The first coach to officially use our logo for their program is Coach Johann Tiamson (aka Coach Yo) of Lake Braddock. Let's take a look at his background and what he's all about!
Where are you from/did you grow up?
I grew up in Burke, VA from 2nd grade on. I attended White Oaks Elementary and Lake Braddock Secondary School ('05).
What is your background with sports/athletics?
I played in Fairfax Little League from when I was 5 playing t-ball until I was 14 playing juniors. I played at Lake Braddock all four years of high school. I tried to walk on at Christopher Newport University, but my throwing elbow disagreed with my effort.
When/why did you first get into coaching?
My graduating class in hs was Coach Rutherford's first group of players that he developed from freshman to seniors. He was able to begin building his vision of the Lake Braddock baseball program by the time I graduated. After I hung up my spikes from playing highly competitive baseball my freshman year of college, I continued to play men's league every summer while in school. While at college, my brother was still at LB playing baseball so I also came back from school and watched as many of his games that I could. During my four years of college, LB won 2 region titles and made 3 runs to the state tournament. I loved being able to come back to watch my alma mater continue to to dominate baseball in our area, but it was also tough to watch them play and not be able to affect the game like I once had. That's when it dawned on me that I wanted to come back to LB to coach and help Coach Rutherford develop players that would contribute to the program's success. As soon as I graduated from college in 2009, I came back and asked coach how I could help. My first coaching assignment was the LB fall travel team called the Blue Claws (only for that year, otherwise known as the Bearcats). Fun fact, the first game I coached featured senior Kenny Towns (future UVA National Champion) as my starting pitcher and was against a team coached by my future predecessor, John Thomas (future head coach of the LB State Champions in 2019). We got perfect-gamed that game and I thought, "Well I either suck at coaching or it will only get better from here." That spring I joined the JV staff at LB as an assistant coach and enjoyed it immensely. After that season, the JV head coach moved up to Varsity as an assistant and Coach Rutherford offered me the JV head coaching position. That's where I remained for 10 years until I became the varsity head coach during the 2021-2022 school year. I'm glad to reflect back on that first game and know that it got much better from there.
What does it mean to you to coach in this area (especially since you’re from around here and coaching at your alma mater)?
Coaching in this area means a lot to me since I grew up playing here and because Northern Virginia is a highly competitive place to grow up playing baseball. I grew up hitting in the RF cage at Lake Braddock and watching varsity games while Coach Griel was making yearly state tournament runs. During high school I was just grinding to play at a school that had a rich history of winning. After I graduated high school, it became clear to me that playing at Lake Braddock was something to be proud of not just because we happen to have a tradition of success but because of how we go about achieving that success. I coach now at LB because I want to continue that tradition of winning. It is a specific challenge to lead a team that is known as a team to beat in this area of competitive baseball. A challenge that I urge my players to meet everyday of the year and make sure they enjoy and take pride in their work should they overcome that challenge. At the end of the day, my goal is to guide my players to become well-equipped, hard-working grown men by the time they leave high school through the trials of baseball in this area.
What is your best piece of advice for young athletes?
My advice for young athletes (and indirectly their parents) is to welcome adversity instead of finding ways around it or making excuses as to why you failed. Adversity comes in many forms, especially in the game of baseball since it is a challenging game, fundamentally based around failure. This is one of the many reasons why I love the game of baseball when it comes to teaching young people lessons about life. Baseball (and sports in general) teach you that you are going to fail at some point, no one is perfect, and what matters more than the fact that you failed is how you respond to that failure. Do you feel embarrassed, get upset, and quit? Or do you take a second to realize that failure in a game isn’t that bad, access why you failed, and push forward taking control of a negative experience and turning it into a positive one where you learned something about yourself? There is not one professional baseball player that has never faced adversity at some point in their life. They have all struck out multiple times in a game, made multiple errors in a game, been the worst player on their team, and/or dealt with an injury or ten. But facing this adversity head on and working through it is what got them to the level they are now. I am a firm believer as a coach/teacher that experiencing failure is the easiest path to improvement, not because you failed in general but because of the lessons you learn to make sure you don’t experience that same failure again. Avoiding failure when you’re young does make life easier at the time but it does not prepare you for when you will inevitably experience failure in your life. And why not experience this failure while playing a game rather than when it is a truly impactful moment of your life?
We are forever grateful to Coach Yo for being the first coach in the area to rep our brand on the back of their helmets (with the logo at the top of this post) during this past spring season. I wish him nothing but great success moving forward and look forward to our continued relationship with him and his program!
#repyourarea