Most serious athletes have an inherent desire to improve. A common response 
by players asked to reveal their goals for an upcoming season: “keep getting better every day,” or some version of it, is a staple in the repertoire of most every athlete schooled in a coach-speak culture.
Sometimes, an athlete might be giving simple lip service because it sounds good. But then, the improvement is never actually seen and the “getting better” fails to yield a better product.
And at other times, an athlete delivers on his pledge and transforms for the better.
Last year, the quarterback at Jenkins High School was the latter. Patrick Blake is the transformation poster child after his tangible improvement from one season (2018, sophomore) to the next (2019, junior) is the reason for his inclusion in the 2020 PSR QB Preview Series.
“I can't put it on one thing I did or one thing we changed," Blake told PSR of the turnaround season. "I think it was as easy as me feeling like I was a better player and then going out there and proving it was everything for me.
"A good year but not perfect by any means."
Now a rising senior tasked with leading a young HVJ team graduating 31 seniors from last year, Blake spoke candidly with the Prep Sports Report in late June about all things Jenkins football.
He opened up about his remarkably significant development when it came to the finer details of playing quarterback, his newly acquired role as a senior mentor to many of the young Warriors joining the HVJ ranks for 2020 and the status of his still-young relationship with a new head coach.
“I don’t really want to change anything from (2019 to 2020), but I want to definitely make all the good things that are (a part of) playing quarterback better,” Blake said of his off-season goals. “I really just focus in on myself and I try not to focus on anything else except me getting better, and Jenkins being better.”
His sophomore campaign was rough by any measure, but Jenkins still posted a respectable 9-4 (6-2 Region 3-3A) record while Blake’s progression slowly but surely continued. In 10 games, Blake was 39-83 (47%) passing for 371 yards. He was intercepted six times and had just three touchdown passes.
In his team’s Week 1 loss (25-8) to New Hampstead on Aug. 17, 2018 -- his first high school start -- Blake was 10 of 20 for 52 yards with three interceptions and no touchdowns.
The three interceptions would be a notable stat 12 months later. Why? Because in 2019, Blake threw for 22 touchdowns on 121-195 (62%) passing and despite attempting 122 more passes than the year prior, he was only picked off … you guessed it … three times.
“Last year especially during the first three rounds of the playoffs and a few games before that, I was playing at my best in all aspects of my game,” he said. “I was using my feet when I had to and then I was throwing my receivers open when I needed to at times.
“I’ll say that (stretch of games) was the best I’ve ever played actually.”
After leading Jenkins through a dominant 2019 regular season capped by a Region 3-3A championship, Blake provided one of the best games of his prep
career. In a 42-9 GHSA state playoff second round rout of visiting Dawson County, he was 15 for 26 passing with 242 yards and four touchdowns.
The Warriors finished their season with a record of 12-2, losing in the Class 3A semifinals at Crisp County, 14-6. It was the deepest Warrior playoff run since 1966.
“Right now, I don’t want to have any kind of expectations for this year’s team to be like last year,” said Blake when asked for his 2020 keys to the season.
“We will become our own kind of team no matter what, so we can’t try and do that. It’s only about getting better. It’s always only about that here.”
Since the season’s end, Blake has received college scholarship offers from several schools including Southern University, Jackson State and Tennessee-Martin. He has yet to decide on any decision timeline for committing to a school after high school.
With Cameron now departed to be the head coach at Vidalia HS, new HVJ coach Gene Clemons has a determined Blake at QB and a veteran who knows he has just one more year to try and win the state semifinal and, maybe then, improve again with a win in just one more game.
Follow Blake on Twitter @PatBlake1002
Note - Photos by RDP Productions
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