![]() ![]() To those who have seen Malone II play this season, the development is clear. #YEAR WALK PS3 HOW TO#You know, to help him with leadership, how to win in other ways and facing adversity.” “ visited Higley, went on a tour, met Coach Zubey, got a good tour from the athletic director, got an opportunity to talk to Coach Zubey about football, and it just really looked like it was an opportunity to help a program grow, and to help Jamar develop all of the things that a quarterback needs to develop outside of throwing, running, and reading a defense. ![]() “We decided to put him in a program that really allowed for his development,” Malone Sr. Although Malone II certainly has the talent to play a premier role at any program in Arizona (and likely the country), the Malones sought a different track for Jamar. Many may hear a big-time player has moved to an Arizona high school and assume they’ve arrived at a nationally recognized program like Chandler or Saguaro. Malone II is now four games into his second season at Higley. #YEAR WALK PS3 FULL#“Were we going to not have a season or have an augmented season? Or were we going to move him somewhere where he could play a full season and really get that year of development that’s crucial for his position and for an athlete in general? So, we decided to make the move to Arizona.” “It came down to the decision entering into high school of what were we going to do?” said Malone Sr., who was born and raised in Los Angeles. Uncertainty surrounding LA’s high school football schedule led the Malone family to consider whether, for the sake of Malone II’s development, it was time to make a move. The Malones had traveled to Arizona a number of times for club football tournaments, and had developed a familiarity with the Phoenix area. “We know how important freshman year is to the development of an athlete.” “It put us in a situation of trying to make a determination on what we were going to do his freshman year,” Malone Sr. For a family with strong roots in Southern California, this presented a difficult choice. Football was completely canceled at the collegiate, high school, and youth level.”Īfter a completely upended 2020 high school football season across the state of California, the fate of LA’s 2021 season - Malone II’s freshman year - remained unclear well into the summer. “We were pretty much on house arrest for 18 months. “In LA things were shut down basically,” Jamar Malone Sr., Jamar’s father, said. Living in Los Angeles at the time, the Malone family faced the same challenges as every other family - with the added pressure of ensuring Jamar could continue to develop on the football field. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in the spring of Malone II’s seventh-grade year. However, Malone II’s road to stardom as Higley football’s QB1 was hardly easy. It is a complicated and fast-paced offensive system made to look easy by a quarterback of equal parts size and precision. Listed on MaxPreps as 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, Malone II uses his encyclopedic knowledge of Higley’s offense to communicate plays to his line and receivers, and calmly executes. And the Knights may have among the strongest engines in Arizona high school football with sophomore quarterback Jamar Malone II. At its best, the scheme can operate with machine-like precision.Ī machine, however, is only as reliable as its engine. ![]() Higley has the athletes for it: short passes to junior running back Daxen Hall at full speed are a staple, and it often concludes with a touchdown pass to one of the Knights’ dynamic duo of senior wide receivers, Dominic Esposito and Carter Hancock. on a cloudless 99-degree Tuesday in Gilbert, and Higley’s varsity football practice is coming to a close the way it always does: a final run through of the Knights’ hurry-up offense.Ī nightmare for opposing defenses and those keeping stats, Higley’s hurry-up requires elite conditioning and breakneck speed. The sanitized version of Kanye West’s “Power” blasts from Higley’s stadium speakers. (Photo provided by the Malone family)Īlex Wakefield is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Higley for Ī chorus of whistles directs Higley High School’s offensive unit towards midfield. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Malone family to make some major decisions, which included moving from Los Angeles to Gilbert. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |