Gophers football coach learned patience from autistic son

BleedGopher

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per Hallman:

As passionate as he is about his coaching, Brick is equally as passionate about raising awareness for autism and his Brick Road to Success foundation he and his wife started several years ago. It annually hosts a golf tournament for that purpose, among others. The Haley’s have three sons, one of whom has autism.

“My son A.J. is on the spectrum. He’s functional,” says the proud father of his son, now in his early twenties. “There’s so many misconceptions of [autism]. It’s not that they can’t learn. It’s not that they’re not smart. They’re actually some of the most brilliant people in the world.

“For me…one of the things that I had to learn was patience,” said Haley. “And I think my son helped me become a better coach. I had to be patient with him and do the things that I needed to do to make him understand how things would go. I’ve seen a lot of things…through this foundation that have been earthshaking to me, and that includes how smart [persons with autism] really are.”

Asked if his next move is to be a head coach one day, Haley responded, “I did [want that] at one point in time. I don’t know if I aspire to be a head coach right now. As I was a younger coach, that was something that was really, really important to me. And I had an opportunity to interview for a job, but it didn’t pan out.

“The thing that you want to do is, you got to be better, not bitter,” concluded Haley.


Go Gophers!!
 




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