Hinton enjoys being 2-way starter for Braves

BROWNSTOWN - Chris Hinton says he wants to be on the field as much as possible for the Brownstown Central football team.

For that reason he enjoys being a two-way starter, at center and defensive tackle.
He started at center, and at defensive tackle and linebacker last fall. "I like defensive line," he said. "It's pretty fun flying around and hitting people. My responsibility is to get to the quarterback."
Hinton always plays left tackle on defense. "I usually play over a tackle, but sometimes I slide down and play over a guard. I just try to use my speed."

He said he enjoys playing center and blocking for the backs. "On run plays I just fly off the ball and block, and on pass plays I pass-block and use my hands."

Coach Reed May said, "He's an athletic kid. He plays basketball, and we need a quick, athletic kid at center. He's done a good job there. He's one of our stronger kids. He's vocal on the field and some kids like it and some don't.

"Defense is probably his strong suit. He makes tackles. We like to have a lot of speed up front.  We experimented with him at linebacker, but once the season was over and we evaluated our personnel, I felt like he was a better defensive lineman.

"He's one of our stronger kids. He's in our 900-pound club. He power cleans 260. He's another kid that has been in our program for a long time. He's done the things in the weight room he is supposed to."

 Hinton said to be a good blocker "it takes a nasty attitude." He says it takes a lot of hard work in the summer to be in good enough physical shape to be able to play both ways. "People don't realize how much energy it takes pushing people around."

He said in order to keep winning, "we've got to work hard every day, and we've got to stay focused."
He said he is looking forward to Friday's game at Charlestown. "Coach May gives  us a game plan and we've got to go out and do it. We all have to know our blocking assignments, and on defense we just have to fly around to the football"

May said, "He's a two-way starter and he's done a great job for us."

Brownstown travels to Charlestown
May says his team will be out for revenge as the Pirates won the conference last year. "The last two years the way the conference panned out, we lost the first game in the conference and the team that beat us won the conference." Clarksville won the MSC in 2006.

Charlestown had 540 yards of offense, including 463 on the ground, in the win over Madison last Friday. Cameron Metzger, a 6-foot, 190-pond senior, rushed for 238 yards and scored TDs on runs of 10, 61 and 1 yards.

May said, "He rushed for close to 200 yards against us last year. He's a heck of a running back, probably one of the better running backs in southern Indiana. He plays both ways for them and he's tough. They are predominately an I team, but they go to trips some. When they go to trips, he's the single back, so they spread you out and give him the ball, which creates some problems for us, so we've got to have a good game plan for them. The don't run many plays but they execute real well. Of their five starting offensive linemen, four are seniors.

"They've got eight seniors starting on offense and eight seniors starting on defense. We've only got one game film so I'm sure they've got some things they've put in that we haven't seen, and we've got some things we've put in that they haven't seen. So you never know what to expect come the first game of the conference."
Mitchell game: "I was pleased. We did what we needed to do. We felt like we had more experience than they did, and we were able to do about anything we wanted to against them."

Special honors vs. Mitchell: offensive back: Stucker; offensive lineman: Hinton;  defensive line-inside linebacker: Bowling;  defensive back-outside linebacker: Leitzman;  special teams Lewis: scout team Branaman; black jerseys Hinton, Martin, Bauer, Caleb Silvers.