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“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

— Thomas Gray

Someone asked me recently what would be my ideal sports job…given that I’m too slow, undersized, thick legged, and unathletic…what job would I like best in sports?

The answer was easy; third string quarterback in the NFL. You get to wear the uniform, a cap, hold a clipboard, and don’t have to wake up the next morning feeling like someone beat the snot out of you with a baseball bat.

Do that for five years, earn a pension, and get on with the rest of your life as an expert analyst of an awesome game. Sweet.

Always had a thing for the back up quarterback. They have the clean uniform, a pretty good college resume, polished with a highlight or two, and are almost always popular.

The college back up quarterback, that’s something else. With few exceptions the college back up usually finds a career in land development, brokering stock, or heading a claims division for Allstate.

They have a moment, and then its over. As a USC fan names like Shane Foley, Kevin McLean, Scott Tinsley come to mind and then fade into the quiet past. Tinsley played a memorable game against UCLA in 1982 and then blended into the fog of years.

Of course UCLA had a transient quarterback named John Barnes play a great game against USC in 1992 and he’s still waiting for that movie to be made.

So often we think of the moment, but what is universally overlooked is all the moments it took to get to that one moment on the stage.

Justin McPherson last Saturday night became the third quarterback to start a game for Azusa Pacific this season. His numbers were pedestrian at best; 6 of 12 for 37 yards over four quarters and an eventual 28-2 victory over Humboldt State.

The first APU victory over Humboldt since 2007.

It might not have been a Broadway stage, but it was a stage…And I felt myself as the game moved on, even as Terrell Watson and Tyler Thornton were shining like stars, drawn to the other guy on the field. The back up quarterback who didn’t only start the game, but finished the game. Finished it with a win. A big win.

I first saw McPherson throwing the ball during spring practice of 2012. At that point he appeared to be the Cougars lead guy. Tyler Tuiasosopo looked like the back up. Fully expecting McPherson to battle newly arriving Nick Owens in the fall, I checked up on McPherson and found out his high school team went 0-10 his senior season and knew I had something.

This was going to be a good story, but it never happened.

When the 2012 season started Owens was the starter, Tuiasosopo was the first one off the bench, and McPherson was banged up and buried.

Events transpired and McPherson got to start the fourth game of the season at Central Washington. The great story was back on, but he only went 2 of 4 for 31 yards and got picked off and injured in the second quarter. His season was done.

Owens soon returned as the starter and the team went on a run winning its last four games.

So the pending story might not be a great story, but a good one about a second string quarterback battling injury, odds, and a ferocious fate.

When the 2013 season started the quarterback wasn’t Owens, but the newly arrived Dasmen Stewart. Owens was the back up, and McPherson was again buried…Would he even see the field as a senior?

So what comes about? Stewart gets banged up against Grand Valley. Owens leads the team to a victory at Dixie State, but he gets banged up. Game three of the season arrives, with perennial power Humboldt State, and McPherson is named the starter.

Sitting in the press box early in the first quarter I saw McPherson scramble and I thought: Get down!

Instead he got tackled, got up, and managed his team to the win.

This won’t lower the price of gas or lettuce. It won’t make debates go away in Washington D.C., and it might not even guarantee he throws another pass the rest of the season.

But what a 6 for 12, 37 yard performance against Humboldt State did was offer testimony to a competitive heart that doesn’t stop beating and a refusal to listen to whispering voices saying it’s time to move on.

I’ve never spoken to Justin McPherson, but I have to believe there were moments during pre-dawn workouts when it would have been easier for him to do something else.

When he read about a new recruit coming in, that it would have been easier to do something else.

When he hurt this or that, that it would have been easier to do something else.

When the pressure of his academic pursuits pressed down, that it would have been easier to do something else.

That’s the story, that when no one was watching, when most might have written him off, McPherson kept grinding on and reached the stage.

That’s the story behind the guy with the clean uniform, holding the clipboard, and signaling in plays.

That’s why I will always have a thing for the back up quarterback…May they all throw a thousand passes.

The Dude abides…

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Proverbs: 1: 7

Contact Joe at joe@midvalleysports.com

Follow him on twitter at @joet13b