CHARLESTON- He will go down in history as one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks in Charleston football history. And for everyone who had the privilege of watching him play, everyone knows that former Charleston quarterback Brandon Scott is a winner. He is a winner both on and off the field. And now that he has graduated and played in his last game, Brandon Scott is moving forward to be a winner in life.
There is an addiction to watching Brandon play. He is a natural talent in any sport that he plays, and when you had the opportunity to watch him play, you knew you were watching a great athlete do what he enjoys the most. His tenure as a high school athlete came to an end all too soon for the many fans who watched him play, but Brandon is much more than a talented athlete. And now, Brandon looks to the next phase of his life, preparing to be great at whatever he chooses as his life long passion. And in true Brandon Scott fashion, whatever he chooses to do, I know he will be great at it.
After a huge basketball win at Cedarville a few years ago, I referred to Brandon as “Great Scott!” in the RNN headlines. Greatness is the only way I can describe him; from his “yes sir, no sir” respect that he pays others, to his play on the field, Brandon is a class act.
Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting with Brandon on the phone to interview him for this story. It was a special occasion for me. I, along with the many others who watched him play over the past four years, had grown to admire his play and the type of person that he grew to become. And our time on the phone for me was the culmination of having watched him play and was a final opportunity to share with him just how special I think he is, and how much I enjoyed watching him play. He may be, one of the greatest quarterbacks in Charleston football history, taking his place with Ty Storey and others in the rich tradition of Tigers football.
To begin our interview, I had to get the big question out and on the table. So many fans looked forward to Brandon playing college sports. So, I asked him about his decision not to pursue college athletics. When I asked him if college sports were on the horizon for him, Brandon began by saying, “No sir, I don’t think so. Mainly, I’m just ready to move on with my life. I’ll still be playing pickup games and all of that, but I guess I’m just ready to move on.”
His feelings may be hard for some to understand. When we watched him play, he always seemed to be right at home and in a place where he wanted to be. The field or the court seemed to be his sanctuary, where he was free to do what he enjoyed doing best, and make no mistake, he was the best both on the floor and on the field. Brandon explained, “I’ve played basketball and football pretty much my whole life, and I felt really comfortable out there. I just had fun; I loved football and basketball so much. So, I really enjoyed being out there with them (teammates).”
Brandon, in this writer’s opinion, is a natural leader on the field and on the court. But he did not lead by yelling, getting in his teammates’ faces…he led by example. He led by his play. When I asked him about his approach to team leadership, Brandon shared, “It’s what I strived to be. My mom, growing up, that’s what she taught me, lead by example…don’t say too much, let your play do the talking. That’s what I always remembered, and that’s what I always tried to do.” That has been a breath of fresh air in today’s world of athletics. Brandon would seemingly make one great play after another, and he would not take advantage of the opportunities to go overboard with celebrations, pointing at the opponents, etc. He would just come back and do it again. There was not a lot of trash talking on the field; he would just go out and beat the Tigers’ opponents.
Brandon also gave credit for this approach to his head coach, Ricky May. “It also has a lot to do with Coach May. He is such a great dude. I feel like all of us (Tigers teammates) as a team were kind of like that. We were confident in ourselves, but we were not too cocky. We didn’t really play like we were cocky.”
That confidence that Brandon spoke of was apparent in what I think may be the most impressive run through the state playoffs on the way to a state title. Charleston took a narrow lead into the locker room in their first-round game against Gurdon, but from that point on, they were never seriously challenged for the rest of the way to a state title. The Tigers played in cold, rainy weather, bitterly cold weather, on the road, and in a rain delayed final in Little Rock, but none of those factors seemed to phase the Tigers. Perhaps their most impressive victory was a shellacking of the Rison Wildcats in Rison in the state semifinals. Charleston scored on the first play of their first offensive possession, and the rout was on. It was never close against a very good Rison team on their home field. “I felt like in the playoffs we were a different team. We played together so much better, and we just played better overall. It was really fun.”
During our telephone conversation, one thing that became clear was his relationship with his former head football coach, Ricky May. Not surprisingly, Brandon speaks very respectfully and fondly of Coach May. So, I asked Coach May for his comments on Brandon, telling him that I was writing this story. Coach May responded by saying, “Brandon…the best way to put it, is he is a winner. No matter what he does, he will excel because of his work ethic. He is probably the most natural athlete I have ever coached. He started the All-Star game the other night and had a great game. I told him a couple of weeks before the game that he would be the best player on the field. He ended up being named the All-Star game MVP.”
Brandon’s All-Star Game MVP award was his second in the past seven months. In December of 2022, he was named the MVP of the Class 3A football state championship game. Quite an accomplishment for such a talented, yet modest player.
After all of his success and the teams’ successes over the past four years, I asked Brandon what his favorite memory was of playing at Charleston. I asked him to do this without considering their state championship, and he said, “Mostly, just like a practice, just hanging out with my teammates. We were all so close and we had so much fun to do in practice…we just laughed together. I just enjoyed it so much. I think that is why we had so much success in our games; we had so much fun in practice.”
During the epic playoff run in 2022, the Charleston Tigers may have been the most unselfish group of players I have ever watched play together. And that unselfishness translated into a laser focus that made them unbeatable in the state playoffs. It didn’t seem to matter who the star was going to be each game, they just wanted to win the game. “I felt like no one cared about stats. And that also was because of Coach May. Because I think, last year (2021 season) someone had said something about stats. Coach May really tore into that person about how the stats didn’t matter; it was not about any single person, it was about the team. So, I think when we got into the playoffs (2022) we were all just focused on winning, and that was all that mattered.”
