Redshirt sophomore tight end Carlton Brown is just one of many to homegrown student-athletes to attend Cal Poly but for Brown, this season is more of a homecoming.
Growing up in SLO, Brown attended Mission College Prep High School, graduating in 2021. After two years at the University of Nevada, Brown entered the transfer portal where it didn’t take long for Cal Poly and newly appointed head coach Paul Wulff to pick up the phone.
“The first day I was in the transfer portal, I got a call from Coach Wulff," Brown recalled. "I'm extremely thankful. It couldn't have worked out more perfect.”
For mentors like Mission Prep’s head football coach David Schuster and head basketball coach Terrance Harris, to see Brown come back to his roots is nothing but pure bliss.
“To have him around and getting a chance to get an education here at Cal Poly and continue to live out his dreams of playing collegiate football, I was just really excited for him,” Harris said.
“To be able to kind of just go right down to the stadium and see him compete and do what he always did here at Mission Prep makes my heart very, very warm and I know a lot of other people on campus feel the same way,” Schuster added.
Already making an impact at tight end, in week one against the University of San Diego, Brown went 87 yards on one play in the second quarter connecting with fellow transfer, quarterback Sam Huard, which brought back memories of what he did for both Schuster and Harris back in high school.
“Every time anything we did with him here at Mission Prep, we tried to find ways to keep him one-on-one," Schuster explained. "He's just a huge match-up problem across the board.”
On the basketball court, he was just as talented.
“He's just a big, strong, cerebral kid and that intensity and that genuine passion that he has for the things that he does shines through and every opportunity,” Harris said.
For Brown, to have an impact in his first game at Cal Poly was special.
“It's been full circle," Brown stated. "I'm just excited to play in front of the home crowd.”
While Brown is excited to continue his dream of playing college football, it’s his past experiences, including his time on the basketball court and football field at Mission Prep that continue to help Brown flourish.
“If it wasn't for the people of Mission Prep and the things I gained there from an educational standpoint, from an emotional standpoint...it's a really special school.”
With the ups and downs of playing college football, mentality is everything and with every good or bad day, the 6-foot-5 match-up nightmare takes it all in stride.
“The lows in football are low, but the highs of football are really high," Brown explained. But, you stay even keel.”
Family, friends and those who know him now get to see Brown pursue his dream right back where it all started, at home in San Luis Obispo.
