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Small Town, Big Dreams: Accomplished Patrick Mahomes revisits Super Bowl
Open scene: a small-town kid with incredible athletic capabilities and big dreams working hard to simply just play at the next level. Before you know it, scenes flash by and the small-town kid is no longer small-town. Instead, he's leading his team out of the tunnel at the biggest stage in the NFL: the Super Bowl. It's the feel-good story we all have come to know and love. For small-town Whitehouse football alumnus, Patrick Mahomes, this feel-good story has been a reality he has lived twice. On Sunday, the Kansas City star quarterback and two-time NFL MVP will live the story a third time with the high hopes of winning his second world championship.
Go, Wildcats, Go!
A three-sport athlete at Whitehouse, Mahomes was born a star in East, Texas. With a former MLB pitcher as a father, Mahomes shined in baseball from a young age on. When the opportunity arose for Mahomes to join the MLB out of high school, he turned it down saying he would have a home in Lubbock with the Red Raiders' football program. Mahomes also had a short, successful stint on the basketball court. Shining for the Wildcats was something he was no stranger to.
Though a talent athlete all around, Mahomes stood out on the football field. With a natural ability and veteran-style attitude from an early age, it should come as no surprise to anyone who knew him in a Wildcats jersey that he would be making waves in the NFL. As a junior, Mahomes starred in 12 games where he totaled 3,839 yards, 46 touchdowns, and recorded a 56.7% completion rate. On his feet, Mahomes tallied 258 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 107 carries. After putting hard-work to the test, Mahomes went on to record 4,619 passing yards, 50 passing touchdowns, 948 rushing yards, and 15 rushing touchdowns as a senior. Once he graduated, he headed west to Lubbock.
Wreck 'Em
After choosing Texas Tech over Oklahoma State and Rice, Mahomes was ready to make an impact in Lubbock. As a freshman, Mahomes recorded 1,547 passing yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 104 yards in seven appearances. Stepping into a leadership role as a sophomore, Mahomes appeared in 13 games where he threw for 4,653 yards with 36 passing touchdowns and tallied 10 rushing touchdowns on 456 rushing yards. As a junior, the Red Raiders' star carried in 12 touchdowns on 131 rushing yards while recording 41 touchdowns from the pocket on 5,052 passing yards. During his entire college season, Mahomes only threw 29 interceptions- 10 of which were his junior season.
With the opportunity to enter the NFL Draft, Mahomes declared and waited patiently for what his future had in store. If he knew then that he was about to be on track to being one of the greats at the professional level, then he definitely capitalized on the opportunity.
Nine Teams Passed
Although there were so many great athletes in the 2017 NFL Draft, there was a lot of buzz around where this kid in Lubbock would end up. Would he be one of the top athletes drafted? Could he be No. 1? Not only was he not No. 1, but he wasn't even the first quarterback chosen. The first draft pick came, Myles Garret, DE out of Texas A&M. Second, Mitchell Trubisky out of North Carolina... so on and so forth for seven more rounds. Then it was Kansas City's turn. Seeing something special in the Red Raiders star, the Chiefs selected Patrick Mahomes as the 10th overall draft pick. Mahomes was ready to get to work.
Super Bowls and MVPs
In 2018- his first season as a starter with the Chiefs- Mahomes won the NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year awards after losing in the AFC Championship game. That season, Mahomes threw for 5,079 yards and 50 touchdowns with only 12 interceptions to his name. The next season, Mahomes led the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl victory with a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers- winning Super Bowl MVP and surviving the "Madden Curse" (long believed to take out athletes who appeared on the cover of Madden NFL that season). The following season, Mahomes would lead his team to the Super Bowl once again before falling to Tom Brady's Buccaneers. This season, Mahomes has not only led his team to his third Super Bowl in five years, but he won the NFL MVP award for the second time.
Throughout his professional career, Mahomes has been "more than great." He has played in five Pro Bowls and will have played in three Super Bowls, earned two NFL MVP awards, earned a Super Bowl MVP award, has played in five AFC Title games in front of a home crowd, has been named All-Pro three times, has been a two-time passing touchdown leader, appeared as the cover-boy on the beloved Madden NFL video game in 2020, and has broken the NFL record for total yards in a season with 5,614.
A star in every definition of the word, Mahomes has already established quite the legacy. As he prepares for his third Super Bowl appearance, the small-town kid will certainly have a lard portion of the Dallas-Fort Worth area to East, Texas rooting for him.
SUPER BOWL LVII: Hurts "Normal kid with different dreams"
While Jalen Hurts has become a nationally-recognized, household name quarterbacking the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl, the former Channelview Falcon was launched into stardom on an October night in 2014 at Galena Park ISD Stadium as a slippery junior quarterback running his father’s offense.
