Editor’s note: This is a quarterback series highlighting of some of the top returning signal callers across the Texas Panhandle leading up to the kickoff of the regular season.
According to academic classification, Perryton’s Cooper Schilling still has a full two years to go starting this fall as the quarterback for the Rangers.
Entering his junior season, Schilling already has almost two full seasons under his belt as Perryton’s guy behind center. Even that, though, just scratches the surface of how long Schilling has been playing quarterback.
Schilling said he became a quarterback all the way back in third grade, a time when most young athletes are deciding if football is really the game for them.
“I kind of just tried it out and that’s what I stuck with,” Schilling said. “I think it kind of fits my personality well. That’s every little elementary school kid’s dream to go out and represent your school and be the guy who leads the team.”
The rest of this story is only for subscribers.
As they say, Schilling is truly living the dream, and in that regard, he hasn’t awakened. He enters this season as one of the more accomplished and experienced quarterbacks in the Texas Panhandle, having thrown for 2,021 yards and 20 touchdowns last season as a sophomore.
A year ago, coach Josh Hernandez took over the Perryton program and inherited Schilling after one season as a starting quarterback. Hernandez didn’t look at Schilling’s class level as much as recognizing why he started as a freshman.
“I think any time you have a quarterback who starts as a freshman who’s still only a junior it’s really special, especially when that kid is your leader and one of your hardest workers,” Hernandez said. “There’s some good things that can happen from that.”
That was borne out last season by the play of the offense, which had little trouble moving the ball and returns the bulk of the skill players from last season. With Schilling as a known quantity at the key position, expectations are optimistic.
Schilling enjoys the responsibility which comes with his exalted position.
“The guys really respect me and i feel like they’ll do anything to protect me,” Schilling said. “They’ll play hard for me and that means a lot. Learning to trust your guys is something that comes with lots of reps in practice and games and you have to do that in a tight moment to make a play and come up big.”
That could mean making a play with his arm or his legs. Schilling has become a dual threat quarterback who can pick up yards rushing when a play falls apart.
The past two seasons, Schilling’s rushing yardage hasn’t necessarily been by design.
“I feel like a lot of the opportunities I get running is just kind of making something out of nothing and scrambling and turning up the field,” Schilling said.
More than Schilling’s arms or legs, Hernandez has been most impressed with what’s upstairs with Schilling.
“He’s a really, really smart kid in the classroom,” Hernandez said. “He’s really educated on the field as well. You can see that he processes defenses fairly quickly and he spends a lot of time with our offensive coordinator in understanding what our game plan is for the week and finding the weaknesses on their side of the ball. He spends a lot of time going over those things to make sure offensively we’re ready to roll.”
Schilling says that processing the game has been where his biggest growth has come at quarterback since taking over early in his freshman year. He said that high tempo practices have made actual games appear slower.
That changed a little bit last season when he had to learn some new terminology after Hernandez took over the program. Now that he’s had a year to absorb a new playbook, Schilling can hit the ground running his year.
“We finished the season 4-7 last year and we’d like to get that above .500,” said Schilling, who has thrown for over 3,900 yards with 42 touchdowns in his short high school career. “As far as individual stuff goes as long as we’re moving the ball down the field and scoring, I don’t care, but I’d like to get 1,000 yards rushing and 2,500 passing. If my numbers aren’t great and somebody else is coming up big, that’s fine with me.”