Hodge: Brown has earned her promotion

Mar. 24—Ashley Brown knew for a long time she wanted to be a coach. It wasn't just a feeling.

It came from experience.

"My senior year (at Summers County High School) I actually coached an elementary school team because we didn't have enough coaches," Brown said. "I loved it so much."

Brown, of course, wasn't nearly done with her playing career. After graduating from Summers as a two-time all-stater, she played collegiately at Concord University.

Then, it was time for the sidelines. She spent two years as an AAU coach and in 2019 started a two-year stint as a girls assistant at Charleston Catholic.

The summer after the 2021 season was when Roger Hodge — a Hinton native Brown has known all her life — was named the new head women's basketball coach at WVU Tech. The day of his introduction, Hodge announced Brown would join him as his assistant coach.

There she has been the last two seasons, learning and progressing every step of the way. That growth was rewarded this week when the school announced Brown has been promoted to associate head coach.

"I have enjoyed working for coach Hodge and he has helped prepare me for a lot of things," Brown said. "He has allowed me to freelance at times and he trusts me, and that means a lot. He gave me my first college coaching job last year, so to get in that role (associate head coach) already means a lot because a lot of people work a lot of years to get that.

"I've worked really hard with him and he's worked really hard to help me and teach me along the way."

Hodge said the primary reason for Brown's promotion is that she has earned it.

"She kind of was a natural at this from the start, and not everybody is," he said.

"She's got just such a good combination of basketball knowledge, personality, caring about people. and the chemistry between her and I from a working standpoint is just tremendous as well. It was a no-brainer for me."

Any changes that might presumably come with such a promotion, Brown has already taken on based on the abilities ahead had already exhibited.

"They have already changed just from us getting to know each other, me beginning to give her more responsibility and how the kids have grown to have such respect," Hodge said. "Now that will continue to increase, but there are things now that, when I look out there and I start thinking that either she's already thinking the same thing or she's already done it, that's when you kind of know it's time for a promotion, so to speak."

Working with Hodge has helped Brown grow in many ways in a short amount of time.

"It's crazy because when I first got to Tech I was so nervous, about what I could do or about my ability," Brown said. "But the last two years we've gone through a lot. We've had kids that we didn't necessarily recruit and so we had to learn them last year and grow with them. Ultimately they were learning about us and our coaching styles. Then you take this year and all of our injuries, I feel like these last two years have taught me a lot, especially in that aspect of things.

"I feel like just having to make adjustments and just encouraging kids to step into a different role, or just different life lessons that the girls have gone through, I'm somebody who takes pride in (strong) relationships. I feel like, in the past two years my relationships with the girls have really grown. That's something I really enjoy and I hope the girls really enjoy it, too."

Being a leader has been part of Brown since even before coaching that elementary team.

"I was the point guard (at Summers County) and we had a lot of plays and we had a lot of different defenses," she said. "I was a starter my freshman year so I kind of had to hop into a different role, but when I hopped into that role I found myself kind of getting into the leader role and I enjoyed it."

As that continues to grow, Hodge intends to do his part to help get her ready.

"I will continue to give her more responsibility," Hodge said. "She's going to be an outstanding head coach someday. So along with getting done what we need to get done as a program, I feel the responsibility to try to help train her for when that opportunity comes for her."

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