A decision to make

To catch, or not to catch, that is Jon Dresback’s question.

The former Freeman High and Whitworth quarterback no longer will drop back and pass for the Pirates. Whether he will now catch or defend passes he has yet to decide.

“Last year they had me playing backup quarterback,” Dresback said. “But by the end of the season they had me playing a little bit at running back, a little bit at wide receiver and a little bit at defensive back.

“I got a lot of playing time as a freshman compared to freshmen that I’ve talked to at other schools. I got to be on some special teams, and I got to run quite a few plays at quarterback when we were way up on Lewis and Clark and such.

“I got a couple carries at running back. I did learn a lot.”

At 6 feet and 196 pounds, Dresback was not a prototypical quarterback – in high school or at the NCAA Division III level.

“Coming out of high school I was a bigger quarterback than most at the Class 1A level,” Dresback said. “Here I’m smaller to average at Division III.”

Dresback is an all-around athlete, lettering in four sports during his high school career.

A standout wide receiver for Freeman as a junior, Dresback moved to quarterback as a senior. He was a standout basketball player throughout his career and was an All-Northeast A League baseball player before switching to track and field as a senior and qualifying for the state track meet.

As a quarterback, Dresback’s speed and ability to tuck the ball under his arm and take off down the field took the Scotties to the playoffs.

“I was pretty much a glorified running back,” he said. “I threw the ball, but I was much more comfortable taking off and running. Even as a wide receiver, I worked on getting the ball and running to the green (open field).”

Football coaches work from one basic premise: Get your best athletes on the field.

Whitworth has junior Joel Clark, a Mt. Spokane High grad, set to start his third season at quarterback, and a seasoned backup in senior Zach Henningsen.

Clark led an offense that averaged more than 40 points per game, the highest per-game scoring average in school history, leading the Pirates to a 7-2 record that just missed making the NCAA playoffs in the old 28-team playoff format that expands to 32 teams this year.

To get Dresback on the field necessitates shifting positions.

“I haven’t made a decision on what position I want to play,” Dresback said. “And I won’t for a while.

“The first couple weeks of the season we end up doing a lot of drills where I don’t really have to specialize. A lot of the drills are the same for both receivers and defensive backs.”

Dresback ruled out a shift to running back.

“I was never a power runner or much of a juker – I’m not going to beat you with my strength or with some great move,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t really want to move to running back.

“They really don’t try to force any of us to play a position we don’t want to play. They give us a pretty good option there.

“But going into this next season we’ve kind of narrowed it down to wide receiver or defensive back.”

Whitworth loves to use screen passes to create open spaces for running backs and receivers to attack defenses – a major reason why Clark completed 60 percent of his passes last year.

If Dresback chooses to play offense, he likely would see most of his playing time playing a slot receiver position, taking his share of those screen passes.

“We like to run a lot of screens, which is what we did my junior year at Freeman when I played wide receiver there,” he said “I feel really comfortable doing that here.”

At the same time, Dresback can see himself playing defense for the Pirates.

“I was more of a natural defensive back,” he said. “That came more naturally to me.

“I would much rather deliver a blow than receive one.”

Dresback will let the team’s need dictate where he plays.

“It just kind of depends on the depth chart right now,” he said. “I just want to see where I’m needed the most and where I can see the most time on the field.”

Settling on a position will determine how hungrily Dresback attacks the Whitworth training table, the sophomore said.

“If I end up playing receiver, I’ll try to drop a couple pounds to see if I can gain a little more speed,” he laughed. “If I play defensive back, I’ll probably stay the same so I can deliver a bigger hit.”