Cibolo Steele running back Brenden Brady possesses the kind of physicality that commands the attention of college scouts. During his junior year, Brady accumulated nearly 1,700 yards for 23 touchdowns for a Knights team that ranked in the upper echelons of Division 6A, earning a UIL State Championship berth against DeSoto. I spoke with Brady about his college search, discussed memories of his break-out season, the importance of his father as a mentor and his passion for doing flips on social media:
Hey how are you?
I’m good how are you?
I’m good. I didn’t even recognize your zipcode. What is that, Washington?
Yessir.
Are you from Washington originally?
I’m not from Washington, but this is where I got my first phone at originally.
Were you all moving around?
My dad’s actually military so I’ve moved around to a couple different places.
My dad worked for Boeing, so I lived in six or seven different places. I actually lived in Seattle for a little bit.
I lived in Tacoma. It was a couple hours away. I used to visit there a lot.
Yeah, when I was a little kid, I actually had really bad asthma. Tacoma is where my asthma doctor was, so I used to go to Tacoma a lot back in the day. They had a three story Chuck-E-Cheese, I remember that.
I’ve been to there!
First and foremost, I got to ask you… your dad told me you had a TCU visit this weekend, can you tell me a little about that?
Coach Dan Sharpe actually contacted me a little earlier today and asked if I wanted to come up for junior day. I had talked to my dad and made plans to go up there this weekend.
He said that if they made an offer, you would accept it right away. Is that true?
Yes, it’s definitely a possibility up there. If they offer it to me, that’s cool. But if not, it’s definitely still a good experience for me.
So, I got to ask this too. Your dad actually… he got my attention because he sent me about 15-20 emails talking you up. Is he pretty much your biggest fan and kind of your role model too?
Oh yeah, most definitely. I guess you can say he’s kind of like my recruiter. He likes to contact college coaches and get their assessments on me. He’s definitely my biggest fan and supporter, besides my mom. They both do a great job in supporting me through everything I go through. It’s great having a father like that. I used to not be as thankful I guess, because I didn’t realize how big of an impact it was for him to do that. But, now I’m realizing that more. So, definitely pretty cool and fortunate.
I remember my dad… I used to do a lot of acting back in the day and he would kind of be overbearing too. He would do all the embarrassing things like show up with the camera and calling the casting agents and everything like that. But, at the end of the day, it’s all love. I got a lot of opportunities through him and the support meant a lot. So, I’m sure that’s kind of where you’re at with your dad as well. But you can thank him for this interview!
Yeah, definitely.
We saw you at the UIL State games.
That was a great game.
But, he sent us so many emails that I went, alright, stop emailing me. I was going to ask you too. What’s with all these front-flips I’m seeing on your twitter? Trash cans stacked on top of each other. What is that? What’re you doing?
I don’t even know really. It started last year during track practice. I just saw people long jumping. I thought, hey why not try a front flip. I always have confidence in my capabilities and I didn’t think anything of it. I just went for it and I got it. It’s just what I like to do.
Back in the pit pt. 2💯🐰 pic.twitter.com/1bHlq6S8f9
— Tooliveee5 (@BrendenBrady25) July 4, 2016
You gotta be athletic to do that. I don’t even want to try it. Especially with those trashcans on top of each other. I don’t know how you did that.
*INAUDIBLE that I tried to jump over something at *INAUDIBLE
There was a Creed 2 trailer. I was totally stalking your Twitter to ask you about some of these things.
Thank you, thank you.
Creed 2 trailer lookin live👀👀 @im_doin_work21 pic.twitter.com/xfbBmvXIgs
— Lane (@11_LANE_21) January 16, 2017
What does your workout look like, where you’re able to do these flips. You’ve got this athleticism where you’ve really improved from your sophomore to your junior year. It’s one of the things that I like to ask some of these student athletes. Because, I work everyday too, or try to. It’s always fascinating to me what you all go through in the gym. What’s that look like for you?
Honestly, it kind of *INAUDIBLE because our offseason programs are pretty intense. That always helps in running track faster and increasing my fast twitch muscles. Over the summer, I was just working, because I knew how important this junior year could be for me. I just wanted to show out the junior year, but I started in the summer.
Where were you working out?
I just worked out by myself. I didn’t really need anybody that could train me or personal trainers like that. I know what I needed to work on, so I’m going to start exercising and take from my dad… my dad used to be an athlete as well. He used to work out and I just took advice from him. I went on my own and tried that.
Was your dad a football player as well?
Yes, he played all the way up to high school and then he wrestled in college.
What were the other sports you said you play? You said track… is that it?
I did track all three years of my high school career. I used to play basketball, but I gave that up after my freshman year.
Did you just lose interest in it or did you stop growing? What happened?
Football has always been my favorite sport, so I just wanted to focus all my attention on that. Try to get better, because that’s what I felt like I had a brighter future in rather than basketball. Because in basketball, you need size for that. I didn’t have that. With football, I focused on getting bigger and stronger for that. *INAUDIBLE
I was 4’7” for the longest time and in high school I was 5’6”-5’7”. That was my peak. They wanted me to play point guard, but I thought, I’m going to get killed out there. I had ball handling, but I didn’t have anything else. I was too small.
