Longtime Braintree High School teacher, coach, calls it a career after nearly four decades

BRAINTREE, Mass. — For nearly 40 years, Bob Crook has been an educator and boys varsity basketball and golf coach at Braintree High School.

Now, he’s calling it a career.

And as the likeable coach retires, Crook leaves behind a family and community legacy that may never be duplicated.

“He’s just a genuinely good human being,” said Mike Tosone, a Braintree High School teacher.

“The biggest key to him was that whoever played us, no matter what our record was, they didn’t want to play us,” Jeff Timberlake said.

For nearly 40 years, toughness and grit was a staple of head coach Bob Crook’s boys basketball teams.

“I think our values are pretty simple,” Crook said. “Smart, tough, and I think we won a lot of games with that as the basis. I think that’s the type of kid, still the type of kid, you’re going to get in Braintree.”

And those were the type of kids Coach Crook had in his 36th and final season this past year. The Wamps finished 17-3, highlighted by beating a last minute steal by Calum McClorey to beat Andover High School in the Division 1 Round of 16.

This season was extra special because it was led by 12 seniors, including the coach’s son, Cam.

“Everyone loves him...Either that or they don’t want to tell the coach’s kid they don’t like him,” Cam joked.

“It’s special for me...” Crook said. “I’ve been coaching Cam and that group of seniors since they were in 3rd grade, because I’ve had them in travel all the way up.”

“I knew we were going to be good, and you didn’t have to teach them, you just had to coach,” Timberlake said.

Timberlake and Crook have been coaching together in Braintree for nearly two decades and its been a great match.

“Him and I, we speak the same language, we’re old school,” Timberlake said.

“We fit perfectly because we both agree with the same philosophy on how to deal with young guys,” Crook said. “We try to teach them how to be young men, on how to be a good husband, and be a good father.”

Crook learned how to be a good father and coach from his dad, Dave Crook, who coached Braintree boys basketball in the 1970s.

“I think the thing I took from him the most was how he treated every kid the same,” Crook said.

And the way Dave Crook treated people was by putting others before himself, which started in his own house when he gave up coaching.

“My father gave it up after 7 years to take care of my mother, who was handicapped,” Bob Crook said. “Gave up coaching I think well before he should have to take care of her.”

Seven years later, Dave Crooke was involved in a fatal car accident in front of his own home and he died in Bob’s arms.

Very quickly, a family legacy was passed on.

“Braintree basketball sort of became my family from that point,” Bob Crook said.

For all his time in Braintree, Bob Crook has also been an educator. mostly in the school’s alternative program, where he and Mike Tosone counsel kids who are at risk of not graduating.

“They crave structure,” Tosone said. “Everyone, at some level, wants to be held accountable for what they do.”

“I think it’s saved so many kids over the years,” Crook said.

Soon Bob Crook will be celebrated. Not so much for his longevity, but more for his consistency.

“I think too often some people are celebrated just because they happen to do it for a long time, but in Bobby’s case, he’s been really good for a long time,” Tosone said.

In classic Crook fashion, Bob would rather see the recognition he’s getting now go to others.

“I think there’s a lot of people in education....who do the same thing that I do that don’t get the attention...that have the same affect on kids,” Crook said.

In terms of how he wanted to be remembered:

“I did my job, I guess. I did the best I could, and lots of people do the job the best they could and they should be celebrated just as much,” he said.

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