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This wasn't the way it was all supposed to end for Tucker Brown. There was supposed to be a state championship and a senior season where the Shawnee superstar quarterback would be the talk of the town. The state. Of high school football. The football championship never came. The senior season was lost. Now all that's left for Brown and his high school career is a knee brace under his baseball pants, a smile and a hope that he'll be remembered for something more than just the guy whose football career went from the field to the courtroom and finished on the sidelines. "Hopefully there will be a happy ending to all of this,'' says Brown. "That would be great.'' It's hard to believe that a happy ending would be so difficult to imagine. After all, Brown was a freshman sensation with Shawnee, directing the Wolves to the playoffs his first two seasons at quarterback. Then came his junior year where he led Shawnee to the elite of Class 5A before a wild end in the playoffs. Brown kicked Tulsa Washington's Jermaine Holmes and was then ejected from the game. After a lengthy court battle that went all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, he missed the rest of the playoffs and polarized the Oklahoma high school football world. Then it got worse. In the second game of the season, his senior year, one that was full of promise after passing for more than 3,500 yards and 31 touchdowns the season before, Brown tore the ACL in his right knee. He didn't play again. "It just isn't what I thought would happen,'' said Brown. "What a freak season.'' The playoff ejection. The senior season knee injury. That's what Tucker Brown has dealt with over the past year, hearing chants and taunts from opposing teams while sitting on the sidelines during a lost football season. But instead of falling apart, Brown has grown up, dealing with the situation with a sense of calm. "I've been miserable,'' said Billy Brown, Tucker's dad and the Shawnee football coach. "But I'm proud of the way he's handled it all. He's shown a lot of character. With all that's happened, it could devastate someone. He's not real emotional and I think he's come through it. He's a better person for it. He's dealt with more adversity than most 17 year-olds have to. He's kind of seen that life isn't fair.'' But Tucker is still smiling. He's rehabbing his injured right knee and should be back to full strength by the middle of this baseball season. Finally. A long ways from the wheelchair he sat in during football season, away from his teammates and unable to contribute, instead getting the business end of insults from crowds all over the state who called him names and showered insults down on him. "I do feel bad about some things,'' Brown said. "But I wouldn't change anything. I hated watching the games and I feel bad for my seniors that I let down. But my team backed me.'' Now, Brown hopes to be back with his team and help Shawnee to the state baseball tournament. "His attitude has always been good,'' said Shawnee baseball coach Todd Boyer. "It's been tough on him, but he's never complained. He's learned from what happened and it's forced him to grow up. I've really seen a change with him.'' The next change for Brown will be his health. For now, he's just hitting, but soon Brown will be back to full strength and ready to run and field. College is next, and getting a little distance from high school is something he says he looks forward to. Maybe then he can start a new athletic career - one that has nothing to do with injuries, court battles or suspensions. "The people who don't know him will remember him for all that stuff,'' says Billy Brown. "But for the people who do know him, they'll remember him for the way he played and that he was a great athlete and a great kid. Those are the people that he cares about.''