Season Review: Team effort helped facilitate Pirates’ record-setting performances

Pirate football fans had a lot to cheer about this past season. But the lingering clouds of a viral pandemic obscured the landscape, prompting only the most venturesome to attend such public events that might increase the risk of exposure to a detrimental ailment.

If first impressions foretell the substance of what may transpire afterwards, then the start of the 2020 Pirate football season would be just a portent of what was yet to come. Two school records would be broken in the season opener. Sophomore southpaw quarterback Jarrett Wilson would obliterate the previous school passing mark of 310 yards with a new record 444 yards. Receiver Colton Graham would catch a dozen passes for 251 yards that would eclipse the previous mark of 248. Both would achieve rankings among the elite at the statewide as well as national level.

One record is typically more than one would expect during the course of a season. Two records falling in a single game is almost beyond comprehension. Yet the season was only just beginning.

At home against Butte Central the second half of the schedule, Wilson would erupt for over 500 passing yards to reset the school passing mark yet again. Wideout Graham almost followed suit with what would have been 259 reception yards. But a downfield holding infraction would reduce the net gain to deny the record reset.

In that same game, receiver Xavier Fisher's official circa-200 receiving yards juxtaposed in conjunction with Graham catches was the first time teammates have ever turned in dual 200 reception yards in the same game at the Class A level according to football statistician Brian A. Reed.

At the conclusion of the schedule, Wilson became only the third quarterback among the Class A ranks to throw for over three thousand yards in a single season according to statistician Reed. His cumulative passing yardage moved Wilson into second place on the all time list with three less games played than his contemporaries. Two of those contests were played under atrocious weather conditions that had these been more conducive would almost certainly have yielded additional gains among triple digits.

Wilson would conclude the season with his name appended four times among the Class A top ten list for single game passing yardage.

But many of these accolades would not have transpired had it not been for the competent hands of his Pirate receiving corps. A dozen different receivers factored into yardage gains in one contest or another. In addition to common denominator receivers Graham and Fisher, ten others including four seniors (Boston Goode, Jony Perez, JC Steele, Trevor Lake), four juniors (Robert Perez, Ethan McCauley, Alex Muzquiz, Braunson Henriksen,) and a pair of sophomores (Trent Wilson, Tyler Wenderoth) caught passes in variable combinations to rack up Wilson's yardage barrage.

Pirate defenders likewise created their share of alterations that flipped possession, shifts that would bolster Wilson's passing opportunities over the course of the season. Beyond two pick-sixes, nine further interceptions along with eleven fumble recoveries reversed possession from opponents in favor of the Pirates that would lend a figurative hand in additional throwing opportunities.

To summarize the past season replete with reset records, a few players may have drawn most of the attention for particular accomplishments. But underlying any record's foundation are often others who contributed behind the scenes in varying capacities. These players greased the gears for additional opportunities that transpired which were foundational to the accomplishment of the record itself, making such achievements a genuine team effort.