Some people become part of a town’s history through the buildings they construct or the businesses they establish. Coach Greg Echols became part of Mountain Brook’s story through generations of children he helped grow.
To me, he will always be Coach.
My connection with him goes back to Brookwood Forest, where I was on the first mile relay team he ever coached there. Long before the years of championship teams and statewide recognition, I had the privilege of being one of those young runners at the beginning of his coaching journey.
Looking back, that means something special to me. As children, we rarely understand the larger story we are stepping into. We show up for practice, learn our part, and try to do well. Only years later do we recognize how fortunate we were to have certain people guiding us.
Coach Echols was one of those people.
His roots in Mountain Brook run deep. He entered the school system as a second-grader. Both his parents taught in the system, and his grandmother taught at Crestline when it was a two-room schoolhouse. After graduating from Mountain Brook High School and the University of South Alabama, he returned to teach and coach at Brookwood Forest. His career later took him to the junior high and high school. By his retirement in 2015, he had completed 38 years of coaching in Mountain Brook. (villagelivingonline.com)
Think about how many lives can cross one teacher’s path in that time.
Children become adults. Former athletes become parents. Another generation arrives at school, and a familiar coach is still there, helping young people discover what they can do.
That continuity helps explain why Mountain Brook loves Coach Echols. For so many of us, his name belongs to our own growing-up years. We remember being part of something, having responsibilities to teammates, and learning that effort matters even when the result falls short.
A relay is a wonderful introduction to those lessons. You have your own distance to run, but your performance belongs to the whole team. You depend on someone else, and someone else depends on you. The handoff matters. So does the preparation.
Decades later, that first mile relay team remains part of my story.
There is also a deeply personal part of Coach Echols’s life that deserves to be told with care. His son Scott lost a leg following a lawnmower accident when he was four years old. Coach has spoken publicly about how that experience affected him and helped give meaning to his later work with adaptive tricycles. (villagelivingonline.com, pbs.org)
“Scott’s accident changed my heart,” he told Over the Mountain Journal. (otmj.com)
Those are a father’s words. I would never presume to know everything behind them. But they help us understand why the opportunity to help children gain mobility became so important to him.
After retiring from his longtime coaching role, he became executive director of Birmingham AMBUCS, now known as Iron City Trykes. The organization provides adaptive therapeutic tricycles that help children and others with disabilities experience greater mobility and independence. (otmj.com, pbs.org)
The connection between those chapters of his life moves me. For years, he helped young athletes develop their ability to move, compete, and participate. Through this work, he has helped open opportunities for people whose needs require different equipment and support.
A child getting a suitable tricycle gains another way to explore, exercise, and join in. For a family, that opportunity can carry enormous meaning.
Coach has described this service as a calling from God. His commitment gives us a practical picture of faith expressed through attention to another person’s needs. (otmj.com)
“Through love serve one another.” — Galatians 5:13.
When I think about why our community holds Coach Echols so dearly, I think about the lasting relationship between a coach and the people he taught. We grow older, our lives change, and the lessons find new applications. We still remember who helped us begin.
I am grateful I was there for an early chapter at Brookwood Forest. I am grateful that my small place in his coaching story connects me to so many others who proudly call him Coach.
Coach Echols, thank you for giving Mountain Brook so much of your life. Thank you for the teaching, the years of service, and the care you continue to put into helping others.
From one of your first relay runners: you are loved, Coach.
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