Analy QB keeps scorekeepers busy
Imagine throwing for 424 yards and four touchdowns in one half and your coach barely notices.
That’s how good Jack Newman is.
The Analy-Sebastopol senior quarterback slowed down in the second half and, according to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, finished 35-for-50 for 507 yards in a 49-30 win over visiting Acalanes-Lafayette on Friday night. It was 2 yards better than his old school record set in a 38-22 North Coast Section playoff win over El Cerrito last season.
The 6-foot, 180-pounder has completed 100 of 141 passes for 1,625 yards and 16 touchdowns (no interceptions) for the Tigers (3-1) after completing 293 of 450 for 4,051 yards and 53 scores, with seven picks, as a junior.
“I had no idea he had those kind of numbers,” said Analy coach Daniel Bourdon ,a former quarterback at Analy, Santa Rosa Junior College and West Virginia Tech. “With Jack, we’ve just sort of grown to expect great things. I’m not a big numbers guy, but yes, that’s very impressive.”
Everything is, according to his coach.
The three-sport athlete — he plays basketball and baseball — is also a good student (better than 3.5 grade-point average), and a team leader. “Awesome kid,” Bourdon said. “Extremely coachable. Never worried about discipline problems. He’s a football junkie ... a sports junkie, really.”
The youngest of three athletic kids, Jack’s older brother, Darin Newman, threw for 2,778 yards and 37 touchdowns his senior year in 2012 when Analy had a breakthrough season. The Tigers went 12-1 after the four previous seasons combined under Bourdon produced a 23-22 record.
Since 2012, utilizing Bourdon’s spread attack, Analy is 50-7 and has averaged 46 points per game. Former Santa Rosa Junior College coach Keith Simons — Bourdon’s old coach — has helped perfect the offense and Jack Newman is about the perfect quarterback.
He led the state last year in touchdown passes, was second in completions and fourth in yards.
“Great decision-maker, quick release and extremely accurate,” Bourdon said.
Despite the numbers and wins — he’s 16-2 as a starter — Newman has no Division I offers. His size isn’t prototypical for that level, nor is his arm strength. “But he’s just a winner and no one runs an offense any better,” Bourdon said. “He’ll play in college for sure.”
It helps to have good receivers, too. Eric Bendyk had eight catches for 188 yards Friday, Spencer Vogel added 10 for 169 and Ross Simmons six for 88. Simmons and Bendyk had two touchdowns catches each and Vogel added one.
“Jack really spreads the ball around beautifully,” Bourdon said. More quarterback play: Newman wasn’t the only impressive quarterback in Friday’s game. Acalanes’ 6-2, 185-pound junior Robby Rowell was 37-for-63 for 415 yards and three touchdowns. There were 119 passes thrown in the game.
For the season, Rowell is 101-for-174 for 1,318 yards and 12 touchdowns. “He was very impressive,” Bourdon said of Rowell. “He’s going to make a college coach very happy.” More numbers: While BVAL schools Pittsburg, with the state’s second-leading rusher, Montaz Thompson, and Antioch, with the nation’s top recruit, Najee Harris, have grabbed attention, 10th-ranked Freedom-Oakley (4-0) continues to impress. Seeing double: Top-ranked De La Salle-Concord’s 23-21 loss to East (Salt Lake City) on Friday was by the same score when it absorbed its last home loss to Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) in 2008. Both came on last-second field goals. The Spartans host Harris and Antioch at 8 p.m. Friday in a game televised by ESPNU.