One of the common refrains for Brentsville District sports teams this year is that most, if not all squads, are undergoing a rebuilding of some sort.

It's not just because the opening of Patriot meant hundreds of students, including many athletes, left Brentsville for the new school year.

Four of the major varsity sports programs have new head coaches too.

In football, Tommy O'Neill is already well into his rookie season at the helm of the Tigers' program, taking over for long-time main stay Dean Reedy.

On the baseball diamond, there's a vacancy to fill the gap left by Brian Knight, who opted to teach and coach at Patriot himself.

For the boys and girls basketball teams, the coaching shuffle continues as both squads will have had three different coaches each during the last four years,

Fortunately for the school, help is already on the way. Tim Brown is taking over the girls team while Greg Glass is set to lead the boys.

Brown

Brown is an a former assistant boys coach at Battlefield who previously served stints on the coaching staffs of what is now Middleburg Academy, Marshall (Falls Church) and Freedom (South Riding). The Marshall team even earned a trip once to the state tournament.

Twice Brown applied for the boys basketball job before being offered to take charge of the girls team following the resignation of Rob Weaver after this past season.

Despite never having coached a high school girls team before, Brown said the main thing he figured he would have to adjustment would be his temperament "or anything along those lines."

What he noticed though is the Brentsville girls he's worked with so far during the fall season have no "sense of entitlement," even though the program has a history of making it deep into the district and regional tournament most years.

"They're going out there and they're doing everything I've asked them to do," said Brown.

Having a team ready to learn instead of coming in with a series of set expectations about success is something Brown figures he can work to his advantage. The team's only top returner from last season is senior guard/forward Chai Fuller.

"My numbers are down because of the whole Patriot thing and graduation, but I'm getting what I wanted out of it, which is for the girls to play together," said Brown. "I want them in the gym as much as possible but there's a lot of fall sports commitments also."

From the 2010-2011 season, four players left for Patriot and six others graduated, according to Brown.

"We're starting from scratch," he said. "That's a good place to put your imprint on a team, on a program, on a school... This is just exactly what I wanted to do."

Two sophomore sisters, Ashley and Becca Winslow, are both expected to be main contributors come November. Ashley gained some varsity experience last season coming in off the bench. Brown has them both slotted as "two" guards.

He also highlighted a freshman Taylor Newsom, who played for Marsteller Middle School last year.

Brown recalled that former girls head coach Eugene Baltimore, who is now an assistant football coach for Brentsville, told him, "She's going to e a good player," and that was before Brown even saw his up-and-coming point guard play.

The coach acknowledged that defending state champion Liberty is the team to beat in the Evergreen District, which means the real battle during the post-season would be for second place as both teams would advance to the Region II tournament.

"I think we can be extremely competitive against Fauquier, Kettle Run and Warren County," he said.

As for making it to regions, "I think that's the most realistic goal as far as expectations are concerned."

Glass

Glass coached the Osbourn Park junior varsity boys basketball team last year and "decided it was a great opportunity" to become a head coach and put his "own stamp" on his own program by joining Brentsville.

Unlike the girls team, which won tons of accolades throughout the 2000s, the boys team struggled mightily in recent years. Even stringing together two wins in a row seemed like an accomplishment.

"We want the guys to gain confidence in themselves and their teammates and to do the best that they can," said Glass. "And at the same time, we'd like to, you know, put them in a position (where) they can learn some personal values that they can carry on into life."

Like the girls squad, the boys have a similar issue this year in that there are few returning varsity players.

Senior guard Sean Donovan is one of them, giving Glass at least one steady hand he should be able to count on. Donovan earned second-team all-district honors last season, putting up more than 12 points per game on average.

"Well, he is a competitor, I have noticed that about him," said Glass about what makes Donovan tick. "He's always willing to get better. He's never satisfied."

Glass declined to identify any underclassmen who he expects to break through the ranks though he did mention that are at least a couple with potential talent.

"It's kind of early to say right now," he said.

The coach identified one of his biggest challenges as just trying to create excitement about the program among the players and their classmates.

Turning around a team that's coming off of a 4-13 season and now features a depleted roster "is not going to be done overnight," said Glass.

He mentioned that one of the best things he can do at this point is to not dwell on the past and instead focus the team on what's to come this winter.

"Really, it's too early to even game expectations but what we want to see is overall improvement in every aspect of the program," said Glass.