St. Catherine’s star makes right call
Brown nearly quit playing football
Prior to the 2018 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel and Now News Group will reveal the Area Sweet 16 players to watch. Each day between the first day of practice on Aug. 1 and the first day of games on Aug. 16, one player will be revealed online. View the entire list of athletes here.
Da’Shaun Brown stood on the sidewalk just outside the football practice field at Racine St. Catherine’s, trying to somehow properly encapsulate his last few years and put it all into words.
The Angels quarterback is back for his senior season on a team that went undefeated in the 2017 regular season. Brown is one of the top threats in the entire state, dominates opponents with his strong
arm and mobility and is considered one of the top recruits in Wisconsin. He enters the year holding six Division I offers, including one from UW.
Brown looked away, tilting his head toward the ground and shaking it slowly two or three times.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he says.
Right at home
It wasn’t long ago that Brown almost quit playing football.
As a freshman at Racine Case, Brown did not find himself on the field as much as he would have liked. He was wondering if all of the time and work in the offseason was worth it. Playing the game he loved as a kid just didn’t bring out the same level of exuberance in him anymore.
“There was a time when I didn’t want to play anymore,” Brown said.
Brown enrolled at St. Catherine’s in the summer following his freshman year, where the head football coach was Dan Miller. The two had known each other since Brown was in sixth grade.
“He just came in and played,” Miller said. “I think what was really nice is that he came in and maybe 10 guys or so played on his travel football teams growing up.
“He was joining friends he knew since he was eight years old or so. It was a good fit. It was a no-brainer.”
Just down the road from Case on Washington Ave., Brown has found himself right at home.
“It’s a blessing that I can still continue to play football and that I want to play football now,” Brown said.
Taking the state by storm
When Brown transferred prior to the 2016 season, Miller had a quarterback competition on his hands. And Brown wasn’t even a part of it.
During the first captains’ practice, however, Brown both threw himself into the conversation and subsequently ended it.
“I had two senior quarterbacks, and after that first day, I was like, ‘Okay, you guys have to go to receiver,’ ” Miller said of Terryon Bumpus and Robbie Milder. “Da’Shaun has to be our quarterback.”
The decision to move two seniors from their spots as signal-callers in favor of a sophomore who had just transferred wasn’t easy for Miller, but he knew that keeping Brown on the bench would hurt the team.
“It was extremely tough to do that because I had known these kids since the second grade,” Miller said. “They were fighting for three years, then here comes this special kid who can throw and run like crazy.”
Thirty-four seconds into his first career start, Brown threw a 49-yard touchdown pass – to Bumpus, fittingly in a display of what was to come.
Becoming an all-state player
As a sophomore in 2016, Brown threw for 1,853 yards and ran for another 1,087, combining for 40 touchdowns through the ground and air as St. Catherine’s went 8-3.
Last fall, he led the Angels to a 10-1 record and an undefeated regular season.
As the offense averaged more than 40 points per game, Brown threw for 1,404 yards and ran for 1,210 more while scoring 34 touchdowns en route to an honorable mention all-state nod.
He rushed for 402 yards on one memorable night for the Angels against Kenosha St. Joseph on Oct. 7, finding the end zone seven times.
“Sophomore year, I felt like I was more so doing a lot without having knowledge of my teammates’ abilities,” Brown said. “Now, I’m connecting with my teammates and it’s making us all better.”
A strong connection between quarterback and coach hasn’t hurt, either.
“I love my relationship with Coach,” Brown said. “He listens to everything I say; I listen to everything he says. It’s a give respect, get respect thing with him.
“He’s a really cool guy and somebody I can go to and talk about anything.”
UW among six schools to offer
Much of the talk from the outside regarding Brown centers on where he will choose to play in college.
As for Brown, though, that isn’t at the forefront of his mind right now.
“I know the time will come, but I don’t have a decision in my head,” he said. “I lost a lot of contact with schools during my work-out process and football season, just not being on my phone much, but I still talk to a lot of schools.
“I’ll make a decision this year some time.”
Ranked as the top senior recruit in the state this year, Brown holds scholarship offers from Iowa, Iowa State, Syracuse, Western Illinois, Western Michigan and Wisconsin. Miller says that Michigan State and Purdue also have been in pursuit of Brown, who projects likely as a wide receiver or defensive back at the next level.
Brown was the first 2019 in-state prospect to receive an offer from UW, and it took him by surprise.
“I didn’t see it coming, but it felt like once the first one came in, then it all started getting crazy,” Brown said. “It was definitely cool to have the in-home school offer and to be the first big offer for my age group. We’ve been in contact, but I think we’ve been focusing on our own seasons for a little bit here. It will pick up again.”
If this year goes anything like the last two have for Brown, it sure will.