Even before the Middle School Saints came to be, Coach Mike Braswell has been coaching sports in DeKalb County. As an educator and a coach in Smithville, he’s spent over 33 years doing what he loves.
“I was born a Yankee,” Braswell admitted, “but have grown up a Southerner.”
Born May 10, 1944, in Michigan, his parents, M.A. Braswell Jr. and Gladys Cantrell Braswell, moved to Detroit as did many in the South at the time for work in the Detroit car factories. When he was just six-weeks-old, his father was called back to Tennessee to be drafted by Uncle Sam.
“I’ve spent 73 years of my life in Smithville,” Braswell said, whose father died in an automobile accident when he was just three. “My mother raised three children and I have two sisters. It was very tough growing up as I had three females in the house and felt like I was picked on too.”
Braswell attended Smithville Elementary School, which was located where the T-ball fields are now, when he first started playing basketball.
“I got interested because my older sister and next-door neighbor were playing on the high-school team,” he said. “I got started following high school games and keeping up with them.”
While still in high school he worked with a youth program called the Royal Ambassadors from First Baptist Church.
“There was no little league at that time so I kind of got some of the youngsters who were attending that program and got a little team and we played anybody that we could find in the county,” said Braswell. “Belk community had a little team of young people down there so that was my introduction to coaching. I guess I got introduced to athletics in grammar school when I played basketball.”
Going to college at George Peabody College in Nashville to be educated to teach, he was interested in an art/math degree.
“I just seemed to be drawn to teaching,” Braswell said. “I found out I was so far behind in math that I shelved that and went to Physical Education and art so I taught boys PE and coached most of my career.”
At that time Braswell finished college, the only organized sports in DeKalb County were basketball and football.
“I found out football wasn’t suited for me or I wasn’t suited for it and that’s when I concentrated on basketball,” he said.
Braswell said one of his inspirations was Coach Jimmy Earle.
“He was my high-school coach for two years and he had a big influence on my life,” Braswell said.
 A McMinnville native, Earle’s first collegiate basketball experience came as a player at Martin College. He became Martin’s leading scorer, averaging 17.7 points per game. Earle subsequently transferred and earned his degree from MTSU.
“For the first five years that I taught, I was at the high school and I worked under Coach Harold Luna, who was one of the better basketball minds in the state, and at that time I assisted him and coached the freshman teams,” Burgess said. “I did that for five years the middle school opened up in 1972. It was a new school so I was hired to go to the middle school and that’s when I started my official varsity coaching days.
“Before basketball, when I first got out of college, I started coaching little league baseball in 1967 and that’s probably where I became better known In DeKalb County,” he continued.
Coach Braswell said it’s a tough choice picking his most treasured team memories.
“It’s hard to say. I hadn’t thought of it like that before,” Braswell said. “The first time I coached at the middle school was probably one of the better teams I ever had and it was the first official team that was mine, so that probably stands out as a highlight, and maybe the team that won the so-called mythical state championship in 1992 as the Middle School Saints.
“There’s no official state championship game at the middle school level, mostly just invitational tournaments like the James C Haile in Murfreesboro. We played in the TNT tournament in Springfield that drew more teams statewide than the one in Murfreesboro. That’s what we won.
“I was lucky enough to help 1978 local little league win the state championship that went to St. Petersburg but we got beat in first game down there,” he noted.
Coach Braswell did take a shot at football during his career.
“I did coach the Tigers at the high school in 84-85 when they wanted to get a new coach, but it only took me one year to find out that wasn’t my calling.”
A confirmed bachelor, Braswell said he was always chasing the ballplayers. “I didn’t have enough time to chase the ladies.”
The biggest changes in coaching, Braswell notes, is discipline and fundamentals.
“My coaching success was built more on discipline and fundamentals and I see a lack of both of those on present day teams,” he said. “Teams don’t play as teams but play more like the pros - a little more selfish. That seems to be the trend it trickles down. I still go watch.”
For prospective new coaches, Braswell’s advice is simple.
“Make sure you feel like this is something you really want to do because there are a lot of pressures and a lot of problems, especially today when so many parents don’t want you to discipline their children,” he said. “In my day you had the community and parents’ support 100 percent and it’s lacking today.  I’ve been told several times I couldn’t coach in today’s society and that’s true. I was a strict disciplinarian.
“I’ll see some of my students all grown up and they ask me do you remember when you paddled me for such and such. I say no, but ask them if it helped and they say yes,” he recalled.
One of coach Braswell’s longtime projects is the Saturday Morning Saints.
“When I first started I had to cut so many players I promised them I’d work with them to prepare them for coming out the next year. On Saturday mornings I would get the  fifth- through seventh-graders and I would work with them on fundamentals and choose teams and play. I did that all the way through my career even when I was not coaching assistant and continued until I retired,” he said.
Coach Braswell’s last official middle school team was in 1996 and he retired from the school system in 2000.

Braswell's career at a glance
• Born May 10, 1944
• Graduated DCHS 1962
• Graduated Peabody College for Teachers in 1966
• Began teaching DeKalb County High School in 1966
• Assistant coach to Harold Luna
• Freshman basketball coach
• Little League baseball coach 1967
• 15 years in Little League
• 3 years in Babe Ruth baseball
• Little League State Champions 1978, third place 1977, second in 1976
• Began coaching DeKalb Sr. Football Panthers (Donny James) in 1970 which became the Saints upon the opening of the middle school. Coaches from 1972-1976 when Tommy Alexander took over
• Began teaching at the middle school upon its opening in 1972
• Coached DMS basketball until 1996 when left coaching to be assistant principal
• DCHS basketball coach 1984-1985
• Saturday Morning Saints from 1972-2000
• Taught and coached for 33 plus years 1966-2000
• Football 7 years
• Basketball 29 years
• Assistant Principal 4 years
• Basketball state champions 1992 and 1996