Posted on October 23, 2014.
By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Brown was a standout football player for Millington in high school and Rhodes in college. After graduation in May, he began his business career at Shoemaker Financial in Germantown.
Stanton Brown
Since his days as a SYS standout for the Millington Trojans, Stanton Brown figured his rookie year after school would be around the year 2014. In the mid 2000s Brown guided the Trojans to the SYS juniors championship game as a running back. A few years later Brown was a standout wing-back for the Millington Trojan Freshmen team leading them to an 8-0 season. Then Brown was one of the featured backs for Hank Hawkins Trojans as part of two undefeated teams in 2007 and 2008. Graduating from Millington Central High School in 2010, Brown earned a scholarship to Rhodes College becoming part of the campus life and Lynx Football. Upon graduating from the Memphis institution in May, it was time for Brown to turn pro. “I am a financial adviser for Shoemaker Financial,” Brown said. “I’m working with individuals in wealth management. Solely just building relationships with my clients. I sit down and talk with them to make sure the goals they want we can find the best route to accomplish that. We work together to achieve those.” Brown is the new guy in the 2176 West Street, Suite 100 Germantown location. Shoemaker Financial is a comprehensive financial planning firm that assist clients to improve their long-term financial success. Now the son of Thelma and Oscar Brown is one of the advisers using the resources of Shoemaker to help clients. The road to Shoemaker for Brown was paved in part by his four years on the Rhodes campus. “It feels great to say I graduated from high school and went on to college at Rhodes,” he said. “And I was able to use that time, and the time people invested in me and resources adequate to get my degree on time. It’s speaks yards because a lot of people invested in me to get to this point. I’m very thankful about all the things I’ve been through.” One of Brown’s best experiences was four years of football for the Lynx. In addition to building lasting relationships on the collegiate gridiron, Brown formed tight bonds in the academic halls of Rhodes. “In the classroom, I was very fortunate of the small classroom settings,” he recalled. “It’s a lot harder to skip class and the professor not notice. You get that by your junior and senior years building a strong relationship with the professors. You’re talking more than just the answer to No. 3. You’re talking about world type of things. “Those relationships led me to where I am today,” Brown added. “Some of my professors have worked here at Shoemaker with others. And they highly recommended me. They also helped me along the interview process.” Other lessons that helped Brown in landing a job at Shoemaker Financial were the lesson taught by his parents, Thelma president at First Tennessee Bank in Millington and Oscar a coach, educator and now employee at Millington Municipal Schools. “I’m really thankful I had both of my parents,” Stanton said. “And I’m still in the same city as them, which is a great resource. I try not to over do it. But they’re always there when I need them. They really instilled in me hard work and ‘If there’s something you want to do, the only person stopping you is yourself.’ You’ve got to put in the work and trust the process. Nothing happens overnight, you have to trust the process.” The lesson of trusting the process was emphasized by football. “I really learned that in football when I first started Pee Wee,” Brown said. “I was just kicking rocks around. I really didn’t know what I was doing. It really wasn’t until high school it actually became a skill I could use to actually get me to college. “It’s something growing up, everybody wants to be in the NFL,” he continued. “You come to a moment, I knew I was good in football. And talking to coaches, I didn’t get the D-I looks I wanted. I really had to use the other assets I had working for me like the academics. I was gifted in that aspect and I wanted to use that. Also the teachers wanted to see me do well. They put the time in and helped me. They invested in me.” Brown made the decision to invest in his professional career coming out of college. “People ask me, ‘Why didn’t you try for the NFL? Why didn’t you try out?’” he said. “It comes down to you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Where do I want to be in 5 years? Where do I want to be in 10 years?’ What it came down to, I would rather be signing that football player’s check than being him right now.” Professional football offers did come Brown’s way but he didn’t want to put his degree in business commerce on the back burner. The 22-year-old could have added his name to the list of legendary Trojan like Ahmaad Galloway (Denver Broncos), Tyrone Calico (Tennessee Titans) or Marlon Barnes (Chicago Bears) by going pro. “I am a Trojan running back,” Brown said. “I didn’t make it like Galloway from Alabama to the Broncos. But I do like to think I am just as successful as he was. “What I would like to relay and spread to people, there is so much information they do not know about,” he added. “They just don’t know about the routes of getting there. I just want to be that reference point for them and the multiple questions they have. I want to give them clarity, especially for young professionals and help them accumulate wealth. And the final message Brown would like to share is to current Millington Trojan Football players and all gridiron warriors under the Friday night lights.
“I hope to be some type of role model to the guys,” he concluded. “You might not be Mr. Football in high school, but that skill on the field can take you to a place and you can leverage that to get to where you really want to be.”
