Reflections of a coach’s wife

Brittany Brown left, her husband Jake and their daughter are enjoying their first year at West Texas A&M.

The hours of a coach are very similar to perhaps those of a doctor.  My husband —West Texas A&M offensive coordinator Jake Brown — goes into work somewhere between 4:30 a.m. to 5 a.m., each morning and doesn’t come home most evenings until 10 p.m.

The difference— wives of doctors rarely have the privilege of going into surgeries and seeing their husbands hard work and preparation in action.  However, coach’s wives do.  We get to watch our husbands metaphorically “go into surgery” each weekend on the football field—dissecting plays and hoping for success.

It truly is a feeling like no other getting to see the many practices and long nights of watching film come to fruition on game day.

Besides getting to see the fruits of my husband’s labor, there are some other unique perks that come along with being a coach’s wife.  Each team we have ever been a part of has brought us a new set of friends that are certainly more like family.

It may be that no one truly understands the day in the life of a coaching family like those that are living it with you.  We spend the most amount of time together and literally have the mindset of “it takes a village” each weekend when game day arrives.  Some of the very best friends we have to this day are all because of my husband’s coaching career, and no matter the distance, change of team names, or the colors we wear on game day, we continue to root for each other from near or far. In fact, it was and still is difficult to narrow down guest lists for special events like our wedding, showers, and birthday celebrations.  As much time that has passed from each of our football families, you still want all of those special people in your life to take part in all the pages of your life.  With a growing “family” also comes special memories in places that you might not have not traveled otherwise.

Being a coach’s wife means that you live in many places—six moves to be exact in just under seven years of marriage for my husband and me.

Jake Brown and his daughter Harper pose for a photo on J Ferg Field at Buffalo Stadium. [Provided photo]

Many ask “how do you do it?”  I have joked with my friends and family many times about investing in a moving company, or starting one up on our own. Truth is, each move has brought growth in so many ways that I could not have imagined—for me as much as my husband.  I have personally been able to grow in our football family, grow in my career, grow in experiences, and even in my patience overall that I may not have ever had the chance had I stayed in the comfort zone of my hometown and never took that first move for our family.  Beyond just where we have lived, we have been able to travel to towns across the country—witnessing new football venues, cultures within each college town, and traditions of other programs while still rooting for my husband’s team.  We have had the opportunity of attending bowl games where each experience has brought a unique location, gifts, and events that truly make those week-long events memories to cherish for our family.  Not that everyone sees that as a perk, but I have certainly loved getting to experience all the adventures that come along with this lifestyle.

So again, I find it difficult to explain just what it is like to live the life of a coach’s wife—but I will say, I could not imagine it any other way and would not trade it for the world.