BROOKVILLE - A year ago, Scott Nixon was the quarterback for the Brookville High School junior varsity football team.

Friday night, the 16-year-old sophomore will try to guide the Bees to their first state championship ever when they face John Handley of Winchester in the Group AA, Division 3 title game at James Madison University.

"It (playing on the varsity) was a lot more fast-paced than I thought it would be," said the modest Nixon, who has started the last seven Brookville games after junior Chad Steuck went down for the season with a knee injury during Brookville's off week in October.

Nixon has run the Brookville offense to near perfection, especially in the three playoff wins over Gretna, Rustburg and Gate City. For the season, he has completed 28 of 54 passes for 480 yards and seven touchdowns including an 8-yard toss to Martellus Braxton for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter last week.

"I've gotten a lot more confident and the offensive line has played great," said Nixon. "Early in the year, I thought we might be a year away. I didn't know how it would unfold but it has turned out pretty nice. The coaches always tell us to keep our composure and things will go well."

For Nixon, things didn't go well right away.

In preseason, Nixon and Steuck were battling for the starting job. However, Steuck was injured for nearly two weeks in August and Brookville coach Bobby Johnson decided to go with senior Martellus Braxton in the season opener with Salem.

Late in the 40-14 loss to Salem, Nixon saw action and threw a touchdown pass to Braxton.

The following week, Nixon made his first varsity start after Johnson and his staff decided Braxton was more valuable as a wide receiver and linebacker.

The Bees struggled in the first half against Appomattox. Steuck came on in the second half and sparked Brookville to a 19-15 win.

"Scott didn't play poorly but Chad gave us a spark and turned the game around," said Johnson. "At that point, Chad moved ahead of Scott. But even though he (Scott) realized that Chad would be the starter, he never stopped working."
Steuck led the Bees to wins over William Campbell, Northside, Liberty and Heritage before injuring his knee in practice in the off week.

Nixon's work ethic paid off - he was ready to take over the No. 1 job against nearby rival Jefferson Forest.

"When he knew he was going to start, we asked him to come in and watch film and he brought his notebook and pencil with him," said Johnson.

"We were very conservative in the Forest game (a 13-7 loss in overtime) because we didn't want Scott to have to win it or lose it. But we realized then he could run our offense. And I think he learned a lot from the Appomattox game - he realized he couldn't go into a game worrying about mistakes."

With Nixon at the helm, the Bees have won five of their last six games and Johnson has been impressed with the work of his young quarterback. "He has handled the pressure well, has gotten stronger and right now the players have complete confidence in him and the coaches do, too."

Nixon's job has been made easier by the fact that his offensive line has paved the way for a strong running game by tailback Dejon Kennedy (1,400 yards, 23 touchdowns) and fullbacks Russell Lomax and Matt Burch.

"If Handley wants to stop our running, we'll throw it enough to keep them honest," said Johnson. "We're not scared to throw it."

Johnson and his staff have tried to make things easier for Nixon by moving him out of the pocket and calling plays they think he can be successful with.

"If we keep playing sound football, we'll be alright," said Nixon who is excited about playing in the state championship game. "In tough situations, we always keep our composure and stay on a level plane and play fundamental football. I have great faith in our coaches, we just have to block the right guys and run to the right holes. We just have to execute."