HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: 2021 Permian Basin Utility Player of the Year

For Fort Stockton’s Dominic Aguilar, it all arrived down to an frame of mind adjustment.

And, mastering to share the load with his teammates.

Aguilar, the Panthers’ beginning quarterback for the earlier two seasons, admittedly was rough on himself and not essentially in a optimistic way when points weren’t going just to plan.

But element of getting a quarterback is understanding how to go through the predicaments all around you and Aguilar observed just how disruptive his habits was turning out to be.

“My angle was really bad,” he claimed. “I would get things out on myself and that would influence my teammates.

So, heading into the 2021 period, part of the growth that Aguilar required to see in his individual activity was starting to be a leader. In purchase to do that, adjustments were being in buy.

Mission achieved.

Now the linchpin for Coach Mike Peters and the Panthers, Aguilar elevated his sport for his senior time.

He accomplished 54 of 101 passes for 1,019 yards and 12 touchdowns, although dashing 153 instances for 1,636 yards and 21 scores all through the frequent time.

He included 5 two-position conversions and scored 136 points.

Defensively, he completed with 57 tackles, just one deal with for reduction, one interception and 4 passes defended.

He then led the Panthers to a application initial in the postseason.

For his initiatives, Aguilar has been named the Odessa American’s 2021 Utility Player of the Year.

“He’s been the bell cow,” Peters mentioned. “I actually considered, just his over-all maturity, his management because his sophomore 12 months, his observe behavior, offseason behaviors all bought much better.

“All those cliché things, he’s on par with all that.”

What all those behaviors have carried out, specially the past two seasons, are support elevate the Panthers’ method into a person of the greatest in Class 4A, specially in West Texas.

Fort Stockton had never sophisticated previous the bi-district round of the playoffs coming into Aguilar’s junior campaign (2020).

Aguilar and his teammates have been capable to get that monkey off their backs, albeit with an asterisk, when they received the District 2-4A Division I crown and then highly developed by forfeit through the bi-district round due to COVID-19 limits on their opponent.

This time, just after ending second in the district, the Panthers erased the queries for great.

Aguilar and company soundly defeated Clint Mountain See, 47-8, in the bi-district round for the program’s initial legitimate playoff victory.

“We like to feel that we would have experienced the exact outcome last calendar year, simply because we had a ton of the similar players,” Peters reported. “But it unquestionably felt great to be able to get the sport on the industry.

“Dom was in the seventh grade when we bought below, so it is in the initial class to go all the way by means of center university and significant university with us. When I obtained listed here, our participation was awful and we’ve greater that each individual kid that has viewed up is familiar with that the Fort Inventory Panthers have a likelihood to win every single recreation we perform.”

For Aguilar, it was just a issue of seeking to be improved than final year, in serving to the Panthers continuing laying building blocks to the foundation that Peters and his staff are developing inside the plan.

Aguilar also hopes to consider his on-the-subject skills to the next level in get to aid go after a degree to function in the radiology or kinesiology fields.

“I have an offer you from Sul Ross (Point out College in Alpine),” Aguilar stated. “And just one from a school in Chicago (Concordia).

“I feel like it went quite fantastic, experienced a great season. We did some fairly excellent matters and I’m pretty very pleased of what we did. I feel like we created an impression.”

>> Adhere to Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide

Dominic Aguilar, qb/db
Utility Player of the 12 months

Fort Stockton, 5-10, 185, sr.

>> Important Stats: Was 75-of-134 passing for 1,251 yards and 14 touchdowns, though speeding 175 periods for 1,756 yards and 22 touchdowns. Had 57 tackles, a person tackle for loss, one interception, one particular force fumble and four move breakups.

>> Fort Stockton mentor Mike Peters says: “When you are in conditions when it is tricky, on the industry, if he’s associated in the condition, there is going to be a opportunity. Off the subject, he’s the cornerstone, the basis of anything that we do.”