Four years ago, the all-district team for District 14-5A had Franklin Mitchem, Taylor Charbonnet and Brett Dewhurst honored among the first-team defensive backs. After high school, Mitchem and Charbonnet proceeded to Texas Tech on football scholarships.

Texas Tech safety Brett Dewhurst (30) made his first start Saturday at Texas. He logged a career-high five tackles, including one here on Texas wide receiver Dan Buckner. (John A.Bowersmith)

Dewhurst took the long way, but he made it to Tech, too. More and more, his perseverance looks like a benefit to both.

The sophomore safety from Klein made an impression last season as a tough hitter covering kickoffs, and now he’s become more prominent. Against Rice, he made two tackles and broke up two passes, and against Texas he made five tackles, including blowing up a screen pass behind the line of scrimmage.

He made his first college start in the latter game, in front of 102,000 fans, the largest crowd ever to see a football game in Texas. That’s the kind of setting Dewhurst hoped was in store for him. Coming out of Klein, he was recruited by smaller schools such as Texas State and Sam Houston State, while his teammates signed with Ohio State and Michigan.

“I didn’t want to go the small route,’’ Dewhurst said recently. “I didn’t want to play (small) college and then watch the real stuff on TV. So I decided to come up here and go with it.’’

Dewhurst had his heart set on Tech but lacked a simple, direct route. When he graduated in 2006, his SAT score was insufficient for freshman eligibility requirements, so he spent a semester at a community college in Houston before he made it to Tech in the spring of 2007.

“A little bump in the road,’’ he said, “but I’m glad it happened now, and I got an extra year of eligibility.’’

Because he didn’t carry full-time student hours at the community college, Dewhurst’s NCAA eligibility started only when he showed up at Tech; hence, the reason he’s a sophomore, albeit beginning year four out of high school.

Dewhurst earned an expanded role the second week of the season when Tech’s defensive staff put him on the field in six-defensive back packages in the 55-10 win against Rice. Mitchem got hurt in that game so, for a week at least, Dewhurst was promoted to start.

Tech lost 34-24, but he made the most of the opportunity.

“Man, he was running around,’’ said defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill, who compared Dewhurst to one of Tech’s starting safeties from last year. “He’s like a (Daniel) Charbonnet. He’s feisty. He has a lot of football savvy. He’s a guy that loves contact, but he’s also a smart player who can adjust on the run. Adjustment is not a big deal for him. That was evident in the game.’’

Klein coach Stan Labay, who had Dewhurst in his program for three years, said he remembers Dewhurst for having a quiet intensity and playing a tough, physical style. That, and he showed deceptive football speed.

“He played a lot faster in football pads than you would think,’’ Labay said. “He played hard, and he looked faster in a football uniform than he did even on a track.’’
So Dewhurst wasn’t an out-of-nowhere discovery. He piqued the interest of Tech safeties coach Carlos Mainord at a prospects camp, and the two stayed in touch after Dewhurst didn’t immediately qualify.

An interest was about all Tech needed to show.

“His mom and I both went to Tech,’’ said Sam Dewhurst, Brett’s father. “But he didn’t come here just because of his mom and I. He’s liked Red Raider football ever since he was down here in Houston. He followed the Red Raiders all the way through junior high and high school.’’

“All I remember is, he just had Texas Tech on his mind,’’ Labay said. “If he was going to walk on, he was going to go Division I, and he wanted it to be Texas Tech.’’
Back then, Sam Dewhurst worked at Houston’s Hobby Airport, but in April 2008 he returned to Lubbock, where he’s now a ground operations supervisor for Southwest Airlines. He grew up in Lubbock and graduated from Monterey in 1971.

“It took me forever to get transferred here,’’ he said. “Boy, did I hit it lucky at the right time to come watch him.’’

Dewhurst knocked the rust off last season playing special teams.

“It was nice, to get back out there and play football again,’’ he said. “I hadn’t played a game in two years, so it was nice to get back on the field.’’

The departure of five senior safeties at the end of the 2008 season gave players such as Mitchem, Cody Davis and Dewhurst a chance.

Sam Dewhurst, before working for Southwest Airlines, said he coached for 16 years in the districts of Klein and Spring, both north Houston suburbs. From his coaching experience, he said his son developed good football instincts to overcome his ordinary size — 6-foot and 193 pounds.

“He may be a little bit behind some of the faster ones,’’ Sam Dewhurst said, “but one thing he has is good field sense, and he understands the game. He has a knack of knowing where (opponents) are on the field and what the possibilities are, the routes they might do at a particular time. I think that may make up for some of the height and speed that some of these schools worried about.’’

Sam Dewhurst said several major colleges followed up with his son after the 2006 national signing day, to check whether he’d signed with a small college and whether he’d want to walk on. Among them, he said, were Colorado, Arkansas, Texas A&M and TCU.

“I wish I could have gotten him a scholarship,’’ Labay said, “but it didn’t work out that way. He made it himself. He pushed himself to do it. It really makes me feel good that he worked at it and succeeded.’’