In his high school football debut Aug. 19, freshman quarterback
Brady Smigiel of
Newbury Park (Calif.) threw for 327 yards and four touchdowns – in the first half. Since then, he has continued to dazzle in leading the Panthers to an 8-1 record.
Entering Newbury Park's final game of the regular season tonight, Smigiel already has the state record for touchdown passes in hand with 36, according to Cal-Hi Sports. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound signal caller has thrown for 2,527 yards while guiding the program to its first winning season since 2016.
Smigiel threw 11 touchdown passes in the last two games alone, both league wins over Agoura and Oak Park.
Smigiel can fit the ball into the tightest of windows or heave the ball deep to favorite targets sophomore
Shane Rosenthal and senior
Charlie Simmons, who have combined to haul in 115 passes for 1,811 yards and 24 scores.
Newbury Park freshman Brady Smigiel has thrown for 2,527 yards and 36 touchdowns for the 8-1 Panthers. (Photo: Ron Wilson)
Behind an offensive line of
Carson Berry,
Preston Marchilik,
Joel Gonzalez,
Justin Zedlar,
Ryan Gillum and
Braden Johnson, Smigiel has the second most passing yards of any freshman in the nation according to statistics submitted to MaxPreps.
Like Southern California quarterback products C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young, Smigiel can also score with his feet and has five rushing touchdowns this year. Last week against Oak Park, he also caught a touchdown.
Smigiel has offers from Florida Atlantic, San Jose State and Arizona, where his father Joe — who is Newbury Park's head coach — started at right tackle in a 1994 Fiesta Bowl win over Warren Sapp and Miami.
Now father and son are making their way through the Canyon League, where the battles have been aplenty. The lone Newbury Park loss came in a 41-38 double-overtime thriller against Thousand Oaks. Smigiel threw for 418 yards in the loss. The Panthers wrap things up tonight against Camarillo.
