Bad news. The must-see attraction of the fall will be hard to find on campus at 16th Avenue South.
You won’t find it in the gym, and you certainly won’t find it on the track.
No. If you want to find this Todd Beamer gem, you have to think outside the box and venture off school grounds for this one.
Keep an eye on Beamer boys golf in 2017, particularly its coach Brent Brilhante, who enters his eighth season as its head coach.
Wait. Brent Brilhante? Eight years as a golf coach?
As in, well-known boys head basketball coach Brent Brilhante?
Yes. That’s the one.
It is absolutely a perfect fit. More importantly. It’s great for the sport of golf. Gone are the days of the prim and proper Bourgeoisie reputation the sport once demanded (or at least it should be gone).
It was a sport that desperately needed Tiger Woods to come along and show and encourage emotion on the course.
Have you seen an athletic contest with Brilhante on the sidelines? If you haven’t, you’re just cheating yourself.
There are few coaches in Federal Way that display more emotion during the course of an athletic contest than Brilhante.
During the Titans’ basketball game Jan. 10 against Auburn Mountainview for example, Beamer fell behind by double digits early.
Brilhante lost his mind after referees made some questionable calls against Beamer (trust me, I was there. The calls were suspect at best).
Finally, after he turned an impressive shade of red from all sorts of yelling, the head official came over and had words with Brilhante.
“You need to settle down and take a seat, or you’re gone, Brent,” the official hollered.
Brilhante kept all of that intensity in the spring when he stepped in at the last possible minute to become the girls tennis coach.
Brilhante and tennis?
Those go together like apples and oranges, oil and water.
Thing is, Brilhante’s coaching genius made it work.
Granted, he tapered the basketball explosiveness to tennis proportions. But it was still Brilhante. He was still loud, at least louder than most tennis coaches in the area, but he figured it out.
Call it Brilhante’s brilliance.
“We were so grateful he stepped in,” 2017 Beamer senior tennis player Avery Liening said on April 17. “He may not be a true tennis coach, but he is a natural coach, and the fact that he just wanted to make sure we had a season meant a lot.”
Brilhante never played competitive tennis in his life, just the schoolyard, casual kind. And Brilhante admitted he didn’t have much to offer by way of technical instruction.
But what he may have lacked in teaching, he certainly made up for as a motivator on the sidelines.
He was the one donning the extra-large umbrella, by the way.
He is in the same fly-by-the-seam-of-his-pants position when it comes to coaching golf.
Unlike his tennis background, Brilhante played prep golf in high school and attended the San Diego Golf Academy. Despite the experience, he would be the first to tell you that Federal Way golf coach and ex-PGA professional Bart Turchin is far more qualified to coach the next generation of golfers than he is.
If it’s fire, emotion and intensity needed on the links, however, look no further than Brilhante.
With Brilhante immersed the golf scene, there may be no looking required.
Brilhante could likely be heard all the way from 16th Avenue.
And golf needs more of that.
Jerod Young is the sports reporter for the Mirror. He can be reached at jyoung@federalwaymirror.com.
