She didn’t stay retired long.
Coach Maureen “Mo” Brown will be the new director of the Pierce County Recreation Department.
The Pierce County Recreation Board voted unanimously last Tuesday to hire Brown for the job. The decision came after a five minute closed session to discuss personnel.
Brown is expected to take over the department in mid-July, just after she retires after almost 40 years in education.
“Coach Mo is fully invested in Pierce County and has worked tirelessly for the youth of our community. We believe she will be a great director,” said Barrett Boatright, vice chairman of the recreation board. Boatright presided at the meeting in the absence of Chairman Johnny Thigpen Jr. who was out of town.
Brown, a much beloved figure in Pierce County, announced in February she would be retiring from Pierce County Schools this year.
She has 38 years of service as a coach and has served for the past 29 years as athletic director at Pierce County Middle School.
Affectionately known as “Coach Mo,” Brown was a standout basketball and track star at Blackshear High in the late 1970s, played collegiate basketball at South Georgia College and Georgia College before moving on to a successful high school coaching career. Beginning in the 1980s, Brown served stints as head coach of girls basketball, girls softball, and girls golf at Pierce County High School, including winning two golf state championships (2000, 2005).
Brown also ushered in the advent of fast-pitch softball at PCHS before embarking on a highly successful career as a sports administrator. She has spent the latter half of her career as athletic director at Pierce County Middle School. One of the first in this area to hold that office at the middle school level, Brown has overseen a sports program at PCMS that has dominated the Southeast Georgia Middle School Athletic Conference for more than two decades.
Brown has her work cut out for her at the recreation department.
She is the fourth director of the department in as many years. The recreation department has been without a director since the resignation of Will Watson last July. Watson succeeded Hardy Maloch, who served just eight months. Prior to Maloch, had succeeded Patrick Arrington, who only served for 13 months before resigning in October, 2019.
