Garnet Valley has named Mike Brown its boys basketball coach, approving Brown's hire Tuesday night.

Brown replaces Joe Rapczynski, who held the position for two seasons.

A 1975 Cardinal O'Hara graduate who played at Lycoming College, Brown carries a coaching pedigree. A Concord Township resident, Brown assisted at Shippensburg University for two seasons (1979-81) and handled head coaching duties for six seasons at Archbishop Carroll (1981-87).

If you're wondering why there's such a lengthy period between Brown's coaching positions, it's simple: He wanted to watch his four children grow up and play the game...or any game. He didn't want to miss their athletic moments.

“It seems like a long gap, but my kids all played ball," Brown told me Wednesday, by phone. "And I got out to see them grow up and play."

Brown said the key to turning around Garnet Valley's program, which has had four straight losing seasons after qualifying for the District One Class AAAA tournament in 2007-08, is "keeping kids in the district."

“One thing that has happened, the kids in the middle school leave to go to the private schools, because the team has struggled," Brown said. "I need to communicate with the middle-school coaches and what I intend to do to keep them in the district. It's the same thing the Haverfords face and the Springfields face.

"The success of the rest of the programs at Garnet Valley is a good thing. If a kid's looking to drop a sport and focus on others, it's been basketball. We need to change that, and that starts with winning games. I think I can make in-roads. When I took over at Carroll, I've been through this before and maybe that appealed to the selection people. I've gone through this exercise before."

Brown said he'll have the Jaguars involved in the Chichester Summer League and a Widener University team camp while coordinating voluntary open-gym sessions.