Wilson’s Tommy Hunsicker is ‘everything you want in a quarterback, in a player’
Tommy Hunsicker has played quarterback since he was old enough to peer over his center, though at times this season he looked like a natural running back.
The Wilson senior instinctively found running lanes on the read-option and was a danger in the open field. He led the Bulldogs in rushing yards and rushing TDs.
It was even more fun to watch him run around when his pass protection broke down. He looked like a young Roger Staubach, zig-zagging around the pocket as he dodged defensive linemen.
He made the play of the year early in the season against Central Dauphin when he ducked out of a couple sacks, then rolled left and fired a deep ball to Jackson Wagner, who was 20 yards beyond any defenders and went for a touchdown.
“Tommy’s Tommy,” said his head coach Doug Dahms after that Week 2 game against Central Dauphin. “He’s running well, he’s scrambling, he’s smart. We’re gonna ride him for quite a while.”
Hunsicker made highlight-reel plays all season, helping the Bulldogs gain a spot in the district playoffs and earning the third annual MikeDragoSports.com Offensive Player of the Year award, presented by Wyomissing Physical Therapy.
The two guys who won the award prior to him made a play here and there, too: Gov. Mifflin’s Nick Singleton and Cam Jones, who shared backfield space with Hunsicker last season.
Finalists for this year’s award were: Jayden Zandier, Exeter; Czion Brickle, Fleetwood; Tyler Shuey, Hamburg; and Drew Engle, Twin Valley.
Hunsicker played a little running back and receiver growing up but said he always wanted to play quarterback.
“You’re involved in every play,” he said. “You have a leadership role. I like running the ball too.”
Hunsicker rushed for 728 yards and eight touchdowns. He wasn’t bad throwing the ball, either.
Over 11 games he passed for 2,180 yards, just 56 shy of the program record set by Zach Zweizig in 2009, when Wilson played 13 games. He completed 64.3 percent of his passes and was intercepted just four times in 241 attempts. His passing efficiency of 170.3 was third-best in program history.
His 156 completions tied for second-most at Wilson with Chad Henne, who worked closely with him this season as a Bulldogs quarterbacks coach.
Much as Henne liked the way Hunsicker picked up valuable yards as a runner his emphasis was always to get him to throw first, then run out of the pocket as a last resort. In his second season as Bulldogs quarterback progressed Hunsicker got better and better at that.
“(Offensive coordinator) Jeremy (Palm) and I try to preach: ‘Keep the play alive, let the guys work for you, and if it’s not there pull it down and run, but we can create some explosive plays (in the passing game),” Henne said. “Previous (to this season), it was: ‘If it’s not there (immediately), put my head down and run.’ ”
Henne emphasized to check down his list of primary receivers, then find a running back as a last passing option.
“You don’t want to take that (running element) out (of his game),” said Henne, who played 15 seasons in the NFL. “You don’t want to handicap him in that aspect. (We wanted him to have the mindset) if it’s there, throw the ball to your playmaker, if not do what you do. A bunch of times he scrambled and found Edison Case or Madyx Gruber deep for a touchdown.”
Hunsicker threw 24 touchdown passes, second-most in program history behind Jake Templin’s 30 in 2014. Twice this season he threw four TDs in a game, against Hempfield and Reading High.
He passed for a career-high 291 yards and ran for three scores in a Week 3 win over Cheltenham; he passed for 290 yards in a Week 7 win at Hempfield.
Not bad for a guy who only spends a few months a year working primarily on football. He’s a talented three-sport athlete who plays basketball and baseball. While other top quarterbacks spend their spring and summer going to camps and training with quarterback coaches such as Henne, Hunsicker spends his offseason time hitting line drives and spearing hot liners at third base.
He loves whatever sport’s in season and wasn’t about to give any of them up. He’s even thinking about playing two sports in college, though his primary focus right now is finding a spot to play quarterback.
Hunsicker was named Berks Player of the Year by the Berks County Football Coaches Association and a second-team all-league quarterback in Section 1 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, behind Manheim Township’s Hayden Johnson.
Henne believes Hunsicker can play at the Division II level in college; he doesn’t believe being only 6-1 will be a detriment.
“That’s fine as long as you have the intangibles,” Henne said. “He’s everything you want. As a player, as a quarterback, he’ll do anything you ask him to do. In practice he set the example with how hard he worked, how well he knew the plays, how he got the guys going.”
Dahms called him the “heart and soul of our offense, and our team.”
“Any sprint we did, any competition, Tommy was always in the front,” Henne said. “He cares about it, he wants to win, he wants to show the guys he’s the guy they can look to whether times are good or times are bad.”
Selected this season as Wyomissing Physical Therapy Offensive Player of the Week:
- Week 1: Tyler Shuey, Hamburg
- Week 2: Tommy Hunsicker, Wilson
- Week 3: Dominic Giuffre, Schuylkill Valley
- Week 4: Jayden Zandier, Exeter
- Week 5: Drew Forrey, Wyomissing
- Week 6: Evan Johnson, Twin Valley
- Week 7: Drew Engle, Twin Valley
- Week 8: Jayden Zandier, Exeter
- Week 9: Czion Brickle, Fleetwood
- Week 10: Evan Myers, Twin Valley
- Week 11: Jack Riffle, Fleetwood
- Week 12: Drew Engle, Twin Valley