It all began by watching his older brother Trisdon play baseball and developed into a brotherly competition for Dewar senior Thomas Brownfield.

“My mom wasn’t keen on me playing at first, but I got into a pee wee league in Morris and grew up watching my brother playing and from the first time I had a ball in my hand I just fell in love with the game. Over the years my brother and I would argue about baseball, and I always said I was going to throw harder than him and we would go outside and see who could throw it the hardest and farthest.”

In addition to his brother, Thomas also had a role model in the major leagues in long-time Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina.

“I never wanted to be a catcher but if I had to I would and I just liked the way he played,’ said Brownfield who is a class officer and a member of the Oklahoma Indian Honor Society.

His coach, Josh Kilhoffer, is high on his senior pitcher.

“Last year when we made it to the state semifinals, he ended up being our top pitcher because of an injury to our ace and he had to throw against all of the toughest teams. He pitched five and one-third innings in our semifinal game against Wister and was ahead 3-1 when he came out, but we ended up losing. He hit .451 last year with 13 RBIs as our leadoff hitter. He’s also one of the best base runners I’ve had in my 15 years here and stole 21 bases last year and never got caught.”

Through 20 games this season, Thomas is hitting .604 and, on the mound, has struck out 55 while issuing just 15 walks as the Dragons are ranked fifth in Class A. As a senior, Brownfield takes on a leadership role.

“I think a good leader is someone who pushes the younger guys and takes them under their wing because they don’t know much and does what coach asks and sets a good example.”

One of his baseball highlights occurred earlier this season in the Weleetka Tournament against Destiny Christian.

“I faced 15 batters and struck out 14 of them and that was pretty cool.”

Brownfield also plays football where he was a wide receiver and safety and a shooting guard in basketball and while he has received some football offers, he would really like to play baseball at the next level.

“Baseball is somewhere I can go and just clear my mind and not think about anything else.”