Hometown Rankin - October & November 2016

“I’m just a deer hunter,” Brian Owens says
about himself as he tries to keep in perspective the
potential of his new venture and company, Owens
Outdoors. It’s definitely far removed from life just a
few years ago.
Owens played high school baseball at Northwest
Rankin and went on to play for Mississippi
State for two years. He stayed on another year after
graduation as an assistant to Coach Ron Polk, an
opportunity that he will always prize.
Marriage to Anna Werne came next–along
with a coaching job at Tennessee Tech University
in Cookeville. The following year, he was offered
an assistant baseball position at Mississippi
College. After one year on the job,
the head baseball coach resigned,
leaving Owens interim baseball
coach at age twenty-five. One
year later, he was offered the
head coaching job, and baseball
life at Mississippi College was
his family’s life for the next
nine years.
During that ninth year, Owens used his
backyard as an experimental station for designing
a hunting blind that would accommodate bow
hunting. In the midst of that, he sensed God’s
direction to do something else. “Go be with your
kids (Ella, 8 and Parker, 5) more,” were the directions
that Owens recalls.
It was easy for Brian and Anna to understand
due to the long hours away from home that all
coaches invest.
It was definitely a step of faith and obedience
when Owens resigned his head coaching position,
especially since Mississippi College had become a
special part of their lives. “I loved my players and
the college,” Owens says.
Then the idea that came by
accident soon launched Brian
and Anna, along with the help
of his brother, Daniel and
sister-in-law, Laura, into
production of the Double Dare
Blind, manufactured by Owens
Outdoors early this year.
Hometown Rankin • 89