How Arkansas football commitment Luke Brown endured 18 months of family hardship

It's been more than two years since the last time Luke Brown felt normal.

During an 18-month period, Brown's family endured the death of a close family member, the health scare of an even closer one while Luke's own high school football career at Henry County began to skyrocket.

And at the center of it was Luke's mother, Jennifer, who kept the family together as the Browns displayed a resiliency through hardship not easily found in most.

Brown, a 6-foot-6, 320-pound star offensive lineman at Henry County, is ranked as the state's No. 8 prospect in the class of 2023 and the No. 15 interior lineman in the country according to 247Sports Composite.

And he's No. 10 on The Tennessean's 2022 Dandy Dozen, a collection of the top college football prospects in the Nashville area as selected by the newspaper. He held 19 Power Five offers before committing to Arkansas in April.

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"With everything that was going on in my family, to commit to Arkansas was a huge weight off my shoulders," Brown said.

Brown's family moved from Martin to Paris after his freshman year at Westview High. Luke's father, Gordie, has family who lives in Paris and he and Jennifer talked for years about living closer to Kentucky Lake.

Gordie works for BSN Sports, an apparel company that sells athletic gear to schools across the country. But opportunities to sell those products proved difficult when the COVID pandemic hit. The move to Paris became more attractive.

"It was a chance to downsize a bit," Gordie said. "And my wife and I had talked about, as we near retirement, moving to Paris made more sense."

But leaving Martin was not easy.

Jennifer, a native of Martin, worked as a school nurse at Martin Middle and was helping to take care of her ailing father.

"That's part of the reason we settled on Paris," she said. "It was close enough, about 30 miles, for me to make trips to Martin to see my dad."

Attention from college programs began to pick up after Luke's first season with the Patriots in 2020. Henry County finished that season 10-3, losing to Summit in the Class 5A state semifinals.

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But in the first week of February of 2021, Gordie began feeling lethargic. He tested positive for COVID a few days later and by Feb. 12 he was hospitalized, struggling to breathe.

"Jennifer's strength amazes me," Gordie said. "She was an absolute rock. I'm glad she's married to me."

Luke picked up his first scholarship offer, from Vanderbilt, while Gordie was hospitalized. An offer from Eastern Kentucky followed.

Jennifer halted her nearly weekly trips to Martin so she could be near Gordie and she provided daily updates on his condition through texts to family members, including her oldest son, Jace, who was in Knoxville attending the University of Tennessee.

"I don't know how my mom did it," Luke said. "She'd tell me to just worry about school and football and she'd take care of the rest."

The nights were the worst. Jennifer ended each one with texts of support and love to Gordie.

"I could keep it together during the day at home and at work," she said. "But after I would go to bed, that's when the tears would come."

Luke struggled to find ways to ease his mother's burden so he threw himself into offseason conditioning. He was beaming when Gordie came home after spending a week in the hospital.

"Football took my mind off things," Luke said. "School work too. Letting those things slip would have been letting my team, my coaches, my mom and my dad down."

As the featured blocker, last fall, the Patriots ran for 3,338 yards and finished 8-6, losing to Page, 56-52, in an epic state semifinal game.

Gordie spent the next few months recovering from the residual effects as Jennifer resumed her trips to Martin. But that changed in June of 2021 as her father's health began to fade.

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Luke was scheduled to visit Alabama that month and Jennifer encouraged him to go despite Luke's reluctance. Luke's grandfather died June 18 while Luke and Gordie were in Tuscaloosa.

"My dad knew he didn't have long and I decided to stay," Jennifer said. "I know Luke felt guilty about leaving but my dad would have thrown a fit if he knew Luke didn't go."

It took time for the family to work through that grief but the Browns are finally in a place of peace. Luke's commitment in April has allowed him to focus on his senior season with the Patriots.

"It feels weird with things getting back to normal," Luke said. "It's a good kind of weird though. We take normal for granted. Not anymore."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA football: Arkansas commit Luke Brown makes Dandy Dozen list