- November 21, 2024
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Da'Veon Brown (right) poses with his mom Latoya Mulligan on the front porch of their home in Daytona Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
Da'Veon Brown (far right, back row) pose with his teammates at theSeabreeze High School Battle at the Beach. The Sandcrabs took home the 2023 Grand Champion Co-Ed Banner. Photo by Michele Meyers
Da'Veon Brown (center, floor) cheers with his teammates in his senior year at Seabreeze High School. Photo by Michele Meyers
Da'Veon Brown signs to attend Jones College in Mississippi. He received a full scholarship to join the Bobcat competitive cheer team. Courtesy photo.
Da'Veon Brown (center) poses with his first cheer coach Megan Lambert and fellow Seabreeze cheerleaders after signing to cheer with the Jones College Bobcats in Mississippi. Courtesy photo.
Da'Veon Brown receives a full scholarship to cheer with the Jones College Bobcats in Ellisville, Mississippi. Courtesy photo.
Da'Veon Brown (back row, right) poses with the Jones College cheer team where he recevied a competitive cheerleading scholarship after graduating from Seabreeze in May. Courtesy photo.
Seabreeze competitive cheerleader Da'Veon Brown stands on his front porch in Daytona Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
Da'Veon Brown poses with his mom Latoya Mulligan on the front porch of their home in Daytona Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze competitive cheerleader Da'Veon Brown carries the Sandcrab flags after a competition held at the high school. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze competitive cheerleader Da'Veon Brown stands on his front porch in Daytona Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
Recent Seabreeze graduate Da’Veon Brown received an invitation to attend the Jones College cheerleading tryouts one week before the 17-year-old was supposed to be there.
The clinic was being held Friday, May 3. After sorting out the logistics with his former cheer coach Megan Lambert, he boarded an airplane for the first time in his life and headed to Ellisville, Mississippi.
Jones head cheerleading coach Kate Ewing, associate head coach Kayla Hankins and assistant coach Hanna Burnett watched Brown during the tryouts. They approached him afterward to ask him if he would like to join their team, which has taken home a Universal Cheerleaders Association championship three out of the past four years. This year, the Bobcats became the UCA National Champions in the open coed division.
“I really like Jones,” Brown said. “The first day I felt very welcome. The cheer coaches were excited to have me there. I felt it was an overall good experience.”
Even though he also had interest from the University of Central Florida and the University of North Florida, Brown accepted Jones’ offer of a full cheerleading scholarship. Following his decision, he said he stayed on campus and ate a lot of Raising Canes — a fast-food place known for their chicken tenders and sweet tea.
“Without coach Megan, I wouldn’t be able to have this,” Brown said. “But everybody helped me, really. Anybody that did even the littlest thing, they still helped me because all the little things make the bigger picture.”
Brown was not always involved in sports as a student at Seabreeze High School. Most of his freshman, sophomore and half of his junior year were spent in survival mode.
From June 2020 until the end of 2023, his family struggled with housing. Brown, his mother Latoya Mulligan and younger siblings — brother Keamar and sister Neavah — were displaced by a family member from their home, which began a cycle of seeking shelter. At one point, Mulligan had no choice but to split the family up between available housing.
What I can really say — just never give up. If you got a dream or you have a vision or something, no matter what happens, no matter what life throws at you, just keep going. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel." — Da'Veon Brown
Brown watched as his mom worked to keep her children in school and to keep the family together. Every morning, she drove the kids to different bus stops before driving to her job at an assisted living facility on Port Orange. When he was 15 years old, he said he got a job to pay for his food and necessities so his mom could focus on his younger siblings and her job.
“I was trying to let her take care of everything and try not to ask for anything,” he said. “It was kind of overwhelming, but I just knew I had to keep my head up. My mom kept telling me to keep my head up: ‘It will get better over time.’”
Throughout their struggles, Brown always attended school and maintained at least passing grades, but beginning with his time at Creekside Middle School, not all of his friends were a positive influence. He would succumb to random drama and occasional fights.
Midway through his junior year, he said he got tired of getting in trouble.
“It was on my consciousness while I was sleeping,” he said. “When I woke up, [I told myself], ‘I can’t do this and be in this mess right now. I have to just pick one. I can’t let that be the reason why I do bad things. I can’t be going from house to house and getting in trouble at the same time.’ I just woke up, and I changed.”
Right after he made a decision to change, Seabreeze football coach Pepper Johnson asked him to tryout for the team. He played running back during the spring game in May 2023. Due to his inexperience, he did not get a lot of playing time, but still ran for 32 yards while he was in.
His mother, Mulligan, said she is not athletic, but she has had Brown in sports since he was 6 years old — baseball, flag football, basketball and track, which has contributed to his athleticism. His uncle Lamar Cason began taking him to the Hagler Boxing Club when he was 12 years old in order to hone his fitness and discipline.
During his senior year, Brown decided to continue playing football and also tryout for the cheerleading team for the first time. With a little encouragement from Office Aid classmate Isabelle Wurtz, he showed up to a practice in September and Lambert informed him he was on the team.
“We had a class together so we would talk and grew a really close bond,” Wurtz said. “My coach was asking football players to join the team, and he said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to do it.’ I told him he should and he went to practice that day. Ever since then, it is history. He lights up any room he’s in. He’s like a brother to this team.”
Seabreeze head cheerleading coach Amie MacDonald said Brown approached them last year and said he just wanted to cheer with them, no matter what. He worked out with them all week and was so sore, he could barely walk.
“He said, ‘It’s cool, I can do this,’” she said. “So he worked out with us all week long. Next week he went to football practice and his coach asked him what he was doing because he could hardly walk. He said, ‘Coach, that cheer just hits different.’”
Rising Seabreeze sophomore Lily Futch said she was forced to stunt with him in the beginning when he did not even know the basics of competitive cheerleading. She said all the cheerleaders came together to teach him.
“I really respect his work ethic,” she said. “He really tried. He knew nothing coming into the season. It was good toward the end. I can’t believe he’s going to school for cheer.”
Mulligan said that, not only is Brown leading his brother and sister, but he has inspired her to go back to school.
“The scholarship is a blessing,” she said. “He worked hard for it. He achieved it and he deserves it. Is it the stuff that we’ve been through that’s makes him want to work hard? Sometimes children see things in their parents and they want to do better. I’m glad that he chose the right way and I’m glad he is the way he is. He’s blessed. I thank God for it. Words can’t explain how proud I am.”
Brown said everything happened so quickly that it is going to take time to “soak in.”
“What I can really say — just never give up,” he said. “If you got a dream or you have a vision or something, no matter what happens, no matter what life throws at you, just keep going. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”
