visit the Westmoore High School webpage here.

 

 

FUN FACT: Every crowd that chants, “I believe that we will win!” uses a chant started by Navy Midshipmen! Watch the moment the chant was born during the 1999 Army-Navy game here.

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Westmoore v Putnam City North

*Full YouTube footage of the game HERE*

 

1992 - Westmoore High School

1992-96 – Baylor University: Safety/defensive back

1998 - B.S. in Education, Baylor University

 

1999-2000: Southern Arkansas University

2001-2002: Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA

2003: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

2004-06: Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA

2007-2010: Elon University, Elon, NC

2011: University of the South, Sewanee, TN

2012: Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI

2013-18: Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA

2019 to present: U.S. Naval Academy Head Coach, Annapolis, MD