This Missouri High School QB Is Putting up Video Game-like Numbers
With a 5-yard TD pass to teammate Ronnie Bell, Park Hill High School quarterback Billy Maples became just the third player in high school football history to throw 8 touchdowns in one half of a game. His 9th touchdown pass of the game, an 8-yarder to WR Joseph Webb, set a Missouri state record, breaking the mark held by three players including former Kansas Jayhawks and Colorado Buffalos QB Jordan Webb.
Three games into his senior season the 6-foot-2, 217-pound pro-style quarterback was averaging 6 touchdown passes her game (18 TDs, 972 yards). If you factored in that he rarely played much into the 4th quarter of games he was averaging approximately 3 touchdown passes per quarter.
Park Hill offensive coordinator Josh Buford lauds his quarterback’s intelligence, saying, “Billy’s football IQ and understanding of what we do is so much that he becomes like a coach on the field.”
When asked about standout traits that Maples, a 3-year varsity starter for Park Hill, possesses, the coach mentions his accuracy and efficiency with the ball, evidenced by career numbers which include a nearly 70 percent completion percentage and (at the time of this writing) 68 touchdowns with only 12 interceptions. Buford also says that Maples’ arm-strength is special: He described a long-toss session done before each game where Maples stands at the 50-yard line and “effortlessly” throws the ball through the back of the endzone. Classmates describe his arm as “a cannon” (he’s said to have thrown a pass during a game that traveled 63 yards in the air).
A hard worker who honed his skills with former NFL quarterback Chris Greisen (Cardinals/Cowboys) at the Chris Greisen QB Academy from 3rd to 10th grade, Maples has shown that despite the pro-style label from recruiting services he has very solid athletic ability, evidenced by his 31-inch standing vertical jump at the US Army All-American Combine, one of the top marks of the event. Likewise, his 8-5 standing broad jump was also one of the best scores among quarterbacks at the 2017 Blue-Grey Combine where he also ran a time of 5.0 in the 40-Yard Dash.
Despite being ranked by some media services as the front-runner for state player of the year, Maples has not decided where he will play college football. However, he certainly isn’t a new name to those that have followed high school football within the Missouri state lines in recent years. He was one of the state’s top passers as a sophomore ahead of names like current Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson and has been invited to play in the 2017 Blue-Grey All-American Bowl that will take place at Cowboys AT&T Stadium. He has taken recruiting visits to schools such as Iowa State, Kansas, South Dakota, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State and Northwest Missouri State, and as an underclassman was receiving heavy interest from the University of Cincinnati before a coaching change at the school. Regardless of where he chooses to continue his football career his name will reside in football record books as one of the top high school passers to come out of the state of Missouri thanks to that 9 touchdown performance his senior year.
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This Missouri High School QB Is Putting up Video Game-like Numbers
With a 5-yard TD pass to teammate Ronnie Bell, Park Hill High School quarterback Billy Maples became just the third player in high school football history to throw 8 touchdowns in one half of a game. His 9th touchdown pass of the game, an 8-yarder to WR Joseph Webb, set a Missouri state record, breaking the mark held by three players including former Kansas Jayhawks and Colorado Buffalos QB Jordan Webb.
Three games into his senior season the 6-foot-2, 217-pound pro-style quarterback was averaging 6 touchdown passes her game (18 TDs, 972 yards). If you factored in that he rarely played much into the 4th quarter of games he was averaging approximately 3 touchdown passes per quarter.
Park Hill offensive coordinator Josh Buford lauds his quarterback’s intelligence, saying, “Billy’s football IQ and understanding of what we do is so much that he becomes like a coach on the field.”
When asked about standout traits that Maples, a 3-year varsity starter for Park Hill, possesses, the coach mentions his accuracy and efficiency with the ball, evidenced by career numbers which include a nearly 70 percent completion percentage and (at the time of this writing) 68 touchdowns with only 12 interceptions. Buford also says that Maples’ arm-strength is special: He described a long-toss session done before each game where Maples stands at the 50-yard line and “effortlessly” throws the ball through the back of the endzone. Classmates describe his arm as “a cannon” (he’s said to have thrown a pass during a game that traveled 63 yards in the air).
A hard worker who honed his skills with former NFL quarterback Chris Greisen (Cardinals/Cowboys) at the Chris Greisen QB Academy from 3rd to 10th grade, Maples has shown that despite the pro-style label from recruiting services he has very solid athletic ability, evidenced by his 31-inch standing vertical jump at the US Army All-American Combine, one of the top marks of the event. Likewise, his 8-5 standing broad jump was also one of the best scores among quarterbacks at the 2017 Blue-Grey Combine where he also ran a time of 5.0 in the 40-Yard Dash.
Despite being ranked by some media services as the front-runner for state player of the year, Maples has not decided where he will play college football. However, he certainly isn’t a new name to those that have followed high school football within the Missouri state lines in recent years. He was one of the state’s top passers as a sophomore ahead of names like current Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson and has been invited to play in the 2017 Blue-Grey All-American Bowl that will take place at Cowboys AT&T Stadium. He has taken recruiting visits to schools such as Iowa State, Kansas, South Dakota, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State and Northwest Missouri State, and as an underclassman was receiving heavy interest from the University of Cincinnati before a coaching change at the school. Regardless of where he chooses to continue his football career his name will reside in football record books as one of the top high school passers to come out of the state of Missouri thanks to that 9 touchdown performance his senior year.
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