Jaywalking: Air assault

[ Originally published on: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 ]

What has been going on lately with local football programs and the decision to throw the football?

In case you haven't noticed, high school programs in our area have been throwing the ball more than ever lately. Passing the ball has become as popular to the local football scene as stories about swine flu have become to The Recorder.

Take a look at last fall's numbers when three -- count them -- three quarterbacks eclipsed the 1,000-yard barrier. Mahar's Ben Goody (1,423 yards), Greenfield's Shawn Parsons (1,398) and Mohawk's Cody Underwood (1,132) each did it.

Not since 2003 has more than one quarterback reached the plateau, when both Scott Woodward of Mahar and Mike Butler of Athol did it. The last time three quarterbacks reached the mark was 1992 when Adrian Softic (Athol), Mark Brown (Turners Falls) and David Hughes (Greenfield) accomplished the feat. Just to put that in perspective, here are a few other things that were going on in 1992.

• O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown got divorced.

• The Boston Red Sox had just finished up a 73-89 season and concluded the 74th year since ''The Curse of the Bambino.''

• The first episode of ''The Real World'' aired on MTV, triggering the beginning of reality television and my hatred for it.

• Future Recorder sportswriter Jason Butynski was entering the fifth grade.

So needless to say, it's been a while since three quarterbacks have thrown so much, and 1992 and 2008 remain the only two years that three quarterbacks have done it. As if three wasn't enough, the number could have been five if two other area quarterbacks had a few more completions, according to our numbers. Athol's Eric LaFountain finished with 907, according to our numbers, while Turners Falls' Eric Bastarache threw for 916 yards.

 

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