— By Tony Wolfe
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Before all of the shotgun snaps, all of the touchdowns, all of the broken records and all of the lopsided scores, quarterback Connor Neal sat down with the rest of his offense to map out a plan of what it would take for Fairmont Senior to win its first state championship in program history.
It turns out, the best path for the Polar Bears to pull off an undefeated run to the state title just happened to include a lot of shotgun snaps, touchdowns, broken records and, well, you get the idea.
There was a revolving door of running backs, each one seeming to deliver more a punishing attack than the last. There was a deep core of receivers, stretching the field and making every important catch. There was an offensive line that imposed its will on opposing defenses weekend after weekend.
And at the center of it all was Neal, the second-year starting quarterback authoring the greatest season in Fairmont Senior history.
Neal completed 211-of-282 pass attempts for a Polar Bears single-season record 3,620 yards and 46 touchdowns, all while throwing just three interceptions.
It wasn’t the only admirable quarterbacking performance in the state — George Washington’s Grant Wells, Capital’s Kerry Martin Jr., Parkersburg’s Jake Johnson, Mingo Central’s Daylin Goad and Wheeling Central’s Curtis McGhee III each turned in special seasons for their respective schools as well.
Nobody, however, turned in a season like Neal’s, and that is why he was unanimously chosen by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association as this year’s recipient of the House Award as the state’s top quarterback. He will be honored at the 73rd Victory Awards Dinner at the Embassy Suites in Charleston on May 5, 2019.
“Sitting down with our offense at the beginning of the year, our main goal was to win a state championship,” Neal said. “Whatever we had to do to win, that’s what we’d do.
“(Breaking records) was never really a goal for me. People started talking about them later in the year, so they were in the back of my mind. But that was never the main goal.”
At first glance, Neal doesn’t fit the prototype of a prolific high school quarterback. He stands a modest six feet tall (“On a good day,” Neal is quick to add), and doesn’t come from a long family lineage of quarterbacks.
But from the moment Neal first started playing football at 6 years old, the allure of the quarterback position beckoned to him.
“It’s just being the first one to touch the ball, and being the one to make things happen,” Neal said. “It’s always been comfortable to me. Growing up, I couldn’t throw the football as far as I can now, but that came eventually. And getting control of the offense and making everybody come together, that’s something I’ve always been good at.”
Throughout childhood, Neal was coached by his father, the person he says has been more integral to his development as a quarterback than anyone else. His father never played the position, so instead, he would scour the internet doing research on the best practices to teach his son.
Neal put those techniques his father taught him to work, while also studying quarterbacks of similiar height — Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, to name a couple — and learning how they adapted to playing the position.
“Drew Brees always said you have to find holes between your linemen,” Neal said. “If you want to throw across the middle, you want to look between your center and guard. Then you don’t have to look over them. That’s been a thing I’ve been developing since I was little.”
Years later, all of those lessons seem to have paid off. Neal finished his Fairmont Senior passing career with a 70 percent completion percentage over 553 pass attempts, 6,449 yards, 79 touchdowns and just six interceptions. Neal, whose 6,449 yards and 79 touchdown passes are career program records, will also graduate as part of the winningest class in Fairmont Senior history.