After Smyrna won the Delaware state football championship in the 2015/16 season there was a lot of questions of how or if they could duplicate that success the following year. During the summer while Smyrna was working hard trying to get ready to defend their D1 state championship about 30 miles away, Eastern Christian Academy( Elkton, MD) was in the middle of closing it doors. Eastern Christian Academy was a school established in 2012 by David Sills IV and was a primary football focused program. In 2014 according to MaxPreps, the Honey Badgers played the toughest schedule in the country. In such a short term the school had some notable players such as Wendell Smallwood(Philadelphia Eagles), David Sills, Freddy Canteen, and many others. After closing the doors there were many talented student athletes who needed to find landing spots to further their education. One of those players was 2017 standout RB Leddie Brown.
The news traveled fast through the first state that Brown would enroll and attend Smyrna for the 2016/17 school year. This was big news due to the talent Brown possessed and usually it is kids making headlines by transferring out of state to pursue other opportunities rather than them coming to Delaware. Smyrna was already returning offensive standouts 2017 QB Nolan Henderson(University of Delaware commit) and 2018 RB Will Knight(2015 rushing yards and 38 touchdowns in sophomore season) and now with the addition of Brown, it turned into a nightmare for all defensive coordinators that were planning to try to slow them down offensively in the upcoming season.
The 2016/17 season started out as expected for the Eagles and their newest addition who began 3 & 0 (defeating Delcastle, Salesianum, and Appoquinimink), outscoring their opponents 184 to 55 while Brown added 10 TDs in those games. The remainder of the season was along the same lines as Smyrna outscored everyone finishing the season 10 & 0 heading into the state tournament. The tournament was no different as they won the two games they played by an average of 35ppg and eventually being crowned the 2016/2017 Delaware D1 state football champions for the second consecutive year.
Coming into the 2016/17 season Brown was a 3 star recruit by Rivals who boasted offers from schools such as Louisville, Maryland, and West Virginia. Before making a college commitment on April 30th, 2017 to West Virginia he held offers from numerous schools such as UConn, Florida, MD, NC, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, and many others. A few days after his commitment a few more big time schools offered including Alabama, Ohio State, and UCLA. After these offers and impressive showings at camps, Rivals increased Brown to a 4 star.
After finishing out the football season by winning a state championship and making a verbal college commitment in April, Leddie and his family looked ahead for the future to see what situation would be best for him, his family, and to continue improving. Today Leddie announced that he will transfer from Smyrna to Neumann Goretti (PA) for his senior season.
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