During his two-and-half years as the starting quarterback for Gardner Edgerton, senior Bravin Powell has prided himself on being both adaptable and versatile in whatever way the team needs to get the job done.

Those traits are what have allowed Powell to be equal parts accurate passer and deep-ball launcher, open-field sprinter and short-yardage bruiser. His leadership style showed him to be relentlessly positive, fiery yet composed.

His ability to check so many boxes has also allowed him to transition with ease between the team’s run-heavy triple option attack to the more balanced attack used during his junior year when the team looked to take advantage of elite receiving targets on the roster that season. 

Interestingly, his focus on being versatile also led to the type of do-everything skills that prepared him for his role as the team’s unofficial DJ, both in the locker room to get hyped up for games and on the team bus celebrating big wins on the ride home.

Needing some tunes for the team’s hour-plus drive back to their high school from Welch Stadium on Nov. 29 at Emporia State University, Powell knew the perfect song to play in celebration of the team winning its second straight 6A state title this year.

When he had to make that same choice in this position following the team’s first state title win in 2023, Powell ended up choosing a song that was released around a decade before he was born: “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” by Tupac. 

The first verse of that song begins with the lyrics, “Picture perfect, I paint a perfect picture.”

Maybe the song choice was inspired by the way Powell was picture perfect taking over late in the game to score the go-ahead touchdown in a 22-19 win over Derby. Maybe it was because he helped create the perfect picture when posing for the team photo holding the state trophy, showcasing an infectious smile while standing in the middle of a group which collectively ignored the falling snow in what had become a winter wonderland.
 

This time however, Powell went truly old school with his selection for a tune to blast out of his portable speaker on the bus ride home from state championship No. 2. He chose “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole.

The 1951 track retains a timeless quality which generates a sense of nostalgia, evoked by Cole's distinct drawn-out delivery of the one-word title in the chorus and by other lyrics such as, “In every way and forevermore, that’s how you’ll stay.”

Unforgettable is a perfect description of Gardner Edgerton's three-year run from 2022 to now. The Trailblazers delivered countless unforgettable moments on their way to three state championship game appearances, with each of those games coming down to the final minutes to decide who would leave Emporia as the best team in 6A.

The team’s final memory of that first state final is one that the players might want to forget, but will never be able to. Gardner Edgerton ended up getting stopped on a two-point attempt in double overtime, leaving Manhattan with the unforgettable positive memories of winning the state title in a 21-20 victory.

But many of the unforgettable moments that followed for the Trailblazers were positive ones. Many of those were also orchestrated directly by Powell.

After scoring the game-winning touchdown in the 2023 state championship game against Derby, Powell stepped up again this year by playing a part in each and every one of his team’s touchdowns in a 36-33 win over Manhattan.

When the Trailblazers trailed 33-29 with a little over four minutes left in the game, Gardner Edgerton needed a stop on defense to have one last chance. After forcing a third-and-long from inside that team’s own red zone, Manhattan called a timeout to take a breather and plan for how to attack this defense, which brought relentless pressure on this series.

That break in the action gave senior linebacker Kaleb Dewey a chance to work out a cramp on the sideline. Right there to make sure he had somebody to stretch his leg back was Powell, now showing his versatility in another way until the team’s athletic trainer eventually arrived to relieve her understudy of his self-appointed duty.

While Powell’s assistance with Dewey was helpful, it was a holding penalty against Manhattan which erased a potential 9-yard run by senior quarterback Carter Aslin and turned a potential game-icing first down into what would turn into a punting situation while backed up at the team’s own 8-yard line.
 

The Trailblazers took over with a short field, sending out their offense at the Manhattan 33 with just a shade under two minutes left in regulation. Gardner Edgerton head coach Jesse Owen knew exactly whose number they would call, again and again, on that final drive.

When they got the ball back, Owen even looked down the sideline to see one of his former players from his time as an assistant coach at Olathe North, who was watching intently to the epic conclusion of this game.

“You could just see the tension and excitement and anxiety on his face,” Owen said. “I just gave him a wink.”

