Those who coached Brian Lebowitz in his younger years on the basketball court have stories for days.
One of the threads binding the feats together is that no challenge will ever be too daunting for Lebowitz, 29, Franklin College’s first-year men’s basketball coach.
That includes succeeding a man who won 528 games and six conference championships in nearly four decades as the face of the Grizzlies program. In March, Lebowitz, an assistant under Kerry Prather since the 2014-15 season, was promoted to head coach.
“The challenging piece is a lot of people get their first (head coaching) opportunity where the program had been struggling for whatever reason, and you maybe get more of a grace period. I didn’t have that here,” Lebowitz said. “There’s that expectation to win and win pretty quick.
“On the upside, I do think we hold a lot of credibility with our players and prospective students that this is a place that knows how to win and win really big. If we execute things the right way, we have a formula to succeed.”
Raised in the upper west side of Manhattan, Lebowitz starred academically and athletically at Riverdale Country School in New York City, an elite private high school that counts former president John F. Kennedy and onetime U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy among its alumni.
Being from an affluent area, the 6-foot-6 Lebowitz had to earn a reputation as a strong-minded basketball player, which is precisely what he did.
“On the court, Brian was a tough dude,” said Daniel Priest, the men’s basketball coach at Kenyon College, where Lebowitz scored 1,274 career points and was a three-time all-North Coast Atlantic Conference selection. “He embraced contact. Brian’s temperament was really good, but he was also so focused on winning.”
Priest was slightly surprised Lebowitz chose coaching basketball as a career path. He felt his former player’s intelligence and various contacts in New York City might have steered him to a more lucrative career. The coach credits Lebowitz’s parents, Michael Lebowitz and Betsy Malcolm, for always encouraging their two sons to chase their dreams.
“At that time, I wouldn’t have thought he would do this,” Priest said. “But in retrospect, Brian was a hoopster who was in the gym all the time.”
Jason Armstrong, associate men’s head coach at Division II Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, coached Lebowitz’s AAU squad at Riverside Church in the summer of 2009 between the latter’s junior and senior years of high school.
One of the more memorable tournaments took place on the outdoor courts of the Douglas Projects near Harlem. Armstrong, who is Black, emphasized to his players beforehand they might be viewed as soft unless they proved otherwise during competition.
Long story short, Lebowitz led Riverside to the first-place trophy.
“That’s my guy,” Armstrong says fondly of Lebowitz. “I can also remember a particular tournament in New Jersey where we weren’t playing well. Brian took over on the boards like a man-child, but he was an inside-outside player who could step out and hit the 3-pointer. He had a beautiful jump shot.”
Former Riverdale Country head coach Andrew Marinos calls Lebowitz the toughest player he’s coached.
“When you meet Brian, he’s sort of a low-key guy. Very respectful. His senior year, we had lost four starters from the year before. Brian was the only one back,” said Marinos, now coach at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn.
“Brian took it upon himself and carried the team, averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds, and really was the only thing we had. Any challenge the team had, Brian would just take on.”
As Franklin College first men’s basketball coach not named Kerry Prather since the 1982-83 season, Lebowitz finds himself challenged once again. The native New Yorker is doing what he loves, a career path traveled because of the way Marinos, Armstrong and Priest coached, guided and encouraged him back in the day.
Lebowitz credits Marinos for teaching him toughness, Armstrong for showing him the importance of caring for and relating to players and Priest for demonstrating what it takes to recruit, prepare and compete at this level.
Not surprisingly, Lebowitz remains close to all three men to this day.
“I would say the reason I got into coaching is because I had great coaches who were influential in my life not just as a player, but all of the values that are important to me,” Lebowitz said. “I’m professionally ambitious. When I started working here, in particular, I really loved the place and the people.
“It became much less about where I saw myself professionally. I like the position I’m in, but honestly, over the years I’ve become less interested in exactly where I am professionally relative to the impact I can try to make on this program and these kids.”
