Former Indianapolis Lutheran assistant coach Christian Brown talks with a Saints runner at first base during a game last season. Brown has been named the head coach at Columbus East.
Christian Brown spent the first couple years of his life in Columbus before his family moved to the south side of Indianapolis.
Brown is hoping his second stint as a Columbus resident lasts a little longer after he was announced Monday as the new head baseball coach at Columbus East.
“I’m ecstatic,” Brown said. “This will be my first head coaching position. I’m excited for the opportunity.”
Brown’s father Marcus Brown graduated from East, and two of his aunts graduated from Columbus North. His grandparents Nancy and Glenn Baker still live in Columbus.
“I am very familiar with Columbus,” Christian Brown said. “I spent a lot of time at the Commons and Ceraland growing up. A couple of my travel ball players that are currently at East asked if I would pursue it. So I put my name in and interviewed.”
A 2011 Franklin Central graduate, Brown spent four years as an assistant coach at Beech Grove and six years as an assistant football and baseball coach at Indianapolis Lutheran. He was on the staff of the 2022 and 2023 Class A football state champions and the 2025 Class A baseball state champs.
“We’re excited for coach Brown to come in and really continue what (baseball) coach (Jon) Gratz has done over the years and put his own stamp on us,” East athletics director David Miller said. “A lot of his philosophies line up with our athletic department philosophies. He’s been around state championship programs in both football and baseball, so he knows what a championship program looks looks like.”
Gratz retired from coaching in June after 15 years as the Olympians’ head baseball coach and 19 years overall with the program. He led East to a Class 4A state runner-up finish in 2019 and a final four appearance in 2022.
“I’m well aware of the success the program has had under coach Gratz,” Brown said. “With how the game is changing, I bring a good high motor and I look to continue that success and get them to that next level of a state championship in the future.”
Brown had been teaching special education at New Palestine. He will be a special ed teachers assistant at East and is ready to get to know his baseball team.
“Short term goals, I want to build relationships with all the players, starting with the seniors,” Brown said. “They kind of set the tone moving forward for the underclassmen. Then long term, obviously, you want them in life to be the best husbands, fathers they can become. If you can build young men on and off the field, that kind of takes care of itself.”