The Eastside is synonymous with North Shore High School, right?
Well, a few blocks over is Channelview High – right in the industrial-plex of Houston. The Falcons aren’t a high school football power. In fact, Channelview hasn’t won a playoff game in 30 years.
But in early October of 2014, a star was born.
Channelview had never beaten North Shore… ever. Older brother Averion Hurts Jr. (passing game coordinator at Summer Creek) couldn’t do it prior to Jalen, and it took a 38-yard Hail Mary with no time left to beat the “Beasts of the East” 49-48 in an instant classic. A legacy was cemented and Hurts' future was set in motion.
“He was a heck of a football player. He just made stuff happen. When he threw that Hail Mary to beat us when he was a junior, I’ll never forget it,” Kay said. “He’s done that his whole career, though. People didn’t think he could do it at Alabama… he did. Then he goes to Oklahoma and people thought… maybe other quarterbacks were catching up to him. Then he stars at OU and finishes second in the Heisman Trophy voting. Surely, the league (NFL) will be the great separator? Now, he’s in the Super Bowl.”
That game would put Hurts at the epicenter of the recruiting radar for 2015. Recruiting analysts would have to Mapquest where Channelview High School was to come witness the next big thing in the Bayou City.
“Channelview had always been a program that stuggled for playoff appearances and big wins,” 247Sports Recruiting Analyst Brian Perroni said. “Jalen was just plain special that night. He showed he could lead the big underdogs to a huge win with his arm and legs against North Shore. That win got a lot of eyes on him from a recruiting standpoint.”
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Channelview coach Averion Hurts is a soft-spoken leader, who believes in hard work and being a good teammate. No frills, just old school. Quiet. His words very measured.
Makes sense. That’s where Jalen Hurts gets his ‘head-down”, laser-focused mindset from. It’s also where he gets his “team first” philosophy… see his time at Alabama.
“He’s been through some growing pains during his career, but all of those adversities have made him better as a player and stronger as a man,” Hurts said. “Look, he was just a normal kid growing up. He just had different dreams. Once he figured out what he wanted to do, he worked for it. That’s just always been him, very determined.”
As a freshman at Alabama, Hurts was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year – but fell 35-31 in the National Championship Game against Clemson. He would lead the Tide to the 2018 Title Game against Georgia, where he would be pulled for Tua Tagovailoa. Alabama won 26-23. He was the back-up for much of 2018 as Bama would fall to Clemson again in the 2019 Title Game.
Off the Oklahoma went Hurts with his workmanlike attitude and winning persona. He would lead the Sooners to the College Football, eventually losing to LSU in the semis. He finished second to LSU's Joe Burrow for the Heisman Trophy.
Jalen would be drafted by Philadelphia in the second round with the 53rd overall pick. He was named the starter late in the season for coach Doug Pederson, who would be fired at the end of the season.
Hurts would lead the Eagles to the playoffs last season under the direction of coach Nick Sirianni, before falling to Tampa Bay in the Wild Card Round.
This season has been a storybook for the Channelview Falcon, finishing as one of five finalists for the NFL MVP Award.
So, what’s been the difference?
“I just wanted to see what he could do in the same offense for two years,” Averion said. “With the same people. He hasn’t had the same play-caller for two years since he played in high school. When everything from the neck up slows down, everything else speeds up for you as quarterback. If you are having to learn a new system every year, you are not gonna get that natural next step. With this second year, you are able to add stuff to a foundation you have already built. The game seems a lot easier. You know where to go with the ball. You know where the reads are. You are just maturing in the position, basically.”
As the Eastside of Houston roots on one of their own, the Hurts family will head to Glendale, Arizona to the Super Bowl.
“He is really proud of the fact that he has been able to bring us and his grandparents along for the ride,” Averion said. “We have enjoyed the heck out of it.”
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Channelview hasn’t beaten North Shore since that magical night in 2014. The night that Jalen Hurts, became “Jalen Hurts”. His legacy lives on as he continues to represent Houston’s #Eastside in the sport's biggest game of the year.
“The Hail Mary is not a fond memory for me because he beat us,” said North Shore’s Kay. “My fondest memory had to have been at the district track meet that Spring, though. The 4x100-relay was being held up, I was told, by a shot putter. I thought they were joking… a shot putter in a sprint relay? It was Jalen Hurts. He won the meet in the shot and came over and ran the relay.
"From an outsider, you could see he did everything through hard work and class. What a great, respectful young man. His father taught him well.”