East Central riding rising star running back to 4A state title game

For 13 games, opponents have been trying to catch Tony Brown. Forty-five rushing touchdowns later, they’re still chasing. The East Central running back is probably the fastest person in all of Hurley and one of the fastest players in the entire state.
So, tonight we beg the question, how fast he really is and how his 4.4 speed almost never came to be for the Hornet.
“He’s pretty fast. He’s probably one of the fastest kids in the state.”
“We clock him at a consistent 4.4, 4.5.”
“He’s always been special, honestly. In peewee he’d get past us, he’s gone. I mean there ain’t no catching him, nothing has changed now. He’s just gotten bigger, faster and stronger.”
On Saturday, 4A East Central will vie for the state title for the first time in program history and Touchdown Tony Brown has a lot to do with that. “I walk slow, I mean that’s about it. And then fast, I just try to do everything full speed on the field and everything else.”
There’s nobody faster on his team and almost every other team on the schedule for that matter. Head Coach Seth Smith said, “You hear people say he’s faster in pads, to me he’s as fast as he has to be.”
Center Austin Kitchens said, “He’s fast, very fast. If he gets run down, they just have a better angle on him. (So there’s nobody actually faster?) I don’t think so.”
Brown’s 48 total touchdowns don’t think so either. In fact, 14 of those have come over the past two games combined. “It makes it easier for us, we’re not on the field as long as our defense is. And he runs for eight touchdowns, I mean if you lose then there’s something wrong.”
The Hornets haven’t lost all season. They’re still undefeated at 13-0 and Brown is showing no signs of slowing down. It’s almost like he has an extra gear. “The run that he had against Poplarville where he leaped a defender, almost fell down, gained his momentum and he felt them closing and he just kicked it into another gear, I mean he’s got a ton of ability.”
“I really don’t know because they’re always behind me and I can just hear their footsteps. But knowing that when I made it to the touchdown there was nobody between two or three feet of me, it was a great feeling.”
With more than 2,500 hundred yards on the ground in 2017, Brown is having a dream season as a senior. What if the Gulf Coast rushing king had never come to Hurley? “I’m glad I got to play with these boys. I was in New York and I could’ve stayed up there, but my mom sent me down here with my dad and I’m glad she did.”
Brown says that happened around fourth or fifth grade and it’s a decision he reflects on often as he counts down the hours leading up to his final high school football game. “It hits me almost every morning, and it’s just a great feeling.”
“I guess what makes him special to me, you’re talking about a kid that’s scored 89 touchdowns and he’s just one of the guys. He doesn’t walk around here any different, he’s very humble and his humility and his attitude to me along with all of his God-given abilities is what makes him special.”
There’s no telling what Brown’s legacy would have looked like in the Empire State and that’s not something his East Central family seems to have any second thoughts about.
However, there’s still that one matter of just how fast? “Something slower than Tony Brown, me. Something faster than Tony Brown, yeah I guess a Corvette.”
“Honestly, slower, our O-line maybe? Faster, I couldn’t even think of a word. (Maybe one of these cars out here?) Maybe.”
“Along the way we’ve had crazy fun and it was amazing how much fun we’ve had and to end it like this it’s just a dream come true.”
At today’s practice, a scout from Jackson State told News 25 he was there looking at Brown and Head Coach Seth Smith says he will be playing somewhere at the next level next season.
The Hornets will take on Noxubee County at 3 p.m. on Saturday from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford.