Ethan Brannan carries on family name and Hawks' athletic tradition

Dec 25, 2017 9:22 AM Dec 25, 2017 9:24 AM

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CARROLLTON - The name Brannan is not only a familiar name in the surrounding areas of Carrollton, but whoever has it in their name is usually a solid athlete.

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Tim Brannan was a star basketball player alongside current Hawks head coach Matt Goetten when they were teammates. Jordan Brannan was an excellent all-around athlete in his time as a Hawks, and just recently Cole Brannan graduated as one of the best football players to ever play for the growing Carrollton program.

Now in 2017 Cole’s younger brother, Ethan a sophomore has made a splash onto the scene as one of the key players on the Hawks basketball team this season.

“Starting at the beginning of the year I’ve been a little rough, but we’ve been working on it in practice, and I’m glad I finally got going tonight,” Ethan said. “We’re glad to get the transition offense going, and we finally got it working. We have great guys who can do anything when they get the ball and are capable of shooting and driving.”

In the most recent game for Carrollton against Griggsville-Perry, Ethan notched a career-high with 17 points in the game, including going 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. He previously tallied 11 points against Bunker Hill two games before.

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“Ethan’s a guy that we really wanted to get going, and that was part of the game plan. E is genetically predisposed to play basketball,” Goetten said with a laugh. “I played with his old man, and he was a player. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a Brannan in the Carrollton area that can’t drop 30 on somebody. It runs in the family, and we knew we needed to get that out of him. Even as a sophomore he’s instinctive and does a lot of things for us that maybe don’t show up on the stat sheet all the time. I can’t say enough about him.”

A year ago, Ethan was a freshman and played a healthy amount of minutes, including scoring ten points in a game. So far this season, transitioning from football to basketball has taken Ethan some time to adjust, but he claims that he’s in “basketball mode” now.

A three-sport athlete, Ethan was a second-string running back and defensive back on the football team. Last year for baseball he pitched, played catcher, and was an outfielder. However, the current sport he’s playing is the one he enjoys the most.

“Basketball’s my favorite. I love the group of guys we have and the up-tempo [style]. It’s fantastic.”

It may not be his favorite when he has to wake up at the crack of dawn the day after Christmas because the Hawks will take on the one-seeded and undefeated West Central Cougars at nine in the morning at the Waverly Holiday Tournament. However, once he gets some energy and hops on the bus, he’ll probably feel some excitement along with the rest of his teammates given the opportunity they have.

“We got Winchester our first game, and they’re good, but I think it’ll be a good game. We just gotta play hard D and our offense has to show up,” Ethan said. “We have a whole new varsity team this year, not a lot of us got a lot of minutes last year in that Waverly Tournament, so we’re excited for it this year.”

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