Hanahan’s Chris Brown and Wando’s Tinsley Hallman are The Post and Courier athletes of year

Chris Brown’s athletic ability cost him most of his senior football season. But Brown’s athleticism helped him earn The Post and Courier’s male athlete of the year.

Brown, one of the top receivers in the Southeast heading into his senior season, was too valuable to keep off the field, so he also played in the Hawks’ secondary. He suffered a collarbone injury when he made a tackle in the second quarter of the second game of the season and didn’t return for approximately two months. He came back and put up big numbers and then had an outstanding track season, scoring 34 points at the state meet.

The Post and Courier’s female athlete of the year, Tinsley Hallman, also is a two-sport star, in basketball and volleyball. She was selected to play in the North-South volleyball game.

“Tinsley is a true athlete,” Wando volleyball coach Alexis Glover said. “She probably could pick up a tennis racket or a lacrosse stick and excel in those sports, too.”

Brown is signed, sealed and delivered to play for Notre Dame in football and track. He’s a 6-2, 175-pounder who runs the 40 in 4.45 seconds. He had 52 catches for 1,098 yards and 16 touchdowns as a junior and followed that up with 33 catches for 532 yards and 12 touchdowns in 41/2 games as a senior. He also returned two punts for scores.

“He played like he really missed football and came back with a vengeance,” Hanahan football coach Charlie Patterson said. “Early in the season, we had so many young players out there on defense so we needed to have Chris out there. It’s just so hard to keep someone with his athletic ability off the field.”

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was ecstatic when he talked about Brown during a press conference on National Signing Day.

“As you know, here is a young man that had a short senior season because of injury, and I think if we were talking from an NFL standpoint, and I was the general manager after draft day, we would consider this young man a ‘steal’ of the draft,” Kelly told reporters.

Brown was in fine form this spring when he led the Hawks to second place in the Class AA team standings. Brown set the state triple jump last spring and followed that up with another gold medal while finishing second in three events: The 100- and 200-meter dashes and the high jump.

Hallman averaged 18.0 points and 9.0 rebounds for the Warriors, but her future is in volleyball. She will attend Gardner-Webb.

“Playing two sports takes up a lot of time, so you have to find a balance,” said Hallman, who was the school’s Wendy’s Heisman award winner for athletics and academics. I really liked both sports so it was a tough decision what to do at the college level. My athletic career in high school was a lot of fun.”

Follow Philip M. Bowman on Twitter: @pandcphil