Robert Thomas was talking about his college prospects, the interest he has garnered from big-time schools such as South Carolina and Maryland. He was asked which position he prefers, inside linebacker and fullback.
Then he was asked about quarterback. Thomas shook his head.
“That’s too much to ask,” he said, cracking a smile. “I don’t know how [starting quarterback] Marvin [Centeno] did it so well.”
Thomas did a fine impersonation of a signal-caller over the final two weeks of his hig school career in less than ideal conditions.
With Centeno lost for the year with a broken collarbone and backup Travon Reid Segure shelved with a torn right ACL, Thomas found himself under the center for the first time in nearly a decade, since his Pop Warner days.
He led defending champion and fourth-seeded Fort Hamilton to a come-from-behind win over 13th-seeded Sheepshead Bay in the opening round and nearly did the same Saturday in a hard-fought, 16-8 loss to No. 7 DeWitt Clinton in Brooklyn.
Thomas scored all three Fort Hamilton touchdowns and two-point conversions in the playoffs, carrying the wounded Tigers on his broad shoulders.
Down 16-0, he scored on a 7-yard run in which he carried three Clinton (8-3) defenders for the final two yards, and then did the same on the two-point conversion. He nearly drove Fort Hamilton for the tying score, but the drive stalled deep in Clinton territory when Thomas could only pick up 11 yards on 4th-and-20.
“With every fiber of his body he tried to will us to victory,” Fort Hamilton coach Danny Perez said.
There were tears in the Tigers locker room afterward. Fort Hamilton, after all, has reached the final four each of the last three seasons. Of course, it never lost two quarterbacks before, not the three previous seasons at least. Losing Centeno, the senior QB, was one thing. But Segure, one of the city’s top two-way playmakers, was another.
“To lose him,” Perez said, “was heartbreaking.”
Without those two, Fort Hamilton (8-3) became one-dimensional, though it was a physical dimension. Thomas went out at one point in the fourth quarter with cramps, only to return plays later hitting the defense more than they hit him.
“We look for our quarterback to play the position like a linebacker, and what better player than a linebacker?” Perez joked.
If Thomas was given more time at the position and not just thrown into the fire so late, Perez thinks he could’ve performed even better. Thomas nevertheless left his last high school football game with his head held high, and ready to leave his two-week cameo at quarterback behind him, too.
“We kept fighting, we just ran out of time,” he said. “I leave here feeling very proud. All my underclassmen died for me on that field.”