Snohomish great Jon Brockman returns to teach at alma mater

SNOHOMISH — What do you do when you’re 37 and have achieved your childhood dreams of being an NBA player and a pumpkin farmer?

If you’re Jon Brockman, the all-time leading rebounder in Washington men’s basketball history, you return to Snohomish High School and teach classes in the school greenhouse.

It’s clear after a few minutes speaking with Brockman that he brings the same passion and energy to working with kids, whether it’s his two young children or his students, that he famously brought to the basketball court.

“It’s fun and rewarding, and I have as much fun as they do planting tulips and doing stuff I never thought I would do,” said Brockman, who spent the previous four summers growing pumpkins in Granite Falls.

Brockman said teaching in the community where he grew up, and at a school where he has many great memories, makes it even more special.

Snohomish principal Nate Duchesne is happy that Brockman’s journey has led him back to his high school.

“Jon is just a great human being and one of the most humble people around,” said Duchesne, who, like Brockman, is a former Herald All-Area Basketball Player of the Year. “He has a lot of pride in this community, in this school, and that comes out in everything he does. He’s also a very good teacher. He has passion for the kids, and he is passionate about the subject matter he’s teaching.

“He started his own farm, and he’s bringing some of his life experiences to the classroom, and that, along with his relational skills with kids, makes him a great fit.”

From UW to the NBA and beyond

Brockman was a McDonald’s All-American at Snohomish, averaging 30.2 points and 14.0 rebounds as a senior in 2004-05.

At 6 foot 7 and 255 pounds, he looked like an NFL tight end, even in high school.

”It’s truly part of the reason why I’m there right now teaching because my high school days were just amazing,” Brockman said. “Half of the guys on the team I went to elementary school with.”

Brockman drew interest from the top basketball programs in the country. It was coming back from a recruiting visit to Duke that he made up his mind to go to Washington.

“Playing for (UW) coach (Lorenzo) Romar was my number one,” Brockman said. “That was who I really wanted to play for. And then I knew I always wanted to live in the Snohomish area and that was one of the determining factors. I have two brothers and a sister, and my parents still live here, and I wanted them to be a part of my college experience.

“When I took my visit at Duke, I remember coming away thinking, ‘I’m going to be not just on my own (if he went there), but they won’t have the chance to come to every game.’ Looking back on my college days, the dinners with family after games was just really special and really cool.”

Brockman was a four-year starter, helping lead the Huskies to the NCAA tournament as a freshman and senior. He was first-team All-Pac-12 as a sophomore and senior, and second team as a junior.

He finished with 1,283 career rebounds. His 391 in a season as a senior is a school record, too. He scored 1,805 points, second most in school history when he graduated (now No. 4).

But as great as the numbers were, it was his hustle and his relentlessness going after every rebound that made him one of the most popular Huskies in decades.

When asked what his greatest achievement was at UW, he said it was helping the Huskies get back into the NCAA Tournament as a senior after they had failed to make it the previous two seasons.

Perhaps his greatest half came in his final game, a 76-74 loss to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. UW trailed by 11 at halftime, and 14 early in the second half.

That was when Brockman took the game over, scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the second half, with much of that coming in the final six minutes as he took control of the game and nearly led UW all the way back.

“At halftime, it kind of sunk in, like, this could be it,” Brockman said. “You say it all the time: Leave it all on the floor. When I was playing, that was my motto, to just go out and give it my all. And that truly was my all.”

Brockman was selected in the second round (the No. 37 overall pick) in the 2009 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. His rights were traded to the Sacramento Kings, and he averaged 2.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 12.1 minutes as a rookie.

That led to him signing a three-year contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, playing sparingly for two seasons before getting injured and heading to Europe, where he played four seasons in France and Germany.

“It was kind of a huge disappointment, because I wanted to stay in the NBA,” Brockman said. “But my days in the NBA, I wasn’t a huge piece to the team. It wasn’t like in college. I was a role guy. Some nights I’d play, some nights I wouldn’t play, and as a competitor that was really hard. So then I get hurt and I ended up going to France, and all of a sudden, I’m one of the (top) guys on the team.”

