Athlete of the Week: Menlo-Atherton's Jordan Mims

“I didn’t really plan on doing it,” Mims said dryly in response to a question about whether he woke up Friday with a record-setting performance on the agenda. “I planned on helping the team win and doing whatever I could to make that happen.”

Mims is a big deal though. The PAL Bay Division rushing leader with 830 yards this season has made that clear since his varsity debut last year as a midseason call-up, when he rushed for his previous career-high of 181 yards against Sequoia. That performance during Week 6 of M-A’s 2014 campaign helped fuse Mims with current Bears head coach Adhir Ravipati.

Prior to taking over the varsity squad this season, Ravipati served as a varsity assistant under former M-A head coach Sione Taufoou. But Ravipati departed after the 2013 season to launch a startup company, only to return at the midway juncture last year after the Bears’ 1-4 start. And one of Ravipati’s first orders of business was to make a case for promoting Mims from the M-A junior-varsity team.

Mims said he entered his sophomore season uncertain as to his readiness for the varsity ranks. Currently 5-10, 165 pounds, last season Mims started the year just shy of 5-9. But his dynamic foot speed had the final say in his ultimate promotion, upon which Mims made Ravipati look like he really knows what he’s talking about with a monster day to lead M-A to a victory.

“Honestly, I wasn’t really that surprised,” Ravipati said. “The kid has just got a lot of natural ability. … I knew he had a chance to come up and be an impact player right away.”

Much of Ravipati’s assessment had to do with Mims’ history as an explosive runner. A three-sport athlete through his freshman and sophomore seasons, Mims is a standout long sprinter on the M-A track and field team. And he has been for a while. Following his freshman year, he recorded a time of 53 seconds flat in the 400-yard dash at the Junior Olympics in North Carolina, he said, which still stands as his personal record.

Mims has been playing football since he was 7 — he started with Pop Warner Football for the San Francisco Brown Bombers until moving to Menlo Park in the third grade, where he took up with the East Palo Alto Greyhounds. Ravipati still considers the junior a raw football player, which is code for — watch out, because the best is yet to come.

“One thing he’s gotten by on for so long is, because he’s a track runner, is track speed,” Ravipati said. “He’s got great vision … but we’ve been trying to increase his football IQ so he can kind of pick up his blocks and get downfield more efficiently. … But he’s a special talent. … Once he finds a crease, he hits it full speed.”

Mims is not interested in the special talent talk though. It’s this nose-to-the-grindstone humility that makes him the perfect fit in a good one-two punch out of the M-A backfield. Junior Stavro Papadakis, splitting time between running back and quarterback this season, has more carries than Mims while totaling 318 yards. But when blocking detail fell to the 5-11, 205-pound Papadakis on Friday, he delivered, as did the offensive line of tackles Makisi Tonga and Bryce Rodgers; guards Ivan Robles and Epeli Mataele; and center Kevin Shimbo.

“Stavro did a tremendous job blocking, as well as our offensive line,” Mims said. “They had an outstanding game.”

Mims was off and running from the opening play, when he busted a big gainer off right tackle. He went on to tab a best of 70 yards en route to rushing for three touchdowns. He also had two catches for 63 yards and another TD. And while he did record one four-touchdown game against Burlingame as a J.V. freshman, he has never given a rushing performance like Friday’s.

“Jordan is just a total team player,” Ravipati said. “If [321 yards] could have gone to someone else in the backfield, Jordan would have been just as happy with that with us winning.”

M-A’s recent winning ways belie the team’s 0-3 start. But the Bears faced three powerhouse programs in those games — Marin Catholic-Kentfield, Oakdale and Riordan — which currently have a combined record of 19-2.

“We knew we had a really good football team,” Ravipati said. “But we also knew it was going to take some time to grow because we have a really young team this year.”

Mims is the epitome of the M-A youth movement. And yes, even after totaling the best single-game rushing total in the PAL this year, his best is yet to come.