It took some time away for Carson Brownfield to realize how important it is to be home.
The Homewood-Flossmoor junior was with the Vikings as a freshman but transferred to St. Rita for his sophomore year. Brownfield grew up playing with nine of the eleven players on the H-F roster, though. He wanted to be back with his guys.
“I missed being home. I missed playing with my friends and family,” he said. “I just came back because I missed the culture.”
Now, Brownfield is a big part of that culture.
On the court, he scores the basketball among other things. That much is easy to see from just looking at a stat sheet. But he thinks his biggest role is to be a leader. That means helping keep spirits high through the low times, making sure teammates are on track in the classroom and just being an example away from the court.
“He’s the same type of person on the floor as he is off the floor and that’s a leader,” coach Jamere Dismukes said. “He tries to be vocal with the guys, to lead by example. He leads in every category.”
Dismukes is in his first season at H-F after coming over from Rich Township this fall. He said players like Brownfield are vital to his efforts to establish the program he’s trying to build.
When Dismukes first got to the Flossmoor campus, it was Brownfield who helped him find the cones and shooting machines. It was Brownfield who introduced the new players to teachers and each other.
He’s that way on the hardwood for the Vikings, as well, helping in any way he can.
“He should be our jack of all trades,” Dismukes said. “He should score for us. He should rebound for us. He should create for other scorers and he should guard for us. We’re looking at him as a utility guy that can do pretty much everything.”
Coming into the season, Brownfield’s only individual aim was to average more points than he had in previous years. The primary concern was winning games. He wants to move H-F away from the basketball “B-school” designation he says many outside of the community see it to be.
He thinks it’s moving in the right direction. The Vikings are 12-8, as of Jan. 20, but seven of those losses are by 10 or fewer points.
“The goal is just doing something that people thought we couldn’t do,” he said. “I feel like me leaving hurt (the team). Coming back, I feel like I owed that to them. We going to close the season out nice.”
Dismukes believes Brownfield has the game to play at the next level. College recruiters haven’t shown a great deal of interest just yet, but the rest of the high school season and the coming AAU one offer an opportunity to stand out.
“I’m just steady playing basketball every day, working in the gym constantly waiting for my dream to come true,” Brownfield said. “I definitely want to play college basketball.”
The next few games are key for H-F. Their position in the Southwest Suburban Conference blue race will be determined in late January and early February with games against Sandburg, Lockport, Bolingbrook and Lincoln-Way East on the slate.
“We’re not trying to look at the big picture down the line. We’re taking it one game at a time, Dismukes said. “We’ve got a tough conference, disciplined teams, well-coached teams, in-shape teams. It’s like a college atmosphere. This stretch is huge but we’ll just take it one at a time.”