Working Hard to Reach Her Dreams

A newly graduated Saco High School student is heading to Moorehead, Minnesota this fall after earning a scholarship to join Concordia College's track and field team.

Jocelyn Brown, most commonly known as Josie, has shined on the basketball court and at tracks around the state of Montana, but she also has another talent, creating beautiful works of art that have been seen in Saco and Malta for years.

She has three-and-a-half projects visible in Saco, including one on the side of the building formerly known as Pip's Diner, two at Saco High School, a few at a friend's house, another at Milk River Mud, one at the Edgewater Inn, one at Score's Daycare. S

She is the daughter of Leann and Eric Brown and the sister of Dillon and Jake.

As for the name, Josie said that most of her closest friends have no idea of her full birth name, so they don't use it.

"I like it, but it is never used, so when people call me by it, I have to do a double-take," Brown said.

Her art, which has won many awards, especially at local fairs, will also make a person do a double-take. She was asked how she fell into art.

"People ask me that all the time and they want like a super sweet story," Brown said. "I just grew up liking art and my mom always gave me these 'how to draw things' when I was younger. We didn't have Wi-Fi, phones, or electronics growing up, so I had nothing else to do."

Brown was into reading books and liked to draw. Her brother Dillon was also into drawing as well, but eventually, the siblings went into their own favorite hobbies, and Josie stuck with art.

"I think that we have a very creative family and I think growing up, we have had a lot of artists and musicians in my family," Brown said. "It was always a part of me, to want to bring out that creative side."

She has experience in drawing, painting, and sculpting and was asked what her favorite form of art was.

"I don't know because with every art project, you have a vision in your mind and you can make it with anything really," she said. "If I wanted to draw a cat, you can paint that, you can sketch that or sculpt, and sometimes the way you want others to perceive it is better in charcoal. Personally, it's how I want it to be viewed by other people or what I am trying to get out of it."

Her current favorite ways to express art include ink and acrylic paint.

Brown was asked if she had a favorite artist that she looked up to.

"Not so much as her work, but I have a relative named Emmy Star Brown and she does a lot of mural work. Everyone always says that you will be a starving artist when you grow up, you are going to go to college, waste all of your money, be broke your entire life but at least you will be happy."

Her relative Emmy has found success through art and that has inspired Josie.

"Just seeing her going after her dreams, succeed in that so well, and make so many connections has been really inspiring to me," Brown said.

This fall, Brown will begin her collegiate journey at Concordia College, where she will compete on their track and field team and start studying for her double major in Studio Art and Psychology. She wants to work as an Art Therapist and will have to go to grad school.

She said that it is similar to regular therapy, but with expressing your thoughts through art.

"I'm personally not so good at expressing myself through words and I don't know how to put everything into words, so it's more like expressing yourself through different forms of art," Brown said.

The branch that she is going into is studio art. This includes painting and drawing. There is also dance and music.

Though double majoring will be a lot of hard work, Brown wants to set herself up for success.

"I think that psychology is so interesting, and I don't think that I could ever stray away from art, so I believe that if I can go into both branches, I can be a step ahead of everybody else who is going to be in those graduate programs there."

It wouldn't be the first time that Brown has been a step ahead of someone else. She found plenty of success in high school sports at Saco High School. She was a guard for the North Country Mavericks basketball team for the past two years, which included state championships in 2023 and 2024.

"Obviously, we all love to succeed," Brown said. "We have been part of such a good team for so long. We push each other so hard. It sounds snotty but we are not used to losing. Which is a good thing, but you always have to work harder to stay on top."

She said that the game of basketball taught her that it is really about your mindset going into things.

"In basketball, it really shows how close you are to your team and what that community is like," Brown said.

She continued by saying that community support is also a part of the equation and that it is about how hard you are going to go to get the win.

"All those factors just piled on to one another and I think that's what really got us on top, all of those years," Brown said.

She also said that she liked how the seasons progressed throughout the school year. She lifted weights in the fall.

"I work on myself, a lot," she said. "I do my own runs and get into my own mindset. Then basketball season rolls around, and it is not my sport per se, but it helps you become grittier and get into shape. You learn to deal with a lot of stuff and it's just a good transition to get into track."

She also noted that because the front half of the track season is so cold, it helps competitors develop toughness.

She also swept the sprinting and hurdle titles in the District 3C meets as a Saco Lady Panther. She won the 100, 200, 400, 100 hurdles, and 300 hurdles at the 3C meet. She won the 300-hurdle title in the 2024 Eastern C Divisional meet and qualified for state in four of those events. She was fourth in the State C 400 event.

Her love of track has been apparent for years, and earlier this year, Brown committed to Concordia College in Moorehead, Minn. She found the college through email.

"I looked over in Dickinson and started getting a lot of emails from colleges in that area, so I just started looking at new programs because the majors that I am going into aren't super prevalent in Montana," Brown said.

She started to look at schools that have track and field teams and ultimately because of her ability to double major and run in track and field, she picked Concordia.

"Plus, I have relatives, not super close-by but just to have a little bit of community if something goes wrong and I need support, is just really great and it all worked out for me," Brown said.

When asked about her favorite memory in high school track, she pointed to her sophomore season.

"There hasn't been a super bad moment and I love everything about track, but my sophomore year, we had our first girls relay that we had in 20 years," Brown said. "It was really cool to go that far, especially when all of the odds were against us."

Some of those hurdles included starting from scratch with no relay experience. Brown was the lone sprinter on the team, and they had a young eighth-grader that year.

"We pulled off fourth place at state and watching the girls so excited and celebrating, Coach Malone was so excited," Brown said. "Everyone was jumping up and down and that was probably my favorite thing."

Her senior season didn't end how she wanted, having sustained an injury at state, but she said that she was still proud of everyone on her team.

"It was a good season," she said.

At Concordia, she will be used primarily as a sprinter and she will likely go into the Heptathlon, like her former North Country teammate Kaitlyn McColly of Hinsdale. She will also be used on the relay teams.

She was asked what she would say to a kid who wants to do great things.

"You are never going to get anything if you don't ask for it," Brown said. "You really have to be the first person to step up. You have to be willing to put in the work yourself. There are always going to be people who support you and people who don't, obviously. Really at the end of the day, it's up to how you see yourself and how far you are willing to go to reach your goals.

She stressed that you need to work hard.

"If you want to be a star basketball player, it is not going to happen overnight," Brown continued. "You gotta go shoot around. You have to shoot your own drills. You have to put in the work when no one else is willing to do it. I have learned that with track. I have learned that with art. Everyone says that I have this natural talent for art. Though I believe that my creativity is something that I am born with, I have also worked to get where I am."