by Van Coleman, special to the HOOP SCOOP
One of my best friends in basketball, as well as life, recently passed away. That friend was Brick Oettinger, one of America’s greatest high school talent evaluators and more importantly, one of the best human beings to ever grace the game of basketball, period.
Most fans of the game may remember Brick from his columns in the “The Poop Sheet, ACC Sports Journal, and Prep Stars Magazine”, enjoying his amazingly thorough and accurate player profiles, but not realizing that basketball wasn’t his primary vocation. It was a vocation for his love of the game. Brick’s main vocation over most of the thirty plus years that I knew him was as a “UNC Correctional Education Director in the Division of Continuing Education” which he developed and held from 1974 until his retirement in 2014.
In that position, much like in his scouting, Brick was providing opportunities to further the education of inmates by creating a path to college and potentially a degree. For his efforts in raising opportunities for the success of correctional inmates involved in his program, Brick was awarded an “Outstanding Service Award and Creative Service Award” from both the North Carolina Correctional Association and North Carolina Adult Educational Association. As was the case in his basketball coverage, in Brick’s everyday vocation he always strived to be the best.
In his early years with the Continuing Education group, Brick had the opportunity to extend his touch and reach with the inmates, not only in their furthering education, but also their institutional quality of life by becoming a major advocate for Prison Basketball Leagues. By coaching inmates, he saw an opportunity to instill the benefits of teamwork, discipline, and a love for the game that would carry on as a positive example that would affect their personal lives once they left their current situations. His prison league teams proved Brick’s ideas and examples lead to success, winning seven overall titles in his 13 years in an inter-prison league composed of 91 teams. His prison teams were so well respected they were allowed to compete in the Orange County Public League for six years, including one year where they won the North Carolina Eastern Regional Championship with a 33-0 record. Brick was named North Central Coach of the Year seven times. In addition, Brick also coached prison softball and volleyball, too. He was always giving back to the people around him and the sport he loved.
Brick started his journey to becoming a basketball scout in 1974, the same year he started as the Education Director, three years before I did, by freelancing for various newspapers in Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro. The success of those columns led to other opportunities, including becoming the recruiting writer for the newly formed newsletter “The Poop Sheet” in 1977. From that point forward, Brick’s articles were featured in every issue. That opportunity fueled his desire to be a scout as he once told me.
“It was amazing the interest that fans and players had in my early columns,” Brick said. “It fueled the fire for me to become as thorough a writer/scout as I could be.”
And to no one’s surprise (certainly not mine), Brick did just that. He amazed coaches, other scouts and even the players he wrote about with his detailed and instructive profiles. Brick, unlike many in the business, cared about the development of the players he profiled and when approached about what a player needed to do in order to get better, he was glad to give input.
Brick continued his career writing for the “ACC Sports Journal, Prep Stars Magazine and Recruiter’s Handbook” and later wrote for the “ACCJournal.com and Prepstars.com”. Along the way he became the Scouting Director for the Prep Stars Basketball Camp where he had the opportunity to not only evaluate players, but work with them on continuing their basketball journey. It was a career that lasted for an amazing 49 years until he lost his ten-year battle with Multiple System Atrophy.
Why 49 years? Well here’s what his long-time friend and editor of the ACC Sports Journal David Glenn had to say about that.
“Brick was one of the top recruiting writers in American history,” Glenn said. “The incredible superhuman consistency of both his beautiful spirit and distinctive writing inspired me as a 20-year-old journalist to pursue a subsequent career in journalism and sports minded entrepreneurship.”
It was that kind of effect Brick had on those he touched in the business, event operators, players and coaches that led to the longevity of his career.
Most in the business who knew him would whole-heartedly agree, just ask Dave Telep (former recruiting director at Scout and ESPN, now the Player Personnel Director for the San Antonio Spurs) or Clark Francis (long-time publisher of the HOOP SCOOP and Prep Editor of Basketball Times) about his dedication to his craft, accuracy of his evaluations, ability to connect with athletes and desire to always see the best in people led to his amazing longevity in basketball. Being an extraordinary human being also helped him along the way!
I got to realize what a great human being Brick was during our 12-15 years of traveling together by car during the July summer circuit eastern swing, attending Nike All-American, Adidas ABCD, Krider All-American, National AAU’s, and many other national and events where we had many hours to talk. We discussed about all kinds of subjects other than basketball. Yes, there were long discussions on basketball for sure, and others on music, politics, relationships and society in general. Even when we didn’t agree one hundred percent, we were always able to come to a common conclusion and continue to enjoy the next day’s conversation. Brick loved to tell stories about recruiting and the many great players he observed over the years. His favorite story for sure was about being the first scout to see Michael Jordan in high school.
“I got a call one day from an excited North Carolina Assistant Coach Roy Williams,” Brick said. “He asked me could I go to Wilmington (N.C.) and see this young Mike Jordan kid. ‘I think he’s special!’. I told him sure, so I went to his next game and the rest is history!”
“I called him back,” Brick continued. “I told him this. Mike Jordan has the best combination of basketball skills, athletic physical abilities, and intangibles for a high school wing guard I’ve ever seen!”
And as we all know the Tarheels went on to sign Jordan out of Laney High School and the rest is history. Brick loved to tell that story and as a scout it was a moment of recruiting immortality that a great scout such as Brick deserved!
For over 20 years (1995-2016), Brick was a member of the McDonald’s All-American Selection Committee and served on numerous all-American & all-star selection committees. He loved to make sure the right players were rewarded for their play at events he attended and considered it an honor to do so.
A great example of that dedication was the fact after a long day evaluating talent, Brick would join in on a recruiting round table with Clark Francis and his HOOP SCOOP staff to have input on the top talent he observed at that day’s event and encourage them to consider them for the HOOP SCOOP’s exclusive event rankings. He did this to make sure players weren’t missed on the only daily player ranking list compiled at many national tournaments, plus Francis was his friend.
All-in-All, Brick Oettinger was one of best to ever do it, a knowledgeable player, coach and scout who cared about the players he evaluated and the coaches that he hoped they would play for. But beyond all that, he was flat out one of the greatest human beings I ever met…I was honored to have called him a good friend.
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