Montre Brown saw the US Army as his future as a junior at Wilson High School in Tacoma.
       
Even though he was carrying a 3.3 high school GPA, "I didn't think I had a shot at college.  It was just negative thinking, I guess," said Brown, who has been a starting cornerback on the Vikings' improved defensive squad.
       
Not only that, the 6'1" Brown had tried football once before but dropped it in favor of basketball in grade school. He didn't like the physicality.  "I didn't like getting hit and I didn't like hitting people."
      
He also was good at basketball, lettering four times, and was twice named defensive player of the year on a team that was a three-time district champion.
       
Brown burned out in basketball his junior year.  And, that turned out to be serendipitous.
       
"I burned out on basketball.  My friends kept playing and a lot of them play college ball today.  But, I wanted to explore other parts of life," he said.
        
Also, the Army was looming and that was going to require some physicality, he reasoned.  So he chose to try football again…a decision which proved to be a life changer.
         
He explored playing wide receiver and cornerback, choosing cornerback after realizing just how exposed receivers can be to players like cornerbacks.
      
Brown was invited to attend a football camp at Eastern Washington University, where he was voted MVP.  "They liked my way of playing and must have seen some talent because they offered me a scholarship right then and there," recalled Brown.   That was a life changer.
         
That offer came as a bit of a surprise, "but it was a huge blessing.  That offer changed my entire perspective on the future.  That offer just changed the whole rest of my life."
       
By the end of his senior year, Brown had added scholarship offers from Cal Poly and Portland State, choosing the latter because it was closer to home.  He liked the educational opportunities and "I just liked being in Portland."
      
PSU's coaching staff liked what they saw in Brown.
      
"His football IQ is very high.  He's continually trying to improve and that's always a huge positive.  Even though he hadn't played a lot of football, his strength is his technique.  He always finds a way to be effective. He disrupts receivers' plans because they can't settle in on him.  He gives them a number of different looks because he has several techniques," said Defensive Backs Coach Colin Fry.
      
Brown played as a true freshman.  He saw action on special teams and at nickelback and got two pass breakups.
       
But, all was not well with him that first year.  "I was doing ok on the field.  But mentally, I was having a hard time," he recalled.  "I started asking 'why am I here and do I really want to be here'."
      
Head Coach Bruce Barnum knew his young player was struggling, so he asked for a meeting.
       
"Coach Barnum asked me to meet him in his office.  I went in and sat down.  He put a piece of paper in front of me and said 'if you want to go home just sign this.  This is a lifetime opportunity, but if you don't want it, I'll gladly give it to someone else'," recalled Brown.
      
"At that point, I realized I needed to be a serious and focused person and be a good all-around student, or I could go home.  You don't really know what you've got until you lose, or almost lose it," he said.
       
He credits his mother Tara with helping him get his head where it needed to be.
      
"She has had the biggest impact on my life.  She's my biggest fan and my biggest booster.  She showed me how to communicate with adults and taught me to be a man," he said.
      
Brown is on track to graduate next spring with a 3.5 in psychology and a minor in sociology.   He's wanted to be a pilot since he was very young and still plans to pursue that dream, although his path to getting there has changed.
       
"My first memory of airplanes is at the age of three or four, going somewhere with my family on an airplane.  I was scared and the flight attendant took me into the cockpit.  It felt like being in a space ship with all the dials, levers and equipment.  That was it.  After that, I went around telling all my friends and my family that all I wanted was to be a pilot.  That hasn't changed," he said.
      
An artist in Tacoma recommended Brown for a scholarship to the Tuskegee Airmen School in high school and he began taking ground school lessons.  Sports kept him so busy he didn't have a chance to go up in a small plane until after high school.
     
By that time he was more than ready, having a lot of ground school knowledge.
     
"The first time I got into a plane, it just felt right.  It was just me and the instructor.  In the cockpit, he was close to me and I was close to him.  I just felt free…like a bird," said Brown.
       
Initially, he thought he'd try for a US Air Force commission after graduation, but he's developed an entrepreneurial streak and now wants to own a flying business, "maybe ferrying celebrities around."
      
Brown still loves basketball and plays pickup games whenever he can.   If he was offered a chance to continue his football "maybe in Canada or somewhere else, I'd probably do it".
     
In the meantime, though, Fry expects him "to be one of the best defensive backs in the conference and to be a team leader.  He currently is excelling at both.  I love being around him.  Every day, he brings his charisma.  I love how passionate he is about being great.  He's a fine young man to be around."