In his mom's basement, Brett Ginn lives in his own private Texas paradise.

Longhorn orange hangs next to Ginn's old black and white peewee football uniforms. With a decorator's touch, he arranges Dallas Cowboy minihelmets on a television cart and trophies along the wall. The 2-foot-high Super Bowl trophy he won as a Texas first-grader dwarfs every Kansas cup he's collected, making them all look like little toys pulled from a prize-grabbing machine.

"Right there," said Gabrielle Wyatt, Ginn's mother, "shows the difference between Texas and Kansas."

This is just some of Ginn's stuff. A lot of it is still back in Grand Prairie, Texas, where he left behind the blinding lights of Friday night football, an all-district career on a losing team, his father and bundles of college recruiting letters.

Growing up, Ginn was the prize of Texas youth football, but when his parents divorced when he was the third grade, Ginn moved to Lenexa with his mom. In 2004, he couldn't take losing games on the freshman squad at Shawnee Mission West -- those two losses really ate him up -- so Ginn moved back to Texas to become a better football player.

"I didn't think I would get much exposure here, so I moved to Texas," Ginn said. "I knew I was going to get bigger, faster, stronger."

And he did, but this summer Ginn made up his mind that he wanted to pursue a state championship. He would never get one as a Mansfield Timberview Wolf. So that meant goodbye, Texas, hello Jayhawk country and more specifically, hello again, SM West.

"We were all surprised that he would come to Kansas," Viking senior tackle Nick Pearson said. "I think if a man is going to travel that far for a goal, he will achieve it."

Ginn has logged thousands of frequent-flier miles chasing this dream, and now he's ready to suit up tonight, once again, as a Viking. Even if his heart's deep in Texas.

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Ginn is easy to spot on the practice field.

He's the only SM West player with his name tattooed in Alibata, an ancient Polynesian language, on the back of both arms. But he's also, "...the short one, that's really ripped," teammate Chris Woods said, pointing to No. 5.

Ginn stands there, all 5 feet 11 inches and 190 pounds of him, hands on his hips, waiting for his turn to hit somebody. He's a fullback, a safety, an outside linebacker and just about anything else coach Tim Callaghan can assign him. Ginn is versatile, just like in Texas.

There, Ginn had all the makings for football greatness: Natural strength, smarts and a deep hatred of losing.

But since Ginn was such a good player, his schoolboy teams rarely lost, prompting coaches to fight over the rights to draft him. One coach even offered splitting up his twin sons so that Ginn could play on his team.

"I couldn't believe it," said his father Jaime Ginn, who witnessed the draft-day drama. "It was ridiculous."

After his parents divorced, Ginn left football-obsessed Texas for Lenexa.

Ginn quickly became the most versatile kid on his youth football team, helping his teams to undefeated seasons. Then, in his freshman season at SM West, the Vikings lost the first game and Ginn pounded his head into the lockers, creating a "pretty, good dent."

"I was intensely mad," he said.

Ginn also saw how the varsity struggled. Could he possibly become a Division I football prospect in Kansas? Ginn wasn't sure, so during the winter of his freshman year he moved back to Texas.

"It about killed me," his mom said. "It was hard for me to let him go, but I had to let him go because he was at that age and I knew it would happen eventually."

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At Class 4A Mansfield Timberview, Ginn excelled as a scholar-athlete. He was voted a team captain his first year, and as a junior Ginn made the first-team all-district. Also, Ginn made straight A's and was sixth in his class. Good accomplishments, but the losing irked him.

Ginn frequently would visit his friends at SM West and found himself checking the Internet every Friday night to see whether the Vikings had won. Ginn longed for Lenexa. His friends sensed that, too, and they started trying to lure him back.

"He talked about Mansfield having another 2-7, 2-8 season, while we talked about our playoff accomplishments and being a good team in Kansas," senior quarterback Blake Lawrence said. Lawrence then would tell him, " 'Man, Brett, don't you want to come up here and win a state championship?' "

During the last week of school at Mansfield, Ginn decided to move back to Kansas.

"He's a unique individual," Callaghan said. "I don't think too many kids leave their senior year, not when you're a captain on the team."

Ginn's decision to transfer is a bit of a gamble. He could get lost in the recruiting jungle. But he is closer to Kansas State, a place where Ginn has expressed high interest. He's also confident that another top pick, Air Force, can still find him. Ginn recently visited the Air Force and aspires to become a pilot.

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"We."

Sometimes, Ginn can't figure out how to use that word. He says "we" when referring to the new 12,000-seat capacity stadium Mansfield will play in this season. Then, he thinks "we," as in Vikings, have the right players to win a Kansas 6A state championship this season.

His loyalties are divided. His MySpace.com profile still displays his Mansfield photo, and just about everyone in his top 16 friends list is from Texas. He misses his Pacific Islander cousins who look and act like him.

Ginn may look different, but he feels that everything has remained the same at SM West. Teammates love him, and old friends are back to hanging out at his house for taco night. Everything is going as planned, the transfer is working, and the season begins tonight against SM East. Now, there's no more chasing. Ginn can settle in and simply dream.

"I want to get that ring!" Ginn said. "Coming into high school, my goal was to win a state championship. We have the potential to win state up here."

Once again, hello, Kansas.