Wolf senior QB Hunter Downes is on target to erase almost every passing record in school history. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Middle school ball and the birth of a gunslinger.
Freshman year.
Downes and the man he’s chasing on the record board, Brad Sherman.
Brad Sherman.
Ian Smith.
Corey Cross.
Bob Rea.
What do those four share in common?
Well, for one thing, they’re among the best quarterbacks to ever run the Coupeville High School offense.
Scan the football record board in the gym hallway, or talk to anyone who witnessed them play in person, and it’s obvious — they set or redefined the standard for Wolf signal callers.
But now, as we head towards the fourth game of his senior season, we need to take a moment to pay tribute to the current CHS gunslinger, Hunter Downes.
He might not be as tall as Sherman, now the program’s offensive coordinator, or as legendary as Cross, whose exploits in the ’70s are related in hushed whispers, but Downes is on target to bust every record they, or any other Wolf QB, ever set.
As a junior, Downes tossed four touchdowns on the road at Bellevue Christian, tying Sherman and Cross for the school’s single-game record.
This year, he’s chasing the big four QB records — season and career marks for passing yardage and TD’s.
Sherman holds the career records with 3,613 yards and 33 scoring strikes, while the season-bests belong to Smith (1,848 yards in 2010) and Joel Walstad (18 TD’s in 2014).
Through three games Downes has 650 yards and eight TD’s. If he keeps that pace up, he’d finish the 2017 season with 2,167 and 27.
Career-wise, he enters Friday’s home game with Charles Wright Academy having amassed 2,491 yards and 26 TD’s in 16 games (three as a sophomore, 10 as a junior and three this year).
Play the final seven games of the regular season at the same pace as the first three, and Downes would walk off the field with career totals of 4,008 and 45, respectively.
Now, of course, nothing is set in stone.
Downes, more than most, knows that, as his career almost stalled just as it was starting to take off.
He won the starting QB job as a sophomore, throwing for 139 yards and a touchdown against South Whidbey in the opener, only to get hurt the next game.
Other than one pass thrown in game three against Concrete, Downes was done for his sophomore year.
Fighting his way back (after another injury on the basketball court), he reclaimed the QB job on day one of his junior year and hasn’t ceded it since.
Last season Downes came into his own, tossing for 1,569 yards and 17 TD’s, just missing Walstad’s single-season record.
He broke 200 yards four times, including three straight games, with a high of 323 against Friday’s foe, CWA.
Now, he’s kicked off his final high school campaign with three strong games in a row, burning South Whidbey for 310 yards and three TD’s, picking apart La Conner for 146 and three and piercing Nooksack Valley for 194 and two.
Only time will tell what Downes final numbers will be.
If, as all Wolf fans hope, he stays healthy and on target, the next two months could be record-setting ones.
With four home games still on the schedule, don’t miss the chance to see Downes and his pack of speed demon receivers — Hunter Smith, Cameron Toomey-Stout and Sean Toomey-Stout — make a play to rip up the record books.
Those that were there back in the day still talk about Cross and Sherman.
Someday, when they tell tales about Downes, you want to be able to say you were one of the ones who saw him do it live.
Coupeville Sports 