Coupeville Sports

   Wolf QB Hunter Downes, seen here last spring, is gunning for several career school marks. (John Fisken photos)

Hunter Smith, his primary target, also has his eye on busting records.

   Downes (his noggin protected from the blazing sun) strikes a pose at football camp last weekend. (Photo courtesy Downes)

The man in black (pants) fled into the record books, and the gunslinger followed.

As he prepares for his senior season, Coupeville High School quarterback Hunter Downes, the gunslinger in this story, is hot on the trail of his school’s QB records.

The man he’s pursuing is the guy helping shape him, Wolf offensive coordinator Brad Sherman, who threw for 3,613 yards and 33 touchdowns before graduating in 2003.

Downes, who opened spring practices with his teammates Tuesday, spent last weekend in Everett at a USA Football regional development camp.

The camp allows high school players to work on their skills and techniques with current NCAA coaches while also putting them in a pool for possible inclusion on the U.S. national team.

After missing all but two games of his sophomore year with an injury, Downes put up one of the best seasons in CHS history as a junior.

He threw for 1,569 yards and 17 touchdowns, missing the school’s single-season TD mark (18 by Joel Walstad in 2014) by a hair.

Downes did tie the school’s single-game TD record, dropping four against a tough Bellevue Christian defense on the road while playing on a slippery, rain-splattered turf.

That equaled a mark set by Wolf legend Corey Cross in 1971, and tied by Sherman in 2001.

With his precision passing, Downes helped his #1 target, fellow junior Hunter Smith, set school single-season records with 916 yards and 11 touchdown receptions.

The duo are ankling to shred the record board this fall, when they kick off their senior campaign Sept. 1 on the road against South Whidbey.

Downes, who has 1,841 yards and 18 TD’s in a little over a season of action, needs 1,773 yards and 16 TD’s as a senior to top Sherman’s career records.

Smith is even closer, with 1,335 yards and 13 TD’s in two seasons as a receiver.

He trails Chad Gale (1,345 and 17) by just 10 yards and four scores, while also needing three interceptions (he has 10 in his career) to pass Josh Bayne’s CHS career mark of 12.