Despite his team facing this high-pressure situation, Owen felt very confident knowing the ball was back into the hands of No. 6 with the game on the line.

“You just felt like it was destiny, quite frankly,” Owen said.

After a couple rushes by other players and a penalty on the defense put Gardner Edgerton into the red zone, the drive became a series of rushes by Powell to push the offense to eventually reach a goal-to-go situation.

But Powell ended up injuring his hand right after getting his team just inside the 10-yard line. Powell ran the ball twice more to narrowly earn a first down at the 1-yard line. The team called its last timeout to preserve time with just 12 seconds left in regulation.

Powell let Owen know during their sideline huddle that he thought his right hand was probably broken, but also that he didn’t want to check with the trainer until after the game. That did not surprise Owen at all.

“I would’ve been surprised if he would’ve come out of the game,” Owen said. “That would’ve surprised me. For him to stay in there, that didn’t surprise me one bit.”

One reason why his coaches had that trust in him was because they had already seen him overcome an equally challenging injury the year before.

During Week 7 of the 2023 season, the Trailblazers suffered their lone loss of the season in a 21-7 defeat at the hands of Olathe East. In that game, Powell broke his wrist on that same throwing arm. He decided to stick it out the rest of the way, putting his surgery off until after the season. That ended up being two months later as Powell successfully led his team to its first state championship in program history.
 

With how Powell battled out that injury for so long, his coaches knew who would attack the last few plays in this year's state championship game without hesitation.

“The coaches know that I’m not going to come up short,” Powell said. “I’ve given too much to this and I just can’t allow myself to let the team down. They have all the trust in the world in me and I’ve told them multiple times that if it ever comes down to it, that I promise them I’m going to get in. 

“If it comes down to three yards or less, they know that I’m going to put my body on the line to get whatever is needed for the team’s success.”

Powell did that on the team’s third-down play near the goal line, gaining the single yard needed to pick up a new set of downs just a yard out from a score. But Manhattan did stuff Powell’s follow up QB sneak before the timeout.

Neither the result of the previous play nor Powell’s broken hand could change the game plan and Owen’s trust in calling his quarterback’s number one more time. 

Powell slammed his body into the wall of linemen battling to win the tiniest sliver of ground right at the edge of the goal line. He bounced off his own teammates before pirouetting into a late opening gap, just big enough for him to tumble into the end zone.

Another game-winning touchdown run in the trenches by this quarterback who was painfully clutching the football the entire time. Powell completed his high school career with two state titles and a 14-1 playoff record. His team even avenged that lone loss by beating Manhattan in his final high school game.

Powell never shied away from contact, even after those injuries, because he would do anything to help his team win. He’s also a player who has only played five total years of organized football, ironically because of a choice made in an effort to protect him from getting hurt.

Unforgettable, even if not quite unbreakable.
 

Owen will surely never forget his time coaching Powell. He first met his future quarterback a decade before those state championship victories.

Long before Owen became the Gardner Edgerton head coach, he already lived in the same Gardner community and in the same neighborhood as Powell’s family. Owen and Powell originally met when the latter was just a young kid playing at the community pool.

Their original introduction was not necessarily unforgettable, but definitely still memorable for both parties.

Powell mostly remembers seeing Owen’s son Eli as a constant presence at the pool, just playing in the water and always trying to wrestle other kids.

“I remember Coach O out there every once in a while and not really knowing who they were, but knowing who his son was,” Powell said.

From Owen’s perspective, Powell was a kid that stood out even in those limited interactions.

“He just made a good impression on me,” Owen said. “He was just a cool little kid at the local pool and friendly with everyone.”

Over time, he ended up leaving an impression on Powell as well, at least once Powell started to learn about Owen’s football history.

As a player at Olathe North, Owen was a member of the program’s first state championship winning team during his senior year in 1996. He would return to his alma mater as an assistant coach in 2003 and would remain there through a couple of state championship seasons before getting his first head coaching opportunity in 2014 at Eudora. The Cardinals went 5-4 that season.

