Jalin Pitchford: The Rise of a Three Star Quarterback

When the 2020 Downriver League football season started on September 18th, it featured a Wyandotte Bears football team that was led by three star Quarterback Jalin Pitchford who had 14 offers at the start of the season, and told us he had hoped to make a decision in the next month. Pitchford was entering his third and final season as the starter for the Bears; however, that was in jeopardy early on as the 2020 season was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of two-a-days. 

After a junior season that saw Pitchford tally 1,282 total yards and 18 touchdowns, while leading the Bears to a 7-3 record, with one of those losses coming in the playoffs, he was a preseason favorite for our Bear Sports Network MVP voting and he didn’t disappoint. Pitchford led the Bears to a 6-2 record while firmly solidifying his place as the MVP totalling 1,158 yards and 15 offensive touchdowns, while on the defensive side he added another three touchdowns. Pitchfod also played in two less games due to Wyandotte High school having issues with Covid-19. 

However, Pitchford’s journey to being a three star Quarterback and MVP takes us back to the start of his varsity career. Pitchford was brought up to the varsity team as a freshman for the playoffs. That according to Pitchford was a big help, and allowed him to become the leader and player he is today. As a freshman on varsity, Pitchford followed Richie Miller who was the starter at the time, and He said “Miller helped a lot. I was able to just sit by him and watch to see what he did.” Pitchford went on to say, “I was his shadow; he probably got annoyed with me at times, but I knew that I wanted to take over my sophomore year.” 

Winning the Starting Job

Going into his sophomore year, Pitchford had to compete against two seniors to be starting quarterback. That competition went down to the wire with Pitchford saying their coach pulled all three of them into the office and told them that it’s still up for grabs, but we are most likely going to go with the younger guy. That statement from his coach gave him the hunger to want to beat out two seniors. However, what Pitchford said helped him going into that was going to camps, and working out every day and that work ethic he had then is the same as today. Pitchford said, “That work ethic I had as a sophomore hasn’t gone away. I’m still trying to win the job each day.”  

Pitchford recalled his first game as a varsity quarterback. “We faced the Taylor Griffins, and I came out and scored a touchdown,” he said. Pitchford even remembers how it happened. “I ran the ball a few times, and then I threw a touchdown in the corner to Hayden Loya, and after that I just kept rolling.” Pitchford went on to have four touchdowns in his first career start. 

In his Junior year, Pitchford struggled a bit, but he said, “I was able to slow the game down, and make plays, as compared to my Sophomore year where I was just going through the motions.” Pitchford later said he needed to get down the plays and polish his game. 

Over each of his three years, Pitchford and the Wyandotte Bears had talented weapons on the offensive side of the ball. Pitchford said he had a talented team his Sophomore year with players like wide receivers Chance Persondek who went on to play at Albion, Hayden Loya who went on to play at Wayne State, Keshawn Stanley and running back Christan Cooper who were both highly recruited. Pitchford said each of those players made him into the player he is today because he knew if he threw the ball, they’d be there. He went on to say “Coach preached get the athletes in space,” and that’s just what Pitchford was able to do. As a sophomore he leaned heavily on Chance, because “you got him the ball outside and he was gone,” according to Pitchford. 

As a junior, Pitchford said having Keshawn, Cooper, and Hayden all back helped then adding in players like Donavan Canterbery and Richard Clark added another level to the team, since they were playmakers. This season came with a challenge as Canterbery got injured early in their week one victory over Woodhaven, but they had other guys step up to help fill the void that was left from Canterbery. 

Pitchford is a smart kid and player holding a 4.03 GPA. “In a way it helps, because I can grasp the termanology easier,” Pitchford said. “You could tell a guy who isn’t as book smart a play with thirty different words, and they will be able line up in the right spot, go to the right area and be fine.”  

A Senior Year to Remember

As the three star Quarterback it took many around the league by surprise when they saw Jalin Pitchford line up at safety during the teams first game this season, however that was his idea. On going to safety Pitchford said It was to help the team saying, “I could have been selfish and told coach I’m not playing defense,” but that’s not the type of player Pitchford is. Pitchford did have to do some convincing, and he did that in a team scrimmage by bringing in three interceptions. After that he said he told the coach, “ Look I have three interceptions I have to play defense.” 

The Michigan High School Athletic Association cancelled football on August 14. Pitchford said when he heard the news he was on the way to practice. It was the strength and conditioning coach who told the team that they needed to turn in their equipment. Pitchford went on to say, “There was disappointment on everyone’s face.” Half the football program stayed behind and ran routes. Pitchford said, “We knew we weren’t done.” Then as it got closer and there were rumors that a season could be played he said the whole team started to get hope for a season to be played and the player who really kicked it all into gear was transfer Deandre Bell. 

After the season was reinstated on September 3 the Wyandotte team started hot winning their first three games, but then Covid hit the team after a 20-0 victory over Taylor on October 2 they got shut down for two weeks. Pitchford said the attention quickly turned to their matchup with Carlson, because he knew that the season wasn’t over. Pitchford said that the guys who had the video game Call of Duty used that to bond and stay in touch over the two weeks saying “we’d have zoom calls for school, and then after that since our teachers didn’t give us much homework, we would get on the game and have twelve people in the lobby talking at a time,” but after playing the game they would send each other film on what they needed to do so they could prepare for there matchup with carlson. 

After two weeks off from football, jumping back in is tough and it showed in the first half in their rivalry game against Calrson. After Pitchford won the game at Carlson the year prior it looked like they were out of it in the first half, but something flipped in the locker room on a homecoming night that looked different. Pitchford who had won homecoming king came out and led his team to one of the best comebacks of the season as they won it 30-29 in overtime. Pitchford finished with 230 all purpose yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion to win the game. 

MVP Win and a Family Man

With that game coming at the end of the regular season this year the voting for MVP opened up and it was a tight race between two rival schools’ star players in Jalin Pitchford and Tony Greear of Carlson. Pitchford just edged out Greear in the final vote. One thing that kept Pitchford calm during the vote when he was being called cocky by Greear and the Carlson faithful was his family. Pitchford said, family is everything saying “Family comes first right after God,” Pitchford continued by saying if you don’t have family then what do you have? Pitchford said that his mom and dad instilled the family aspect in him from an early age. Pitchford said  “They made sure I knew family is important.” He finished by saying his family is his biggest supporters and it makes life easier knowing they are in his corner.