Tayylor LaBrie’s football dreams did not end at Kilgore College when he left in 2015. But the former Port Arthur Memorial quarterback needed someone to give him another chance.

“He took off with it, and it’s been good ever since,” said Glen White, owner and coach of the semi-pro Southeast Texas Titans. “We ended up winning the championship game [last year]. He dominated the whole game.”

As one would expect out of a most valuable player.

LaBrie won MVP honors in the Texas United Football Association three straight years and recently signed a deal with the Brumadinho Templars of the Brazilian professional National Liga. He is leaving Tuesday for Brumadinho, a town of about 18,000 in the southern portion of South America’s largest country.

“It taught me to never give up,” LaBrie said, noting his ultimate goal of playing in th NFL. “If you have your eyes set on something, always push forward, never give up and always try to achieve the little goals to get to the major goal.”

White has owned the Port Arthur-based Southeast Texas Titans since 2006, with his wife Wilma serving as the general manager.

“This is the reason we put this together,” he said. “This is a ministry of me and my wife. We put this together to help young men get a second chance to get an opportunity to play in the NFL or Canadian Football League.”

LaBrie, who graduated from Memorial in 2014, was looking for that chance after his freshman season at Kilgore did not work out as planned. A “misunderstanding” he had with Kilgore’s coach at the time, he said, amid issues with his class and workout schedule led to LaBrie’s decision to leave the program.

But playing for the semi-pro Titans helped him to develop as a quarterback quickly, he added.

“Everybody who didn’t make it but can play basically plays on a semi-pro team,” LaBrie said. “So, I had to up my skill level to match the intensity of everybody because coming out of high school, playing under coach [Kenny] Harrison, he teaches you [that] you don’t back down from nobody. Coming back from Kilgore, I knew I still wanted to play football.”

White said the Templars, coached by 22-year-old Del Valle High graduate Charles Bender, heard about LaBrie from an owner of a Chinese team at a camp in Austin that LaBrie attended. He said the owner wasn’t looking for a quarterback, but he didn’t want LaBrie to miss out on an opportunity.

“When the coach [Bender] got film, he said, ‘I’ve got to sign him,’” White said. “He can do so many different things as a quarterback. He can catch, run, throw.”

LaBrie said he also posted video of his games on Facebook, which Templars executive also saw.

Semi-pro players are not paid, as some are looking to earn a spot on a college team.

But the love of the game has not only helped LaBrie graduate to another level; he’s been selected to represent National Liga in an international league in February.

Brumadinho will play exhibition games throughout the rest of the year, according to American Football International’s website.

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews