Brandon Berry: Unstoppable

It was the dawn of December 2015 and Brandon Berry sat, surrounded by the latest broadcast of SportsCenter and walls peppered with Clay-Chalkville football news clippings. The Class of 2016 running back was in his bedroom, not far from the campus of Clay-Chalkville High School, when he opened his iPhone for a quick Twitter post. He knew the upcoming days were ripe with possibility. 

That possibility was made present thanks in large part to years of shaping from Yvette Murray. The single mother has built her son’s toughness like a builder creates a busy bridge.

Murray began boarding down that strength throughout Berry’s greenest of days. It was a steamy Saturday afternoon in Birmingham’s East Lake Park when she tightly grasped 4-year-old Berry’s face mask, knelt down and showered him with tough love.

“I really wasn’t supposed to be playing because I was only 4 and you were supposed to be five, but they put me in the game and this kid ran me over,” said Berry of his most vivid memory. “On the next play my momma grabbed me and said, ‘Are you going to let him run you over like that?’”

The short, stocky youngster, constantly fighting the threat of tripping over the bottom of his own uniform, answered her not with words, but with a shock heard round the park.

“I came back and hit him real hard and it made a loud noise. After that, I was known as Shock Dog,” said Berry.

Years removed from his little league nickname and days prior to the 2015 Class 6A state championship game in Tuscaloosa, Berry sat in the quiet of his room, clicking his way through a passionate Twitter post.

“Last senior game, what do I have to lose? Just play all out and go hard every play! Make them notice you,” wrote Berry on Dec. 1.

Three days later, the slashing runner stayed true to his words, and did so under Alabama high school football’s brightest lights. Berry, the starting ball carrier for top-ranked Clay-Chalkville, led his team with 129 all-purpose yards in the 6A state finals against No. 2 Spanish Fort.

Despite the flashy numbers, it’s what Berry did without the ball that makes his mom smile.

After being pulled down for a 10-yard loss on the previous play, Berry reached back into his past to find some of that old shock. He peeled back and delivered a charge into Toro defensive back Cedrick Dees that opened the sideline for T.J. Simmons to convert a 3rd-and-29 with a 52-yard touchdown, reviving the Cougars back into a 14-7 ballgame.

“I just wanted to go out with my team and perform the best I can,” said Berry as he scrolled through his highlights in the Clay-Chalkville locker room. “Even when the ball is not coming towards me or I’m not getting the ball, just go make a block that can probably turn into a touchdown.”

As Berry thumbed through his senior highlights, underclassmen tossing a football just feet away on the field he collected a 28-2 record on, he had a lot to look at. His stats are plenty -— 133 carries for 1,028 yards and six scores as a senior to go along with a 9.7 yards per catch average.

There’s nothing minimal about his heart or his work ethic, but the first thing college coaches see when they look at this otherwise limitless player is his short stature.

“The only thing he has going against him is the size, because he has the ability and he’s very smart,” said Berry’s high school running backs coach, Bret Rogers. “He knows what to do, he knows what the people around him are supposed to do, so it helps when he’s out there and it hurts when he’s not, because some of the people around him rely on him to tell them what to do.”

“Some of the schools look at the height and weight before they even come and look at the video,” continued Rogers.

The departing senior, standing at roughly 5-foot-6 and described by Murray as a pit bull, has never been the tallest guy in the huddle and has never let that curb his ambition.

“My dad always told me that height has nothing to do with it. It’s about what kind of heart you have, and my heart is as big as anyone’s and I’m not scared of anything,” said Berry, a deep glimmer of passion filling his eyes.

It was an easy Sunday not so long ago when Murray saw that same passion. Berry and Murray settled into their seat in the Worship Center on Derby Parkway in Birmingham as he flipped open his notebook and readied his pen.

“I thought he [Berry] was bringing his notebook into church so he could write down what the pastor was saying,” said Murray, who later discovered her son inking a script of football plays into his pages.

“However, he told me verbatim what the pastor had been talking about, so he was paying attention somehow,” added Murray.

Now, if he could only get that same attention from college coaches. Unlike many 1,000-yard rushers, Berry has a deeply rooted wish of playing college football, but no scholarship offers to call his own. With National Signing Day quickly approaching in February, he calmly scrolls through his many highlights, just waiting for an opportunity.

“I do have interest in playing in college because I love football,” said Berry. “I’m emotional and passionate about it. Ever since I was little, I just wanted to play football.”

Scholarship or not, some runners can’t be stopped.

“If I have an opportunity to walk on, I will walk on,” said Berry. “I’ll work hard and won’t be lazy at any time. I can earn a scholarship wherever I go.”

That opportunity begins and ends with a most trusted father figure.

Jerry Hood has served as Clay-Chalkville’s head coach for seven years, compiling an on-field record of 78-12. Twenty-nine of those wins came consecutively over the past two seasons [tied for the 14th longest winning streak in state history] before second-ranked Spanish Fort ended the Cougars’ quest to repeat as 6A state champions in the 2015 Super 7 title game. 

Hood’s impact reaches much farther than the win-loss column, though.

“I’ve been a single parent for a long time,” said Murray. “Hood has always been like a father figure to all of the guys, but I know he’s always been a father figure to Brandon and always encouraging him.”

According to Hood, he has sent around 42 players to the next level.

“My mom asked me what college I wanted to go to and I just told her that we have to trust in Coach Hood. Every time for his seniors, he makes something happen,” said Berry. “[Hood] is going to make sure I go to college, even if it’s not for a football scholarship.”

As the sun fell, bleeding orange over the turf in Cougar Stadium, Berry rose from his chair in the quiet office and remembered -— there’s still some weights that need lifting and highlights that need posting.