Mission: Impossible?

Player of the Year Warwick contemplates a 2017 to rival the greats

Alcoa’s Jack Warwick, the 2016 Barley’s/Blount Press Row Player of the Year, produced numbers last season that were truly monster. This year, he hopes to better them. Photo by Cindy Nowlin

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

Corey Robinson of Lone Oak High School in Paducah, Ky., threw for a national record 91 touchdowns during the 2007 season.

In 520 pass attempts that year, the prolific Mr. Robinson was intercepted four times.

OK, that’s nice.

We didn’t know it was possible to collect 174 tackles in a season until Warwick did it during Alcoa’s title run last fall.

Or how about John Giannantonio, or Jim Linnstaeder, or Tennessee’s own Shelbyville Bedford Training Academy, which holds MaxPreps’ most untouchable high school football record of all time?

The Netcong, N.J., Giannantonio rushed for 594.5 yards per game during the 1950 season. He had 754 yards in one game! Linnstaeder, of Brenham, Texas, intercepted a national record 35 passes in 1956. Most teams don’t get that many in a season.

From 1942 to 1949, the Bedford Training Academy Tigers shut out a record 52 consecutive opponents.

All of which brings us to Alcoa linebacker Jack Warwick, the 2016 Barley’s/Blount Press Row Player of the Year.