BY STU POSPISIL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
ST. EDWARD, Neb. — Ramone Brown's greatest escape hasn't been any nifty move to elude a defender on the football field.
It's been getting away from trouble in his hometown of Chicago and finding a safe place in a rural Nebraska town that took in a friend from his AAU basketball program a couple of years ago.
Brown plays quarterback for St. Edward High School, a six-man team from a town of 750 northwest of Columbus. And like AAU buddy Shavontae Samuels, who helped St. Edward win the 2007 Class D-2 state basketball title, Brown is making a quick mark in sports.
Brown has rushed for 962 yards in six games after missing the opener while getting cleared to play. Against Arthur County in September, the 6-foot-1, 160-pound junior rushed for 395 yards and five touchdowns on 35 carries and threw for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Last week against Loup County, he took four of his six carries into the end zone, scored on a 77-yard kickoff return and threw for another score in a 67-27 win.
Brown said it's a relief to be out of his old Chicago neighborhood.
"It's quiet. It's safer," he said. "You don't have to worry about all the gangs and the drugs. It was like every five minutes, you had to watch your back because anything can happen."
Brown said his mother's drug addiction was a major reason he was looking for a way out of Chicago.
"That kind of let me down," he said. "She was my No. 1. I was looking up to her, and I was going down the same path she was."
Brown said he did well in seven games with the varsity as a freshman at King College Prep in Chicago, but added that he was academically ineligible for the varsity in football two seasons and for basketball one season.
When he approached his club coach for help, William Berry was ready. Samuels, one of Berry's former players, had gone from Chicago to St. Edward to live with brother Shannon Samuels and his wife, Amanda. Shavontae Samuels, an all-state basketball player at St. Edward, now attends Central Community College in Columbus.
Berry contacted the Samuels family, who agreed to take in Ramone at the start of the summer.
Brown immediately immersed himself in sports, playing American Legion baseball in nearby Fullerton. He plans to play basketball and run track for the Beavers.
"Ramone has been dedicated thus far to improving his life in and out of the classroom," said Aaron Martin, St. Edward's athletic director and boys basketball coach.
St. Edward, 5-2, finishes its regular season with a game on Friday at McPherson County and has qualified for the Six-Man Coaches Association conference playoffs.
Brown is a nightmare for the Beavers' opponents. In the wide-open game of six man, the quarterback can't run the ball if he takes a direct snap. So the ball goes to a middle man, who tosses back to Brown.
And then Brown takes off.
"Ramone doesn't have the top-line speed, but he has the moves," St. Edward football coach Jereme Jones said. "He can cut on a dime and make things happen out there. It's great to get him in (open field). Right now, he's been the man in the spread."
Brown hasn't mastered blocking, so he leaves the field when the Beavers run a pro-set formation that features senior Corey Prorok and junior Landon Hemmer.
St. Edward's football roots are in the six-man game, dating to the 1940s with brothers Cletus and Ken Fischer making all-state teams. The Beavers were in the eight-man ranks for the past 27 years, but declining enrollment forced a return to six-man.
"I really think we're the best team in the state," Jones said. "The two games we've lost (Arnold and Greeley-Wolbach), in each we had over 10 penalties and over four turnovers. If we don't do that, I don't think anyone can play with us."
