By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
When he got his turn to be the primary ball carrier on the Ludlow football team last season, Braxten Newborn made the most of the opportunity. The junior tailback was among the state’s leading rushers with 1,827 total yards and scored 27 of his team’s 40 touchdowns.
The one drawback was the Panthers were limited to eight regular season games because of COVID-19 precautions and then lost in the second round of the Class 1A playoffs. Hopefully, the 2021 season will go more smoothly and Newborn will get a chance to break some team records.
“If it had been a normal season last year his numbers would’ve been even bigger, so his goal is to beat that in the regular season and to keep filling it up in the post-season,” said Ludlow head coach Greg Taphouse.
The single-season team records that Newborn is looking to break are 2,116 rushing yards and 36 touchdowns that were set in 2017 by senior Justin Blackburn, who was nominated for Mr. Kentucky Football.
Newborn was an eight-grader in Ludlow’s junior high football program that year. He saw a little varsity action as a freshman and rushed for more than 700 yards as a sophomore before become the team’s offensive leader last season.
“I definitely had to learn and put a lot of work in at practice to get where I am,” said the 6-foot, 185-pound senior.
When the Panthers began preseason practice a couple weeks ago, Newborn was nursing a knee injury that occurred during summer camps. But that doesn’t seem to worry coach Taphouse.
“During camp season he had a knee injury, but he’s been taking it easy and getting it healed up,” the coach said. “He’s excited for his senior year. He wants to put up big numbers and break some records and do more than last year with only the 10 games we had.”
Newborn is also a starting linebacker on defense. Last year, he made a team-high 107 tackles for Panthers, who finished with a 4-6 record after winning eight games in each of the previous three seasons.
“He’s pretty good on the defensive side of the ball, too, but being a 1A school our best athletes play everything,” Taphouse said. “But I think once he gets into college the focal point will definitely be as a running back type versus a defensive player type.”
Newborn said he’s being recruited by Kentucky Wesleyan, Wilmington and Tiffin as a running back. Those college coaches are evidently impressed with the abilities that made him one of the state’s leading ball-carriers last season.
“He’s agile, able to get into open space and he’s got great vision,” Taphouse said. “He’s able to find holes and then he can just go. He’s like a gazelle, and once he gets into open field you’re not going to catch him.”
Ludlow only has one starter returning on the offensive line and there will be a new quarterback running the offense this season. As a team captain, Newborn has been encouraging those players and all of his teammates every day in practice.
“It was just something I stepped up and did,” he said. “I’d like to see everybody reach their full potential. I just push everybody to do their best.”
Newborn definitely knows how important developing a good offensive line will be to the team’s success as well as his run at the records this season.
“They’re a big part of our team because it all starts with the offensive line, but I think they’ll do good,” he said. “They’re working hard every day.”