A year later, he would take on the same role at Olathe East, taking over for a retiring Jeff Meyers, who happened to be the coach who gave Owen his first coaching opportunity on the Hawks’ staff back in 2002. 

Owen went 15-23 there during his first four seasons at the helm for East before finally breaking through with a 7-3 record in 2019. But he stepped down from that job in the offseason, citing personal reasons.

Owen would make a one-year pit stop as an assistant coach for St. Thomas Aquinas before accepting the head coaching job at Gardner Edgerton in April of 2021. It seemed to be a great fit considering Owen and his family had already been living in Gardner since the mid-aughts.
 

Powell ended up being a freshman during that first season of Owen’s tenure.

“When I found out that he was gonna be our coach, it was like, ‘Dang,’” Powell said. “I’ve grown up with that dude my entire life and it’s crazy that he’s been at all these different places, but as soon as I get to high school, he’s going to be my coach.”

To use Owen’s words, it felt like destiny.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely clear at that time that Owen had stepped into the job at just the right moment to have a generational talent joining the roster.

To that point, Powell had only played one year of organized football.

During his time growing up in Gardner, Powell would often play pick-up football games in his neighborhood whenever he was not competing on his youth basketball and baseball teams.

Powell would have liked to join youth football leagues in the same way as he did with those other two sports, but he was not allowed to do that at the time.

“My mom thinks there's no reason to play that early,” Powell said. “Her mother's heart doesn't want me to get hurt.”

It wasn’t until middle school that Powell joined an organized football team for the first time when he went out for his school’s seventh-grade squad. Powell recalls the excitement of that season, one in which he led his team to an undefeated season.

But he was unable to build on that when the Covid-19 pandemic caused his eighth-grade season to be canceled.

With so little experience on an actual football team, Powell was not sure what to expect when he went out for Gardner Edgerton’s squad as a freshman.

Luckily, it did not take long for his new coach to size him up and see big things for him in the future.

Owen approached Powell about the idea of him playing quarterback. Powell had flirted with the idea of playing that position back when a majority of his experience was in backyard football, but it was not something he had set his mind on becoming until Owen pitched the idea heading into that 2021 season.
 

“I had a lot of people in my family that told me that I should go for it, but I was really just open to whatever the coaches wanted me to do,” Powell said. “Once Coach Owen put that belief in me that he believed I could be a quarterback, then I just fell in love with it and fell in love with doing anything it took to be the best I could possibly be.

“It was just that once he put his faith in me, that really made me want to do everything I could to make him right.”

With his goal set, Powell took to a plan of keeping his head down and just trying to get better at all the skills he’d need to play the position well.

“They said there were things I needed to get better at,” Powell said. “I just took that and tried to run with it. Whenever they (finally) called my name, I knew that it was just a reward for me continuing to work hard and not questioning things.”

Owen took notice of Powell’s attitude and work ethic just as much as the skills and athleticism that his freshman quarterback already possessed.

“We obviously saw the potential physically with him,” Owen said. “But then it was that following summer, going into his sophomore year where you started to notice some of those leadership traits. His (leadership) traits, they’re excellent.”

But the team also had a senior quarterback that season in Conner Elder, who was already familiar with running the team’s triple option out of the flexbone. Elder got the starting nod while the coaches continued to evaluate Powell’s development.

Powell said he did everything he could to prepare himself for the day his coach might ask him to step into that starting role. 

But that moment came a little earlier than scheduled. The coaches let Powell know that he’d get the start in Week 6, following back-to-back losses which put the team at a crossroads midway through the 2022 season.

Even though he was preparing for an opportunity just like this, Powell said he definitely still felt trepidation going into his first real chance to prove himself in game action.

“Of course there was some nervousness going into that first start,” Powell said. “It's your first opportunity to prove yourself. Even if you believe in yourself, it's still gonna be that monster of doubt creeping in. If things don't go your way, what are people going to say?”

Powell ended up slaying that monster pretty quick.

“After the first play, you know, it was history,” Powell said.
 

