Eric Brown is the new athletic director for the Clinton Parks and Recreation Department. He hails from Hamlet, which is in Richmond County.

Brown attended Wingate University and majored in sports management there.

“I thought sports management would be fitting, because I had been around sports my whole life and thought I would like to have a job one day that was somewhat involved with sports” said Brown.

He was also a pitcher on the Bulldogs’ baseball team. He would go on to play Minor League Baseball in the Mets system for five years.

As an athletic director, Brown has a very important job. First and foremost, his goal is to get as many youngsters signed up as possible for each sport that the city’s recreation department offers.

He has to take the kids and put them on a team and find a coach. Brown works directly with Parks and Rec director Judi Nicholson on preparing the budget for athletics. Any part-time employee you see at games, such as the umpires and score keepers, are also Brown’s responsibility — hiring them and keeping up with who’s fielding what game.

Another big part of the job is finding sponsorships for the teams. In recreation, a team will have a sponsor who pays for their uniforms and, in turn, the company gets their logo placed on the back of the uniform.

Brown has played sports his entire life, and knows the importance of playing in recreation sports at such a young age.

“When I played little league, it was another place, besides school, for me to hang out and meet friends. It helped me to develop the social skills I needed and it also helped me to learn about myself. And that’s what it does for all kids I feel.

“It increases their skills physically yet also socially.’

In sports, he asserted, there are many situations that come about that force you to think them through before making a decision. “There are also lots of emotions that you feel, much like we do in our everyday lives. And in playing sports if you encountered one of these emotions, you learned how to deal with them and that led me to learn how to deal with them outside of sports.”

When asked what he had planned for the Clinton Park and Recreation Department and what changes needed to be made, Brown stated that not much needed to be changed.

“Jerry Herring did an excellent job, and I plan on keeping things rolling the way he had them going. I like the looks of where we are heading.”

Baseball this season, he noted, has been kind of chaotic. “Me being a baseball guy, I have a few ideas to help with that and just to run a tighter ship. But for the most part everything else looks good. I’m just trying to make everybody happy.”

After his stint on the baseball diamond, Brown put in applications to many different places. Nicholson liked what she saw on paper and called him in for an interview.

The rest is recreation history for Brown.

“I was very impressed with the facilities,” he noted. “ I liked how it was all at a central location in Royal Lane Park. There were a lot of similarities between Clinton and my hometown of Hamlet and that was a big draw to me as well.

He also likes the staff.

“I liked the feel of the staff here; they are a tight knit group and I wanted to be a part of that. It’s a great place to live, location wise. You’re right near the coast and yet also not that far from Raleigh.

“I like living in Clinton,” he asserted. “I feel like I fit in well, and it reminds me of my hometown.”