I began covering Charleston in their 2019 football season, and that year, I have said many times, may have been Coach May’s best coaching job up to the state championship in 2022. Charleston that year was devastated by injuries, and Coach May managed the team and kept them playing hard each week until they eventually secured a state playoff berth. That year, Brandon Scott was a freshman, and the freshmen Tigers were a talented group that everyone had placed great expectations on their future potential. The word was that this freshman group had set a high goal for themselves over the next four years. When I asked Brandon about this, he said, “I guess, we knew that we had a chance to be pretty good. And we definitely didn’t want to end our senior year the way the 2019 season ended (losing to Prescott in the first round of the state playoffs). Our first two years, (a first round loss in 2020 at home vs Glen Rose, and a 2021 first round loss to Glen Rose in the state playoffs) provided the motivation for this year (2022 state playoffs). We felt like state championships were the standard at Charleston. That’s what we always talked about, was playing in and winning a state championship.”
One aspect of the Charleston football program that Brandon described was the feeling of obligation by the underclassmen for the success each year for the seniors. In a day when many players think of their senior years’ being “their turn” and underclassmen thinking about themselves, the tradition of Tigers football is much different. Brandon expressed disappointment of sending off the 2020 and 2021 seniors with first round losses in the state playoffs. “I felt really bad for those guys that they didn’t have the opportunities to go deeper into the state playoffs.” It is all part of the since of family in the program. This past season, as Charleston played the first three rounds of the state playoffs at home, several alumni players returned to Charleston to root on their Tigers. “It’s just the pride that Charleston has. It is just what everybody expects. Seeing all of those guys there to cheer for us…we just wanted to do it for them and all of the fans.”
Another variable in the program is that each Tigers player knows they are a target for every opponent. Due to their long term success in the Charleston football program, every Tiger knows that every opponent they play will bring their best effort against Charleston. No matter what their season record is going into their game with Charleston, the Tigers expect the best effort of the year against them. “Coach May tells us pretty much everyday that our opponents are going to play their best game against us; it doesn’t matter what the record is, they are going to bring their best against us. So, we are more prepared and ready to go for that game.” Perhaps the greatest measure of respect of a program by an opponent is how seriously they take you in their game preparation. And Charleston has a tradition of going into battle knowing that their opponents want to beat them badly. The Tigers embrace this, and this is, in part, a big factor in their success as a program.
The 2022 regular season ended on a stormy night in Lavaca. Brandon referred to this game as the pivotal point in the season when he thought the Tigers had a chance to go far in the playoffs. The game had been delayed due to a torrential rain storm that hit the field about 6 p.m. that night. The game was delayed and did not start until approximately 9 p.m. Brandon described that night by saying, “It was pouring down rain and was really cold. We took a step forward and played really well that night. We were basically just getting ready for the playoffs. From that point, we didn’t look back. That’s when we started playing really good.” And Brandon is right…the state playoffs started the next week on a cold and rainy night against Gurdon at Alumni Field. The second week of the playoffs, the weather was dry, but the temperatures were frigid. Eventually, the state championship game would be played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on another cold and rainy night, and after a long delay before kickoff. Brandon continued by saying, “I don’t think it affected us that much (cold, rainy weather in the state playoffs and the championship game), but even the Lavaca game in the regular season was played with tornado watches or warnings, and we didn’t get to play until like 9 p.m. I remember Coach May telling us that this could just be setting us up for a future game in the playoffs, and we will be ready. And we played three games in the playoffs where we had to play in the rain and cold. So, he was absolutely right that it was just getting us ready for the playoffs. So, I don’t think the weather affect us too much in the playoffs; we were focused and ready to go.”
Before the state title game, I asked Coach May what preparations he was making to prepare for a possible wet championship game. Was he using wet footballs in practice to prepare for the rain? In classic Coach May fashion, he answered my question by saying, “We played in a monsoon in Lavaca…I don’t think the rain in Little Rock will phase us.” That confidence and motivation was shared by Brandon and his teammates, and Coach May was right…the rain in Little Rock didn’t phase the Tigers.
One of the things Brandon will take from his playing career at Charleston will be his relationship with his coach. “I absolutely love Coach May. He’s such a good guy. He’s a defensive coach, but our defenses always played so good, so he is amazing as a coach. From the standpoint of being a man, he is one of the best I have ever met. He has helped us become better and I feel like he has shaped our futures. I don’t think we would be the guys that we are without him. He’s just such a good dude.”
Under Coach May’s tutelage, Charleston continues to improve as not only a good football program, but as a program that develops good young men. The Tiger football program is a program that any parent would want their child to play in.
Brandon Scott was a talented football player and basketball player for Charleston. In 2022, Scott led the Tigers to the second round of the state playoffs, earning All-State honors along the way. Scott is the type of athlete that is good with any sport he plays. Whether it is football, basketball, or golf, Brandon is a talented athlete. In fact, many have said that Brandon can really hit a golf ball!
So the Charleston career for Brandon Scott is in the history books, and I suspect we will see Brandon returning to Alumni Field over the years to support the future Tigers who will carry on the tradition of Tigers football. I also expect that he will, at some point, be invited back by coach Ricky May to speak to future Charleston teams as part of May’s “Uncommon Man” series of talks with his teams. The “Uncommon Man” visits by former players, community members, and others who are connected to the program are all part of Coach May’s mentorship program.
Brandon is now turning his sights on going to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith as a freshman student. He has not declared a major as of now, but he eventually will, and he will discover what his new, lifelong passion will become. And whatever he chooses to do, he will be good at it.
RNN Sports would like to thank Brandon Scott for visiting with us for this story, and to his coach, Ricky May, for his contribution to this story, as well. We will all miss Brandon on the playing field or on the court, but he is not gone. I am sure we will see him on Friday nights, sharing his example of what it takes to be a good person, and to be, a winner.
Good luck Brandon Scott! We know that whatever you ultimately choose to do in life, you will be a winner.