Brockman relished that, and after two years in France, Brockman said he wanted to play in Germany.

“We were playing in Germany during Christmas and there was a Christmas market — that’s a huge thing in Germany,” Brockman said. “So we finished practice, and I went over to this market, and I remember liking the architecture and the culture, and there was something telling me, ‘Hey, this is going to be your spot.’”

Before his second year in Germany, he married Regan, a Lake Stevens High School graduate. He said it was a special time, traveling together, in Germany and Switzerland. On the court, he was an all-star, but he was ready to start another chapter.

“I don’t want to say I was burned out, but I was ready for something new,” Brockman said. “I noticed some teammates of mine who probably had been playing a little too long, and their bodies were really breaking down, and I just didn’t want that to happen to me. I wanted to be the deciding factor on when my career was done.”

A farmer and teacher is born

Brockman worked as a kid at Swans Trail Farm in Snohomish, which had a big pumpkin patch.

“I would haul pumpkins after school, and I always wanted to be like farmer Ben,” Brockman said of Ben Krause, owner of Swans Trail Farms. “So that was kind of my exit strategy.”

Jon and Regan purchased an old mink farm in Granite Falls and turned it into a pumpkin farm. It was a lot of work, Jon said, but it was a labor of love.

Last year was their fourth season of selling pumpkins. The long hours meant less time for him than he wanted with their two young children, daughter Finnleigh, who turns 3 on Nov. 15, and 1-year-old son Mack.

“They’re awesome, and there’s never a dull moment,” Brockman said. “Finnleigh is tall and skinny, and Mack, who’s two years younger, is almost her same weight. He’s just a load.

“Being a dad is fun and it’s amazing. We realized last year with the pumpkin patch, that with our workload, I was spending a little too much time doing the farm stuff.”

So they sold the farm, and he took on another job he is passionate about.

The passion for teaching began when, about five years ago, he took a job as a long-term substitute at the middle school in Granite Falls.

“That’s when I realized that I really enjoy teaching,” Brockman said.

Brockman, who earned a degree in construction management at UW, went through a program at Central Washington University that earned him a career and technical education degree, allowing him to teach agricultural science classes.

His alma mater hired him to teach classes in floral design and plant biology. He teaches three classes in the afternoon, allowing him to help out in the mornings with his kids, but would eventually like to teach more.

“It has been a blast,” said Brockman, whose wife is also a teacher but is staying home with their children this year. “We’re the greenhouse class. I get to teach kids what I learned on the farm, working with my hands. I’ve really fallen in love with it, pairing the teaching and working with my hands.”

Brockman’s parents, Gordy and Becky, are career teachers and administrators, but Brockman didn’t grow up thinking he would teach.

“I remember thinking that I don’t want to go back to school,” Brockman said.

Gordy Brockman, who spent much of his career at Snohomish High School, is glad his son changed his mind.

“We’re thrilled he’s gone into education,” Gordy Brockman said. “When he was growing up, he was so good with kids. We really thought he belonged in the classroom because he loves kids and is so good with them.”

This winter, Brockman will also help Snohomish boys basketball coach Jeff Larson, and he said he’s excited about that.

Today’s Snohomish players almost certainly don’t remember Brockman as a player, but his Sacramento Kings jersey is hanging on the wall outside the gym.

“We’re so fortunate because of his basketball knowledge and experience, but it’s more than that,” Larson said. “The way he played, the way he’s done everything in his life — being so unselfish and so humble — that’s going to rub off on our kids, and that’s what I’m probably most excited about.”

Larson said he once asked Brockman if there was one thing that kids really need to understand.

“His answer was classic Jon Brockman,” Larson said. “He said they need to realize they’re not that tired. He says you can play harder than you think you can, and that’s what he wants to help us teach these kids.”