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.