Jul 5, 2021 5 min read

He’s only 25 years old, just a child in the coaching world.

He didn’t play the sport in college and has never coached it at any point.

Yet, Jefferson-Morgan’s athletic director Scot Moore saw something in Brandon Lawless, enough to offer him the chance to become the Rockets’ next boys head basketball coach.

Lawless accepted the offer and will replace Dennis Garrett on the sideline in Rice’s Landing this winter.

“We liked his enthusiasm,” Moore said. “We liked his plan that he is going to set forward for our program. He’s a young kid, but he has a lot of strong attributes that we’re really excited about.”

Though Lawless planned on becoming a head coach eventually, he didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

“I didn’t think it would be as early as it was,” Lawless said. “I thought it would be a process of starting out as an assistant and working my way up. Fortunately, I just found a good route to take.”

The differences between Lawless and his predecessor are aplenty. Garrett is a native son of Jefferson; Lawless grew up in Carmichaels. Lawless is just seven years removed from high school; Garrett graduated when Gerald Ford was president.

The appointment of Lawless signals a new era for Jefferson-Morgan basketball, and the school hopes the new coach won’t be the only difference for the program in a decade still in its infancy.

In the 2010s, the Rockets had just one winning season, and though they did make the playoffs four times, they lost in the first round on each trip by an average of more than 30 points.

It’s unlikely that a basketball version of the legendary Rockets’ wrestler Cary Kolat can come along to help Lawless, so the rookie head coach will have to focus on improving what he has at his disposal.

“These coaches get dealt a hand, and they have to play with their hand that gets dealt to them,” Moore said. “Sometimes, you just don’t have enough athletes, and that’s what you do. That’s the nature of the beast… I mean, that’s the way things are in high school athletics.”

Lawless was an athlete in college but not a basketball player. Staying in Greene County for his bachelor’s degree, Lawless pitched for Waynesburg University’s baseball team for four seasons.

Also, in college, Lawless began to dabble in coaching, but on the gridiron, not the basketball court. In the fall of his junior year at Waynesburg, Lawless became an assistant for Jefferson-Morgan’s football team, a job he plans to keep.

And make no mistake, Lawless isn’t a stranger to the court. At Carmichaels, the three-sport athlete joined the Mighty Mikes’ thousand-point club and did so in just three seasons, playing under the winningest coach in Greene County history, Don Williams.

No coach can succeed without knowing how to take on a challenge, and Lawless’s first head coaching job will bring about plenty.

Last season wasn’t much different from so many that have preceded it. The Rockets went 5-17 and just 2-7 in section play, quickly bowing out in the postseason with a 15-point loss to Franklin Regional.

With just two seniors graduating from last year’s team, Lawless has some building blocks – such as soon-to-be senior Taj Jacobs – to build around. Changing the Rockets’ fortunes is a challenge Lawless embraces.

“I love to think about that, to be honest with you,” he said. “That’s kind of what drives me, just knowing that I have the opportunity to change them, flip the script and get the ball rolling over there.”

Lawless said he attended a few of J-M’s games last season, and the thing that he would like to improve upon immediately is the team’s execution of man-to-man defense. The Rockets allowed the second-highest points-per-game average in Class 2A Section 4 last season.

Overall, however, Lawless sees potential in what will be his first team.

“It wasn’t like they didn’t have the talent,” Lawless said. “I think the kids are talented, I think they just need to take it to the next step, and I’m excited to do that.”

This week will be the beginning of Jefferson-Morgan’s open-gyms and a new age for the Rockets.

“He’s ready to start right now,” Moore said. “He’s got open-gyms scheduled. He’s ready to go. He’s working with other coaches. That’s not to say (Garrett) did not, but he has a specific plan that he wants to do, and we’re hoping that’s going to bring us some good results.”

Overall, the idea of turning Jefferson-Morgan boys’ basketball from a losing program into a winning one is what’s most appealing to Lawless.

“Just knowing I can turn the program around and I now have the power to do that,” he said. “Just knowing that I can make a change, I can be the one to make a change. It’s not just me; it’s not all about me; it’s my players, too. I can get these guys to really buy into themselves, challenge themselves every day to become great men.”