Published: Friday, Jul. 10, 2009

Updated: Friday, Jul. 10, 2009

Falcons find a football coach

Saint Stephen’s taps assistant Brown, 25, to replace Kitchie

BRADENTON — The Saint Stephen’s head football coaching position was vacant for 17 days. It has been filled.

On Wednesday, the Falcons named Stan Brown the team’s new coach.

“It’s a dream,” said Brown, 25, a 2002 graduate of Manatee High and former Hurricanes player. “When you are younger you dream of Joe Montana, Brett Favre, and you want to be that NFL quarterback, and you grow up a little bit, and the reality sets in, and your dreams change of what you can achieve, and it’s been a dream to come back and be a head coach where I grew up and where my roots are. It’s a blessing.”

Brown replaces Matt Kitchie, who was hired as Saint Stephen’s football coach in April 2006 and led the Falcons to an 11-14 record over the past three seasons, including a pair of 5-5 finishes. Kitchie left the Falcons last month to become the new coach at Lake O’Lakes High in Pasco County.

Brown was an assistant under Kitchie last season, coaching the wide receivers and defensive backs.

“We think Stan is a class person,” Falcons athletic director Dave Samler said. “He’s hardworking. He’s motivated. He’s got excellent football knowledge. We feel he has a lot of good energy, and we thought he was the right guy for the job.”

Samler said Brown beat out 12 applicants for the gig.

Brown credits Kitchie with teaching him a lot about the game from a coaching standpoint.

“You always think that you know enough about football,” Brown said. “And then you get put in your place, and Kitchie taught me a lot about the Xs and Os of football. You know, setting plays up for one play after another, and we are running this to get to that. He taught me a lot about running an offense and preparing to run the offense.”

This season, Brown will be the offensive coordinator, and with two-a-day practices scheduled to start Aug. 10, Brown will stick with the spread offense, but he’s undecided on his defensive scheme. He still has a couple assistant coaching vacancies to fill.

“The best thing about it is it will be a quick, easy, smooth transition,” Brown said of the benefits of hiring a coach from within the program. “You have a month before the first practice, and you don’t want to take three steps back to get to where you are at right now. I like where we are at right now.”