Yeah, somethings you can’t control. You can only control what you can.
You finished your junior year this year. What colleges have shown interest so far?
I’ve gotten offers from UTSA, Marshall, OSU – Oklahoma State University has… I went up there last weekend, and they’ve shown some interest. Rice has shown a lot of interest in me as well.
What campuses did you visit?
Oh, another one! My fault… I’ve been to there several times for campus visits. I’ve been to a UTSA game day visit. I went to Oklahoma State last weekend and TCU this weekend. I went to a couple other game day visits. One in Texas and I went to SMU.
Photo via Andre Brady
What was the one that impressed you the most?
I don’t know, I really do have a love for UTSA right now. I just love their coaches. I talked to the coaches and they were real cool dudes. It made me feel like home whenever I’m talking to them. I’m really excited to see what TCU is about, can’t wait to get up there. Oklahoma State… they impressed me too. Their facility is really nice. Their coaches are nice as well.
Have you been paying any attention to National Signing Day with UTSA and how good their class is?
I have a few guys actually looking to sign there tomorrow.
Lets talk about some high school football real quick. Last season you had close to 1,700 yards and 23 total touchdowns. Right now, you’re one of the best junior backs in Texas. What was last season like for you after making all this progress from your sophomore to junior year?
I felt like I grew as a player as well as a person, because *INAUDIBLE made me play a little bit better. And definitely just the work ethic in the summer *INAUDIBLE. I can notice a little bit of difference in play-style between this year and last year. I definitely got a little bit bigger and a little bit faster as well. Kind of just helped me out in my game a little bit. But there’s definitely still a lot, and I can’t wait to get started with that.
Was there a diet difference or did you gain some muscle?
A little bit of both. I mean, my diet stayed the same (*INAUDIBLE?). But, I really tried to hit the weights this summer and focus on getting faster as well.
You all lost in that game against Lake Travis. What was kind of the point that you realized this was a special group that might actually make a championship run?
Oh, that game right there. We lost it, but you could just tell. The way we were down by halftime and the way we tried to fight back (*INAUDIBLE) team had no quit in us. I knew we were never going to quit. We were always going to try and win games. From the first whistle to the last whistle, it was go time. I know we started a little slow, but we wanted to just keep going.
Can you talk about the championship game and what your experience was like? What your reaction to the game was like? Anything you want to share?
That game was amazing. Obviously, the atmosphere – as big as it was – was incredible. You could just feel the crowd. The stadium itself was huge (and the locker-rooms). It was a great experience, I’ve never experienced anything like that. Being able to play with the guys next to me that I loved so much, being with the coaches that coached me so much, and just playing a good opponent and putting everything that we had on the line… it was incredible.
Photo via Andre Brady
What was your reactions playing in front of one of the biggest crowds in Texas high school football history? I think there was about 40+ thousand that was there…
You could definitely feel it when you walked on the field. Each way you turned around there was all these people and you’re like, wow there’s a lot of people here. Once game time started, it was go time. You got to focus on the game. I didn’t pay too much attention to it then. But, knowing you’re playing in front of that many people is pretty amazing.
You all almost pulled it out too. What was your reaction when you were coming back? Did it make losing hurt that much more? Or was it a moral victory pulling within a score before you ended up losing?
It definitely hurt that we lost. I was never mad or down or anything like that that we were down. Because, I knew this team had no quit, so we were going to try and comeback. Just the stage that we were presented on itself and the chance we had of winning were incredible. We wanted to win that game so bad and it didn’t go our way, but I’m proud of our guys.
What were some things that coach told you after the game to keep your chin up?
Just that we made it this far. It was a journey from the first game to the last game and losing to Lake Travis. It fueled us to where we wanted to go. Coach knew that he still had faith in us the entire season. We kept faith in each other and the coaches as well.
It’s nothing to be ashamed of too. You all lost to probably the two best teams in Texas high school football. It wasn’t like you lost to terrible teams. You were right there.
It was the most fun I’ve had in a game.
Obviously, you’re coming back next year. What are your expectations for this upcoming season and what are you going to work on in the off season?
I’m going to work on the same things that I did last year. I want to get faster and I want to get stronger, even from last year. Try to be the best I can be, the best leader that I can be. Obviously our goal is to make it back to state and win. We always hold high expectations here and try to keep those.
Are we going to see any front-flips/backflips during the games next season?
My coaches don’t really like me doing it, but how about if I sneak one (*INAUDIBLE).
You got to do one… for a touchdown celebration. Just do it.
Yeah, might get one more. (*INAUDIBLE)
It’s worth the extra drills they’ll make you run in practice the next day. When are you going to make a college decision?
Kind of just starting the recruitment process. We’ll see where it takes me first with schools that seem interested in me. I’ll try to make a decision. It’ll be a hard day. We’ll see.
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