McElwain looking for perfect ending

Elliott McElwain knows exactly where he wants to be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 6.

He hopes he’ll be buckling his chinstrap, preparing for one last game as a member of the Hewitt-Trussville High School football team. He wants to trot out on the field as a main catalyst out of the backfield in one of the state’s most potent offenses. He wants to make an impact in that football game, no matter the opponent.

A few hours later, McElwain desires to lift a trophy.

“I want to be in Tuscaloosa with a blue map in my hand, celebrating with my team,” said McElwain, a senior running back for the Huskies.

If he is doing all those things on that day, it means McElwain’s Hewitt-Trussville team has advanced to the Class 7A state championship game. It’s his final wish of sorts. 

Before the season, he said it was hard to explain the emotions that the thought of only one more season in red and white invoked. But he knew exactly how he wanted things to stand when it ended.

“A lot of it is winning state, getting a blue map,” he said, “but also leaving a legacy. I want to leave here and people still know my name. I want people to come up and want to be like me.”

McElwain has done a solid job of creating that legacy, especially after rising through the program in the shadow of his older brother, Bailey McElwain, who is now a fullback at Vanderbilt University but played primarily at linebacker for the Huskies. 

“It’s awesome, just because he’s someone to lean on,” Elliott McElwain said. “He’s been through it. Anything I need help with, he can help me.”

Hewitt-Trussville head coach Josh Floyd said “it definitely helps” Elliott McElwain to have someone the caliber of his older brother to look up to for leadership ability. Elliott McElwain is more of a quiet, lead-by-example guy, while Bailey McElwain was an emotional leader during his high school days.

“There’s a lot of different ways to lead,” Floyd said. “Having Bailey in the family helps. He went up there and started as a freshman at Vanderbilt, and you can’t do that unless you’re a pretty good player.”

The McElwain brothers could be found on the field at the same time during the 2015 season, Bailey McElwain’s senior season and Elliott McElwain’s sophomore campaign. Those practice sessions could be intense, in a good way.

“It was a lot of jawing at each other, like brothers do,” Elliott McElwain said. “He played defense primarily when he was here, and I was on offense. There’d be a couple times when I’d have to block him or he’d run up and hit me, and we’d jaw back and forth. But it was really fun having him here and being able to play together.”

Since that time, Elliott McElwain has blossomed in his own right, and Floyd pointed to his blocking as one of the aspects of his game that has improved the most since his earlier days on the team.

“He’s gotten bigger and stronger,” Floyd said. “His blocking is better than it used to be. We threw him out there as a sophomore, and that’s tough. We play a high level of football. He goes out there as a sophomore, and we’re expecting him to block defensive ends … Now, he’s the guy pushing them back the other way.”

Elliott McElwain agreed that his blocking is much better now than in the past year or two, and called himself a “do-it-all back.” His versatility — he can run, block and catch passes at a high level — increases his value to the Husky backfield.

“The fact that he gives us a weapon no matter what we want to do, it expands the playbook for us,” Floyd said. “There are some really good players in his spot, but it’s just sometimes your playbook isn’t as big because they can’t do as much as he can do. That’s what separates him. We feel like anything goes in our playbook when he’s out there.”

That versatility will certainly come into play in the future as well. Elliott McElwain has committed to play college football at Army West Point. Army is a unique team in that it is one of the few that still runs the triple-option offense.

That system and the one Hewitt-Trussville employs are vastly different schemes, but Elliott McElwain thinks he will be able to adjust.

“In middle school, we ran the Wing-T,” he said. “It’s kind of like the triple option, but a little more athletic and throwing the ball. I don’t think it’ll be that hard for me, because I can do it all. I can block, catch and run the ball.”

Although it is not something asked of him often at Hewitt-Trussville, Floyd believes that Elliott McElwain can be the bell cow for any offense.

“He can easily tote the ball 20-25 times a game,” Floyd said. “He’s big enough and strong enough and tough enough to do that, and it’s something not a lot of guys can do. That will help him long term.”

As for his final year in Trussville, the Huskies are looking to back up a perfect regular season in 2016, and they have high hopes once again in 2017. 

Elliott McElwain will do everything he can to make his dream a reality.