MANSFIELD -- Josh Brown has the type of infectious personality that draws players in, even those from a school he no longer coaches at.
The second-year Mansfield boys basketball coach has a knack for drawing people from outside the game, too.
During the 2020 covid-19 lockdown, Brown and his wife began producing specially made face masks to help with the prevention of the germ-spreading covid-19 virus.
A year later, they started producing plaques. Charleston athletic director and head boys basketball coach B.J. Ross was one of his first customers.
The two veteran coaches had battled many times on the court. Now, they were doing business off it.
"It's a great product," Ross said.
The word quickly spread through the coaching grapevine as sports teams grappled with how to continue with as much normalcy as possible through masking mandates and other measures aimed to slow the spread of the covid-19 virus.
"With the masks, we did it through social media and by word of mouth," Brown said. "We did a good job on it and people have used us."
The Browns found a niche in creating team-specific face masks from the red-and-black Mansfield Tiger to the black-and-gold Charleston Tiger.
Then having produced team cups and shirts, the Browns started making sports plaques.
Brown wasn't surprised with how well the venture has worked out.
"Yes and no," he said. "It's one of those deals where I think we make a good product, and people have seen that we make a good product and do a good job on it. It's kind of built from there."
Brown estimates he and his wife made approximately 500 masks for schools, complete with the team's true colors and appropriate mascot during the height of the pandemic.
"When we went back to school, we started doing them for teams," Brown said. "I think we did it for 43 teams, some of them boys and girls. We were up to around the 75- to 80-mark of teams we made them for."
When school resumed, and Mansfield started prepping for its first sports banquet in two years, Brown told Athletic Director John Mackey he'd like to do the plaques for the honored athletes.
"I said, 'Hey, I'll do our plaques!'" Brown said. "We did those, and they turned out really good. It's kind of started from there."
A born entrepreneur?
"I've always said as long as people give me their money, then I'll do what I can for them," Brown said. "During basketball, it's a little tougher, because we're in season and I'm coaching. Some days and some nights I'll stay up late until an order is completed."
For now, Brown says he only has a few schools buying plaques.
"Last year we made them for Hackett, we did a couple for our tournament here, the Bill Frye Invitational, we did the Earl White Tournament, the Arvest Tournament down in Waldron, and this year we've added Charleston and Farmington," he said.
The plaque-making business is more of a labor of love for the Browns at this point.
"I'm not trying to make a killing off it; it's just something we enjoy," he said.
Brown said he was not business-savvy while in high school or college.
"Not at all," he said. "It's just something that kind of came out after the masks. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are a great thing when it comes to business."
Brown compiled an impressive 119-76 record during seven seasons (2014-21) as the head coach at Waldron. He had split his time at Waldron as the school's assistant principal, too.
After dropping from Class 4A to 3A, Waldron took off by winning 75 of 110 games over the next three seasons, including a dominating 35-7 conference mark.
But a few months after resigning at Waldron to move into an administration role, Brown signed on to coach Mansfield on June 22, 2021.
"Mansfield's been really good to me," Brown said. "I came in as a teacher last year, and I'm actually the middle school principal now, and I enjoy every minute of it. I get to see my kids every day, too."
Like Waldron, Mansfield had recently dropped classifications, from 3A to 2A. Despite finishing 7-15 in 2020-21, the Tigers won the 2A-4 West Tournament.
Last season, Brown's first as the team's coach, the Tigers finished 7-20, including 4-9 in a league that included 2A state champion Lavaca.
This season, Mansfield is 3-1, having knocked off 3A foes Booneville and Cedarville.
Brown is a 2001 graduate of Hartford High School, where he played for former Van Buren girls basketball coach Chris Bryant. Brown still holds a strong allegiance to the Waldron players he coached, including star guard Peyton Brown (no relation), who is back playing for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith this season.
"One of them asked me today, 'Do you miss us?' I said, 'Yes, I'll always miss you.' That's the hardest part," Brown said. "Those kids you've watched grow up since they were third and fourth graders. That part is the hardest part."
This is an example of the sports plaques that Joshua Brown and his wife have created with their sports merchandise business in Mansfield. (Special to River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Kevin Taylor)
Here is a sample of some of the plaques that Joshua Brown and his wife have created with their sports merchandise business in Mansfield. (Special to River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Kevin Taylor)
Joshua Brown, Mansfield boys basketball coach, is also in the sports merchandise business, creating custom plaques, caps, cups and more. (Special to River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Kevin Taylor)