Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Meadows sophomore specializes in diversity

Austin Brown

Steve Reyes / Special to the Home News

Austin Brown poses during football practice at The Meadows.

In an era when high school athletes tend to consolidate their varsity sports, Austin Brown competes in everything he can.

The sophomore at The Meadows is a starting wide receiver and cornerback on the football team, a starting point guard for the basketball team and starting infielder for the baseball team.

Brown has started in all three sports since arriving on campus as a freshman, thus he has the opportunity to be a four-year, three-sport starter. Even at a 2A classification school like the Meadows, Brown knows such a feat is rare.

"Not many, very few have done it," Brown said. "It's definitely a confidence booster. It makes me feel good about myself. But you have to want to do it, and you have to have the heart to do it."

Brown leads the football team with 11 touchdowns on offense and three interceptions on defense, while also returning punts and kicks. Though the Mustangs have about 18 players on their roster, Brown is the only underclassman that starts both ways.

"It's only his second year, and I think he'll play (three sports) all four years," said Frank DeSantis, who serves as the Meadows football coach, baseball coach and athletic director. "First of all, he's a tough kid. Second of all, he's pretty smart. Third, he never quits. That's probably what separates him from a lot of people."

Last season, Brown led the basketball team in assists while averaging about 10 points per game.

Basketball coach Gary Hannig, who also coaches receivers and defensive backs for the football team, said Brown's ball-handling and ability to beat others off the dribble is rarely matched in the 2A Southern League.

"I told him the other day, I said, 'This has got to be your year. You're going to be a sophomore but we need you to play like a senior,'" Hannig said. "We're going to unleash Austin Brown this year. He will be a big player in the league.."

Brown said changing sports can be challenging, especially when many of his teammates have already been practicing for weeks.

"They're all very different," Brown said. "They have different sorts of conditioning and all that. So it's hard to get into the right shape so quickly but it's definitely fun, definitely a challenge. It probably takes about two weeks of hard practice to go from football into basketball and the same thing for baseball from basketball."

Christopher Drexel can be reached at 990-8929 or [email protected].

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy