Athlete of the Week: M-A’s Jurrion Dickey

“Some on video,” Jett said. “Not in person like that though.”

It isn’t just the catches that has earned Dickey the first Daily Journal Athlete of the Week award of the 2021-22 school year, although they surely were enough. It wasn’t just the overall offense either, though he added five rushes for 68 yards and another touchdown, giving him 239 total yards and four TDs on the afternoon.

But that’s only half the workload Dickey shouldered for his first game in the burgundy and gold, as he was on the field for a majority of M-A’s plays on defense as well. Not that this is a newsflash. It’s the workload Dickey has been aspiring to since his 2019 season as a varsity freshman at Valley Christian.

“That’s just my game,” Dickey said. “And I have a dawg mentality, so I do not like to go out.”

Saturday’s performance didn’t come to Dickey easily, however, it certainly seemed to as the burgeoning star led the Bears back from the abyss of a 27-7 first-half deficit. M-A went on to score 21 points in 10 minutes to jump ahead 28-27 midway through the third quarter on Noah Garcia-Standlee’s 43-yard touchdown run.

Therein, M-A head coach Chris Saunders made perhaps the scariest comment he has in three years at the helm. You see, it has only been two weeks since Dickey reported for his first day of practice, on M-A’s first day of school. As a result, he didn’t participate in the Bears’ spring or summer workouts. And the gist of Saunders’ outlook is, as the season goes on, and Dickey settles into the Bears’ offensive system, he is only going to get better — much, much better.

“Even in the last two, three days in practice, we saw some improvement just in the connection,” Saunders said. “In time I expect to see that improvement for the next couple weeks as well.”

In addition to Dickey’s debut, M-A senior quarterback Billy Johnson was also thrust into his new role, making his first varsity start with the Bears. Johnson is a transfer student as well, though his road to M-A may be even more interesting than Dickey’s. The senior QB transferred to M-A after his freshman year at Crystal Springs Uplands, where the small Hillsborough private school doesn’t have a conventional 11-man football program. Johnson was a starting QB as a freshman at Crystal Springs, but with the 8-man football team.

“I’ve never been part of anything like this,” Johnson said. “This is my first high school start at M-A … this my first big start, and it’s a great way to start it off.”

Johnson has now had the benefit of playing behind graduated quarterback Matt MacLeod for two years. And his understanding of the nuances of M-A’s pro-style offense were key in Dickey acclimating to game-day play calling.

The dynamic between the experience of Johnson — along with players like senior receiver Jaylen Moss — and Dickey often made for a street football approach in the Bears’ huddles.

“We’d call the play, he’d say: ‘Bill what I got? Jay what I got?’” Johnson said. “We’d tell him. And when he knows the play, it’s over.”

Dickey showed he is versed in enough in the intricacies of M-A’s offense in making some difficult and critical plays. And the first of those plays righted the ship in a hurry after the team’s slow start.

With the Bears trailing 20-0 midway through the second quarter, Dickey literally sped up the offense. After an interception by Sherrod Smith gave M-A the ball at the 50-yard line, Saunders used a timeout. Coming out of it, the Bears went into a hurry-up offense look, with Johnson rushing to the line of scrimmage to call a quick snap and pitching to Dickey, who bolted off the right side for an explosive 50-yard scoring run.

“You’ve got to have some things up your sleeve to keep people on their toes,” Saunders said. “Otherwise, we’re not doing our job as a coach, putting the kids in the position. More than anything else, Jurrion made that happen.”

Dickey made the first TD catch of his M-A career happen as well.

With less than two minutes remaining in the first half, Johnson dropped back and heaved a high pass up the right side. The ball was underthrown, so Dickey had to stop and come back for it. Not only did he outleap two defenders to catch it, when he landed, he pivoted 180 degrees in a flash and threaded the needle through the two defenders to tiptoe down the sideline for a 47-yard score.

“What is there to say?” Johnson said. “He’s the best football player I’ve ever seen, he’s the best football player I’ve ever played with. I was shocked that they doubled him, they didn’t triple him.”

Late in the third quarter, he added a 63-yard touchdown catch, streaking over the middle, catching a well-placed throw in stride, and outracing three defenders to gain approximately 50 yards after the catch. Then in the closing minutes, he put the game away with the best grab of the bunch, a jump-ball at the front corner of the endzone while wrestling the good man coverage of Bellarmine’s cornerback to haul in Johnson’s pass at the apex of his leap.

“He is every bit of that five-star,” Saunders said. “He’s a tremendous young man and his ability to come into a new place in a short time like this, and play a game like today, it speaks wonders to who he is.”

And those are just the highlights on offense.

“He’s a warrior,” Saunders said. “He played probably a hundred snaps today in the field. Even NFL players don’t play that much. So, he gave it all.”

Which is just the way Dickey likes to play the game.

“It felt good,” Dickey said. “But it’s tiring.”