When I first saw Bradshaw Mountain quarterback Gunner Bundrick, he made an impression. In pregame, it wasn’t hard to miss the 6-foot-4, 210-pound frame and the blond hair poking out from the back of his helmet. At first glance, and I’m sure he has heard this before, but it was hard not to think of Sunshine from “Remember the Titans.”
Walking away from that 70-49 shootout, I was thinking of a character from another movie: Mike Winchell from “Friday Night Lights.” You remember him. He’s the proven leader, who in the state championship game, Winchell gets the hell beat out of him. Time and time again, you think he can’t take the field again after being on the receiving end of punch after punch. Save the bloodied mouth, Bundrick went through exactly that in the season opener against Cactus on Friday. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Bundrick was dragging himself up and down the sideline while the defense was on the field. When it was the offense’s turn, he found something to get him back on the field to continue to make plays.
“It’s football. At the end of the day, it’s a contact sport. You just have to get used to it,” Bundrick said.
Bundrick accounted for all seven of the Bear’s touchdowns, three of which went to his top receiver, Ryan Shazer. The Bradshaw Mountain signal-caller also showed what he can do when he tucks and runs. Whether he was avoiding the Cactus pass rush or taking a play by design, he ran all over the field.
“He fought for his life. We have three or four sophomores up front blocking for him, and he made plays with his feet, with his wheels and his arm as well,” Bradshaw Mountain head football coach David Moran said.
Moran, a former quarterback at Bradshaw Mountain, Oregon State and Northern Arizona, has helped develop Bundrick into the playmaker he is today. The current quarterback knows what his coach’s overall goal is for the Bears.
“(Moran) is bringing back the tradition, a good program. That’s it. He’s trying to bring back a good program to Bradshaw Mountain,” Bundrick said.
The tradition is of high quarterback play, and the Bears are well on their way.
