IWA standout alum headed to FCS playoffs

By Paul McFarlane

Special to the News-Herald 

 

When Daniel Brown played his first college game four years ago, instead of the 1,000 or so Isle of Wight Academy fans he was accustomed to, he was playing in front of a crowd of 57,000 at the University of North Carolina.

Late in the first half on that steamy early September afternoon, he ran a post pattern, and quarterback Justin Thorpe connected on a 41-yard pass for a touchdown. James Madison University ultimately lost to that UNC team, but it was a start for the Windsor teenager.

“I was giddy,” Brown said this week, recalling the touchdown catch.

His dad probably was also giddy.

“People behind us were telling us to sit down” after the touchdown catch, Mike Brown recalled. He did no such thing.

Daniel Brown and the JMU Dukes won their last seven games of the season to earn the right to face Liberty University at 4 p.m. Saturday at home, the team’s first home playoff game since 2008.

That touchdown in Chapel Hill has a certain irony: The opposing coach was Everett Withers, who had been named interim coach a week before that game in early September. Withers is now the coach at JMU.

Brown was the team’s leading receiver last season and leads this season, as well, with 564 receiving yards in 41 catches. He’s tied for the lead in touchdown catches, with seven.

Brown, a three-sport athlete at Isle of Wight Academy (football, basketball, baseball) is in his fifth year at Harrisonburg, having redshirted his first year as a walk-on for the team.

He broke his ankle in a game against Kinston Forest in his sophomore season in high school, which no doubt interrupted what might have been four straight MVP seasons on the school’s basketball team. He was all conference at IWA in basketball and baseball, and he still likes to play intramural basketball at JMU, but his time is limited between practice and classes.

“Yeah,” his dad said, “he hasn’t got a whole lot of time.”

Mike Brown, who works at Wanchese Fish Co. in Suffolk but lives about a quarter-mile from Isle of Wight Academy, has been to a bunch of his son’s college football games over the years, including that very hot day at Kenan Field in Chapel Hill.

“We’ve been from Ohio to New York” following games, he said. “My wife and I love football.”

Both Daniel and Mike Brown joke about the younger’s status as No. 2 at the IWA.

Daniel Brown sat behind Rusty Brake on the depth chart when the latter was leading the team to state titles.

He was also salutatorian in his graduating class and made a joke about being No. 2 in school in his graduation speech. He seemed to take that in stride, seemed to take pride in his status as No. 2.

He’s a hard worker. He blew out his knee in college. Ligament damage, cartilage damage. Serious damage. Serious surgery. Mike Brown still speaks proudly of his boy:

“He rehabbed [his knee] like there was no tomorrow.”

His dad should know about playing football. He also played at Isle of Wight. “He has huge hands,” the son says, as a matter of pride.

Dad has his own pride for what his son is doing. “For a small, private school, they do a really good job,” Mike Brown said.

Isle of Wight Academy’s Dale Chapman has been coaching high school kids for more than 20 years. He knows his way around high school kids. Chapman likes to speak with pride about kids on his roster. It is his nature. He tries hard to not dismiss his other players by speaking highly of others.

But special kids do come across his radar. Daniel Brown is one of those.

Chapman said there may be added pressure on a football player coming from little Isle of Wight Academy and trying to play for a national championship team in college.

“He’s put added pressure on himself, trying to measure up.” Chapman said. “We don’t put many kids at the Division I level.”

Still, Chapman concludes proudly, “He’s one of the best kids we’ve ever had here.”