Dave Brown, the former St. Mary’s basketball star who coached Winthrop to four straight appearances in the Division 4 North finals – and a state title in 2011 – is stepping down.Brown, a Winthrop policeman who still lives in Lynn, made the announcement at the Vikings’ breakup dinner earlier this week.Winthrop, under Brown, won 136 games in the 10 years he was coach ? and that’s including his first two seasons when the Vikings were 2-18 and 4-15. They were three-time champions of the Northeastern Conference/South division, including this past year. However, the Vikings lost in the first round of the MIAA Division 4 North tournament to eventual state champion St. Mary’s.”It’s been a good 10 years,” Brown said. “Now, it gives me the opportunity to step back, take a year or two off, and be with my children as they start to get older.”It got tough the last couple of years between my regular job and coaching, and I felt this was an opportunity to take some time off.”Brown left the door wide open, however, for an eventual return to coaching.”I definitely plan on getting back into it,” he said, “if something comes up that works well with my work schedule and my family commitments, but I don’t see that as happening any time soon.”Brown also said he felt now was a good time to walk away, “because we have three starters from this past year who are returning, and I don’t want to leave my successor in a position of having a down year. We’ve become one of the top programs on the North Shore.”Brown was a star at St. Mary’s, where he paired in a backcourt with the late Ray Armstead Jr. to go deep into the Division 3 state tournament his senior year. Brown later went to Westfield State along with his brother, Don, who is an assistant basketball coach at Lynn Tech. They are cousins of former Lynn Classical standout Pancho Bingham.Brown said a few coaches in the area have approached him about the possibility of becoming an assistant, “and I don’t know. Right now, I’m excited to be taking some time off, but come November I might get the itch to get back into it.”Brown said beyond the championship, what he’ll remember most about coaching “is the relationship that I build with each and every kid in the program. I’ve gotten to know a lot of them, along with their parents, and some of them are like second sons to me. That’s the best part about this ? the relationships you build with the kids.”Brown also said he’s looking forward to having more time to see some of his former players who are on college teams, and wants also to see more games in which his nephew, St. John’s Prep’s Marcos Echeverria, plays.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].