Springs Valley Community High School

In the fall of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and Mavrick Land was beginning his freshman year. Sports were starting to return — though they wouldn’t return to normal for quite some time — and Land was one of the reserves on the Springs Valley football team. Then, just days before the Blackhawks’ opener against Eastern Greene, he wasn’t. Suddenly, he was the Blackhawks’ starting quarterback. “We were in practice on Monday and everybody was there and then on Tuesday they weren’t. Coach (Mark Hammond) came and told me during school that they were all out,” Land said. “It was nerve-wracking because I didn’t really know any of the plays. I mean I did, I knew some of them, I just didn’t really know too much.” In his first high-school football game, Land got his first start and though his stats didn’t end up looking particularly good — he completed three of 12 passes for 18 yards and threw an interception — he did what he needed to do in that situation: give the ‘Hawks a chance to win the game. Most of his passing attempts came in the game’s closing moments as Springs Valley desperately tried to close a 14-7 deficit and the Blackhawks were in the game all the way. It just didn’t turn out in their favor as they lost 16-7. “We had a lot of people step up, but for a freshman in his first game, not planning on playing a whole lot, he was very calm, cool, and collected in the huddle and that’s him,” Hammond said. “We didn’t have a lot of bobbled snaps, a lot of turnovers. I continuously remember how smoothly that game went and a lot of credit goes to him.” Now Land is a junior and this week he’ll make another start. For the second time, he’ll face Eastern Greene. It’ll be just his fifth time taking snaps at quarterback in a varsity game. Despite that, he’s not particularly nervous about it. His confidence has grown in the two years since his first trip to Eastern Greene and he knows that he’s ready to lead the Blackhawk offense. “I’m not really as nervous this time. Now with Coach (Jason) Lowe, I know the playbook,” Land said. “We’ve really talked about all of that stuff, how we want to run everything, and made sure that everything’s good.” The Blackhawks as a whole are a little less uneasy than they were the last time they visited the Thunderbirds. They’re all set to start their second season under Lowe and hope to do so with a bang. If they do, it would be their third win over Eastern Greene in the last four years. “It’s a much better feeling,” Lowe said. “Not that we weren’t confident in Mav as a freshman, but we’ve had a great summer, the scrimmage went well and everybody’s bought in, locked in and playing together, so it’s a much better feeling than the last time we went up there.”