Dan AngellJournal file photo\u000dGrace High School quarterback Josh Jensen keeps the ball on an end run against Rockland High School during their game on September 3 at Rockland\u002e
Posted: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 11:13 pm
GRACE — It's common for a quarterback to deflect praise.
Grace sophomore quarterback Josh Jensen is no different. As he leads Grace into the 1A Division I state semifinals at 8:45 p.m. tonight against Hagerman at Holt Arena, he's adamant that his teammates make him a valuable weapon.
“I've only been sacked twice in the last five games we've won, and our backs are running the ball phenomenal,” Jensen said. “They've stepped up all around.”
While Jensen is unquestionably the Grizzlies' leader and their most exciting player, it's certain that he wouldn't be under center, and Grace might not even be playing tonight, if senior wide receiver Chase Ackerman hadn't made a big sacrifice for the Grizzlies by giving Jensen his quarterback position.
Despite how highly Grace coach Steve Millward thought of Jensen at the start of the season, the Grizzlies' plan was to go with Ackerman at quarterback, who had started the 2009 season as Grace's quarterback before breaking his collarbone on the first play of the season. Upon returning, he won a tough battle for the job.
“He and Chase were neck and neck,” Millward said. “In the Red-White scrimmage, Josh outperformed him, but we felt Josh had a better team.”
That was fine with Jensen, who was content to start at safety and wait to get his chance at quarterback after Ackerman graduated.
But in the Grizzlies' season opener against North Gem, a 24-20 loss, Ackerman was ineffective. Millward was willing to give his senior another chance in the next game against Rockland, but Ackerman convinced him otherwise. Instead, he asked to switch to wide receiver and give the Grizzlies another pass-catching threat to complement Damian Martinez.
“I struggled in the North Gem game, and Josh was playing better at quarterback than I was,” Ackerman said. “We didn't have the receiver threat if I was playing quarterback, so that gives Josh one more weapon and gives us one more big weapon on offense.”
Millward told Ackerman that the position was his to give up, and Ackerman confirmed that he wanted to make the switch for the good of the team. So Millward called Jensen into his office and told him that from then on, he would be Grace's quarterback.
When Millward told him of the switch, Jensen was ready to go. That didn't surprise Millward, who had coached Jensen since seventh grade. The second-year Grace coach was an assistant before taking over last year, and he'd seen firsthand Jensen’s maturity and intelligence.
“I had coaches from Malad and Soda who couldn't believe it,” Millward said. “Even back in seventh grade, he had a knowledge of the game that rivaled juniors and seniors in high school. He's a great student of the game and he's able to absorb a lot of information. The big thing is he has the athletic ability to translate that to making plays out on the field.”
The switch didn't pay off right away. The Grizzlies lost their next four games as Jensen struggled to get used to leading through adversity. After a game against Hagerman in September, however, Jensen had to face adversity head on.
He felt like he personally gave the game away because he fumbled inside the Pirates' 10-yard line on Grace's final possession with the Grizzlies trailing by four. The Pirates recovered and won the game, and Jensen took the loss hard.
When practice started the next week, he had stepped up to another level and his teammates were there with him.
“Ever since then, everything's just worked out a lot better,” Jensen said. “We've started working together really well, and we're playing great as a team.”
Since that Hagerman game, the Grizzlies haven't lost. Jensen and the team's rapid progress culminated in last week's stunning comeback win over Notus in the quarterfinals.
The Grizzlies trailed 48-20 with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but Jensen cooly led them to a 52-48 victory that was clinched with just seconds left when Jensen hit Martinez in the end zone.
Millward didn't call that play, or many of the others in those wild 10 minutes. The coach estimates he called five plays in the Grizzlies' final four drives. The rest was all Jensen managing the offense. Clearly, the switch of quarterbacks paid off.
It did the same for Ackerman. The former quarterback quickly adjusted well to catching passes and quickly became Jensen' go-to receiver. He caught a touchdown pass in his first game at receiver against Rockland and has caught one in all eight games he's played at receiver.
Millward said the sacrifice is symbolic of how the Grizzlies have come this far. Now the united Grizzlies face the last team to beat them in Hagerman, a game they've waited for since that loss that turned Jensen into a true leader and the Grizzlies into a true team.
“As soon as we got that Notus game, everyone was looking over plays,” Jensen said. “We're looking at it as payback time. They're better, but so are we. We're not even close to the same team.”
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