The Fighting Irish of St. Joe (8-5) in Greenville have built a football dynasty, and Indianola’s Landon Brown has played a key role during his high school years.
The six-feet-two, 170-pound offensive lineman helped his team to a second consecutive state championship in late November, securing a 6-0 win over the previously undefeated Kirk Academy (12-1).
“That’s my second one in high school,” Brown told The Enterprise-Tocsin this week. “It’s just special.”
Brown, the son of Chrisanna Moore and Dr. Adrian Brown of Indianola, was named a 3-Star recruit by 24/Sports and was named an All-State player by Mississippi Gridiron earlier in the fall.
One week after mounting comeback from a 19-0 deficit against Canton Academy to win 28-27, Brown and the Fighting Irish faced a different kind of opponent.
The title game would be a defensive masterpiece that only saw one score all night.
“We’re used to playing big games like that, so the coach is just saying, ‘Don’t get too intense. We’ve got to come back at them in the second half and put some points up to win it,’” Brown said.
St. Joe has won five state championships in the last seven years, often dominating throughout the regular season.
That was not the case for most of the 2023 season.
In fact, it was Kirk that went undefeated throughout the regular season and into the playoffs until the Grenada team met St. Joe.
But the advantage of playing in so many important games might have given the Fighting Irish an edge two weeks ago.
“The majority of our games have been close games, so it was whoever wanted it the most, and we wanted it the most,” Brown said. “That’s how we were able to put up points to go out and win it.”
Brown said it was even more special to have his family on hand to watch that clock run out on that last victory.
He has been playing football since the sixth grade.
“It’s been a lot of work put into it, and for my family to be there for me to win another state championship, and the offers, it’s really the best thing I could really ask for,” he said.
Football isn’t exactly all over for Brown this year. He was selected to play in the Magnolia All-Star game on December 31.
Aside from that, Brown will likely soon be making a decision about where he plans to play football next fall, at the college level.
He has received offers from a number of schools, most recently Northeast Mississippi Community College and Arkansas State University.
“There’s a lot of schools coming into play, because the season is over with for them, and the season is over with for us,” Brown said. “I’m leaning toward a decision in the next couple weeks.”
