Zach Gentry is touted as one of the best players ever in New Mexico, and has a bright future ahead of him at Texas.
Photo by Ken Rutt
Before the current high school football season began, Kevin Barker, the head coach at
Sandia (Albuquerque), was quoted as saying that
Zach Gentry, senior quarterback at rival
Eldorado (Albuquerque), could beat any other team in the state - by himself.
MaxPreps asked Barker this week if he still stands behind his comment.
Gentry has also had success in basketball.
File photo by Lou Novick
"Oh, yeah, but they are not just a one-man team," he affirmed. "He runs so well and throws the ball on point. He's the best athlete to come out of our state in a while. I think he'll start as a redshirt freshman at the University of Texas. He might even have a chance next season. His second half against Mayfield (Las Cruces) was phenomenal."
Gentry, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound bundle of talent, saw the quote.
"That was pretty funny," he said. "It was really thoughtful and nice of him to say, but I've got a lot of teammates out there."
Ranked the No. 1 player in the state by 247Sports, Gentry had a pair of incredible back-to-back games recently.
In a matchup of unbeaten teams, he sparked a 50-49 double-overtime victory against powerful Mayfield. Overcoming a bad first half in which the Eagles trailed by 18 points, Gentry rushed for 255 yards and passed for 189 yards after the intermission. He scored five touchdowns.
The veteran signal caller conceded, "I had a bad first half. Mayfield is a really good team. I came out of the locker room and felt like I had to carry a lot on my shoulders. I wouldn't say I was terribly surprised (by his powerful finish) in my personal production. The first few games I had only played about one half. Now I expect that out of myself every night."
One week later he passed for a short touchdown, then ran for the winning 2-point conversion with just 32.8 seconds left to nip Cleveland (Rio Rancho) 57-56. On that occasion he passed for 327 yards and two touchdowns while running for 120 yards and three touchdowns.
While leading the Eagles to a 6-0 record, Gentry has completed 91 of 159 passes for 1,541 yards and 15 touchdowns with just three interceptions. He also has rushed 78 times for 667 yards - a sparkling 8.5 average per carry - and 13 touchdowns.
Eagles coach Charlie Dotson believes Gentry has great potential.
He pointed out, "He's still growing into his body. The accuracy of his passes probably is what he is known best for. He's making more people miss than ever before. He just has long strides and goes by people. His arm is good and he has the ability to read defenses. He's been picking holes really well this year."
Gentry comes from football bloodlines.
File photo by Lou Novick
Gentry comes from strong football stock. His father (Tom) and uncles played football and his grandfather, Bill Gentry, is one of New Mexico's most famous coaches. Now 88 years old, Gentry is the No. 3 winner in state history with a 305-102-5 record, won three state titles during a 38-year career at Albuquerque Highland and Eldorado and is a member of the National High School Hall of Fame.
Always a little bigger than kids his age, Gentry began playing football in second grade and made the varsity as a freshman. He was stationed at wide receiver and backup quarterback, because his brother, Sam, was the starting quarterback.
The younger Gentry happily recalled, "In his final high school game, we hooked up nine times, so it was a lot of fun."
Playing basketball as a freshman, Gentry broke a bone in his knee and had surgery. Ironically, that is the only sports injury he has suffered. That same year, however, while camping on vacation in Colorado, his appendix ruptured and he had to make two trips to the hospital before doctors found out it was not altitude sickness.
Despite his size, Gentry has great speed - 4.5 seconds for 40 yards.
He admits, "I'm not sure where I got that speed from. There are a lot of plays on my highlight film where I break tackles and make people miss. My cutting ability is more advanced than people think."
The Eldorado star confidently throws to five or six wide receivers and he praises his line this way: "Our line is undersized, but they have been blocking their butts off, doing a great job."
Though he is the leading rusher, he has plenty of praise for junior running back
Noah Sweitzer, who had a big game last week. Unfortunately, Dotson told MaxPreps on Tuesday that Sweitzer suffered either a kidney or liver injury in that game and has been declared out for the season.
Gentry, who carries a 3.8 GPA, plans to play only football at Texas, which he chose over Alabama, Oklahoma State and Tennessee. He never pursued a basketball scholarship, he said, even though he is a very productive scorer and rebounder and made the all-state team as a junior.
As expected, his ultimate dream is the NFL.
However, his immediate goal is to beat arch rival La Cueva (Albuquerque) on Thursday night.
With the sidelining of Sweitzer, the Eagles will be counting on him more now than ever.
