Braswell’s Legacy at Cleveland High--a Soft Touch and a Hard Line

The job description for the now-vacant varsity basketball position at Cleveland High will read much like any other job announcement. Requirements will include a college degree, a teaching credential and considerable experience coaching high school basketball.

The fine print will be another story.

“Quite honestly, if a person wants to come here, coach and go home at 3 or 4 o’clock, then they shouldn’t bother calling,” said Bob Braswell, the outgoing coach. “The prerequisites demand more than that. The kids need attention, they need someone to teach them as well as coach them.”

Braswell, 27, who will become an assistant coach at Cal State Long Beach on July 1, leaves behind the Valley-area’s most successful program. Cleveland compiled a 79-16 mark in his four-year tenure, twice played in the City Section 4-A Division championship game, was ranked nationally on several occasions and sent seven players to Division I schools in the past two years alone.

Yet more important, his players say, was Braswell’s impact on their lives, the intangibles that cannot be summarized in a mere job description.

“This team is more like a family--we’re the brothers and he’s the father,” said point guard Andre Chevalier, who will be a senior and team captain next year.

Sure, Braswell guided the Cavaliers to prominence at several levels. Sure, he sometimes publicly dressed down a player for a boneheaded play during a game. But that was just part of the picture.

While the victories, tournament titles and league championships are memorable, the relationship with his players means more to Braswell. Despite his youth and relative inexperience, Braswell took an assemblage of players from varied cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and helped establish one of the most envied programs in Valley history.

“When I got into coaching, one of the promises I made to myself was that I wanted to be more than just a coach,” Braswell said. “I love coaching, I love teaching, I love all the things I’m doing, but I wanted to be a role model for these kids. I wanted to be a father figure, I wanted to be a brother in some cases. I wanted to be someone the kids respected.”

At times, Braswell was unyielding, benching even his best players for breaking team rules. This season, Braswell benched Kansas-bound guard Adonis Jordan in a league showdown with Taft because Jordan had left campus without permission. At other times, however, Braswell invited players to his house for dinner. Several lived with him for extended periods. The balance Braswell found between hard-liner and soft touch struck a responsive chord in players.

Chevalier lives with his mother in North Hollywood, but his father lives in Maryland. Many other current and former players have come from single-parent homes, with the father being the absent party. Braswell’s doors were always open, and counseling came with the territory.

“When I have personal problems, I can go to him and talk to him about it because he’s like a second father,” Chevalier said. “He’s allowed us to stay at his house. He never says no. . . . He comes through for us.”

The program has turned out more than just outstanding basketball players.

Four players from the 1988-89 team earned Division I scholarships, but all nine seniors on the squad will attend college next season, Braswell said.

“I’m very proud of that,” he said. “These kids are doing something with themselves. Crenshaw (High) has had a lot of outstanding players over the years, but a lot never make it to the college doorstep.”

The move hardly came as a surprise to his players. Last year, Braswell turned down an identical offer from Long Beach, citing ties to Cleveland and the class of ‘89, who were freshmen when he took over the program.

Braswell becomes one of two full-time assistants at Long Beach, which was 13-15 last season. He will help with recruiting, coach the guards and teach physical education classes.

In other words, Braswell’s workload was halved.

“It’s going to be really hard to find a coach to do what he does,” Chevalier said. “My friends that go to other schools say that after practice, their coach just leaves. There’s no personal relationship.”

Braswell said that he will play an active role in the selection of his successor.

“It’s a happy day, but it’s also a sad day,” he said. “It took a lot to develop this.

“One of my real concerns is that somebody would come in and not really care about the tradition, somebody who’s not willing to put in the time and effort.”

Chevalier said the team tried to assure Braswell that they would persevere in his absence, but he admitted it won’t be the same.

“It’s like when a member of your family dies,” Chevalier said, unsuccessfully fighting back tears. “If they’ve taught you values, the rest of the family stays close, stays together. He taught us how to be close.”

BRASWELL’S CAREER RECORD The career basketball coaching record of Bob Braswell at Cleveland High:

Year W-L 1985-86 17-6 1986-87 20-4 1987-88 21-3 1988-89 21-3 Totals 79-16