By Steve Breazeale
Jack Sears got his first taste of high stakes high school football on the biggest of stages one year ago.
In the 2014 CIF-SS Southwest Division Championship game between San Clemente and Trabuco Hills, Tritons starting quarterback Sam Darnold went down with an injury in the fourth quarter. The season-long backup’s number was called.
Sears threw for 27 yards in a very short amount of playing time in an atmospheric pressure cooker. San Clemente did not win that game, but glimpses of the team’s future signal caller’s potential, if only for a few minutes, came into view.
Sears won the starting job over the offseason and has guided the Tritons back into the championship game in 2015. His numbers have been outstanding and, when San Clemente has been pushed to the brink, the junior has delivered.
In a back-and-forth battle against Sonora in the CIF-SS Southwest Division quarterfinals on Nov. 20, Sears had arguably his best game of the season. He completed 20 of 23 passes for a season-high 328 yards and three touchdowns. San Clemente clung to a three-point lead in the fourth quarter before Sears engineered an eight-play drive full of smart, accurate passes that sealed the win and kept the Tritons’ playoff hopes alive.
Sears gave an emotional post-game interview following the win over Sonora, heaping praise on his offensive line, running backs and the defense, deflecting any attention away from his late-game heroics.
“You talk to him and he has that ‘it’ factor,” San Clemente head coach Jaime Ortiz said. “He’s got good leadership skills and he leads by example. The kids really rally around him.”
Few quarterbacks in Orange County can lay claim to Sears’ effectiveness in 2015.
The junior is tied for third in Orange County with 35 touchdown passes through 13 games. He’s thrown for 2,599 yards and only two interceptions in 252 pass attempts. He’s also rushed for 718 yards and eight touchdowns on 95 carries.
Win or lose on Friday night against La Habra in the CIF-SS Southwest Division Championships, Sears has proven that those promising glimpses of the future from one year ago were no mirage.
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