Coach Braithwaite

By Mark Justice Huntington

Editor,
I recently read an obituary in your paper about the legendary and Hall of Fame basketball coach Wilbur Braithwaite, who coached for many years at Manti High School. During his highly successful career his team won one state championship in 1967 when Manti beat Emery by 10. I played on that Emery team but have no memory of Coach Braithwaite from that event. Twenty five years later while sitting in the old gym in Castle Dale, watching a JV game of Manti vs. Emery, coach introduced himself to me and we enjoyed a 30-40 minute pleasant conversation about that game and his career. I was impressed to hear him speak of his players and what they currently were doing. He obviously kept track of them. Salt Lakes Tribunes’ Gordon Monson, called him a “renaissance man, musician, poet and great coach.” My tribute to him is that he cared more about his player’s success than his own and that he achieved the elusive ultimate prize of loving the game and those you play with and against. He was a great example of all who coach young people.