LOVELAND — Make sure your neck muscles are limber when you meet Dorian Brown. You’ll be shaking your head in disbelief a lot.
First thing you’ll notice about the Thompson Valley junior running back and linebacker is his physique. He goes 6-feet-1, 225 pounds, but those numbers can’t describe how ripped this kid — the son of an amateur bodybuilder — really is.
“Good genes, and I’m in the weight room all the time,” Brown said. “That’s what I spent my summer doing.”
No, really. Ask anyone. That’s all he did, and it’s all he does if he doesn’t have homework.
“I got my eye on the goal,” Brown said with a smile. “My eye on the prize.”
The goal is playing Saturdays in college (Colorado, Colorado State, UCLA and Oregon have contacted him), and the dream is to play on Sundays. It’s been his dream since he was a kid growing up here after his family moved from the Virgin Islands. (Brown was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.)
Brown rushed for more than 1,600 yards in less than eight games last season. Fast, powerful and direct, his torching of Class 4A Northern League foe Skyline for 330 yards had already been trumped by his Week 6 performance against Fossil Ridge.
Brown carried the ball 28 times for 439 yards — sixth-best in state history at the time — and five touchdowns in the Eagles’ 54-50 loss to the SaberCats.
“I don’t know . . . I was just running the ball,” Brown said, shaking his head. “Like every time I got on the field I knew I was going to score because everything was good.”
“He’s a stallion,” longtime Loveland Indians coach John Poovey said. “I never saw anybody close on him after he broke free, and I mean anybody. And that’s unusual for a sophomore.”
Eagles coach Brian Inman kept Brown on the freshman team his first year before putting him on varsity last season. In their second game against Longmont, Inman got his first case of rubber jaw when Brown ran a kick back for a touchdown, before a penalty nullified it.
“So, momentum is down, we run a counter — 70 yards for a touchdown,” Inman said. “He wasn’t going to be denied, and that’s when I knew there was really something special about this kid. If he knows he can do it, he’s going to do it.”
Brown bench-pressed 385 pounds recently, but he knows he can do better. He already maxed out a 400.
“Then I get accused of using steroids and all that stuff,” Brown said, again shaking his head. “All the time. I just look at it as a compliment, because I don’t take anything. Everything is all natural.”
Jealousy is pretty natural too.
Considering the Eagles went 1-9 last season, some might suggest Brown find a program in the spotlight. Not Brown. He went to middle school with his teammates and won’t “stab them in the back.”
Polite. Engaging. Smart. Hardworking. And one heck of a football player, Brown also runs a 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds.
Go ahead. Shake your head.