Playing at home against Lawrence, the Trailblazers offense started the first possession of the game on their own 28-yard line. Powell kept the ball on a QB counter, sprinting past the first two levels on his way to putting a defensive back on skates, only to finally decide to barrel through him to gain five more yards and land a yard past midfield.

Powell followed up the big gain by moving the chains again with a 10-yard run on a QB keeper. He would take turns with fullback Dawson Kindler in bullying the defense on the way to a goal-to-go situation. After he let Kindler finish off the drive with a touchdown run, Powell gave an affirmative nod as he raced back to sideline and dapped up members of a coaching staff who entrusted him with stepping into this role as the leader of the offense, and really the rest of the team as well.

According to Owen, he and his coaches decided to make a move at that time because they believed Powell gave the team the best chance to compete in the postseason and be able to defeat some of the teams they expected to be standing in the way of them punching a post-Thanksgiving ticket to Emporia.

“It was a very hard decision to make because you know, any time you start making those changes, it's just hard on kids,” Owen said. “But at the end of the day, as a coach, you've gotta do what you think is best for the team and the team's best interest.”

By making the move with three games left in the regular season, Powell got the chance to settle into the starting job before it became win-or-go-home games against an ever-increasing level of competition each week in the playoffs.

“It worked out well,” Owen said. 

Gardner Edgerton picked up a couple of blowout wins before suffering a 37-36 loss against Olathe South to close out the regular season. From there, the Trailblazers powered past Shawnee Mission East before earning a 28-19 win over Blue Valley Northwest, which was the reigning 6A champs at the time. 

That next week Gardner Edgerton pulled out a 21-14 win over Blue Valley West, which had turned a 3-5 regular season into its own Cinderella run to the state quarterfinals. Interestingly, the Jaguars also had their own sophomore quarterback waiting in the wings for his chance to shine in Tate Nagy. West’s coaches opted to stick with their two-QB system run by a pair of seniors, which included Nagy’s older brother Brayden.

The Trailblazers rolled to a 56-7 win in the state semifinals against Olathe Northwest. The Ravens had started their year 1-3 before winning seven straight to win the program’s first regional title and reach the state semifinals.
 

But these other feel-good stories were just not able to stand up to Gardner Edgerton’s with Powell leading the way. The Trailblazers reached the state title game for just the second time in the program’s history. The team finished as 5A runner-up in 2009 with quarterback Bubba Starling leading the team.

Before Powell, Starling was the unforgettable star of high school sports at Gardner Edgerton.

Starling was selected by the Kansas City Royals with the fifth overall pick in the 2011 MLB draft. He spent eight years moving up in the minor leagues before debuting with the Royals in 2019. Starling announced his retirement from baseball in October of 2021, just a couple weeks after Powell stepped into the same shoes Starling once held as the Trailblazers' starting quarterback.

Some people might try to make the comparison between Starling and Powell. Both were born and raised in Gardner. Both played football, baseball and basketball. Both were quarterbacks who led their teams to the state championship game, for a program that did not have a lot of postseason success outside of their tenures.

But Owen would rather avoid making too many comparisons between Starling and his own signal-caller during these last three years.

“The Bubba Starling years with Coach (Marvin) Diener was long before I was the head coach here,” Owen said. “I watched it from afar in the Olathe school district, even though I lived in the (Gardner) community at the time. What they did was special during that stretch of time.”

Owen said those teams generated a lot of excitement for football in the community, raising the standard and expectations for the Trailblazers' football program.

“They did great things, but Bubba Starling was unique,” Owen said. “There’s only one Bubba Starling and to compare any other high school athlete to him would be unjust.”
 

On that attribute, Owen would concede that that is something Powell definitely shares with Starling.

“There's only one Bravin Powell,” Owen said. “There’s only been one guy that’s been able to play in three consecutive state championship games and have a 14-1 career playoff record. Bubba Starling is in our high school hall of fame and I would imagine Bravin Powell is going to be in strong consideration of being in that hall of fame one day down the road as well.

“Our community’s been blessed to have both those guys come through here.”

But Powell does appreciate hearing his name being put into the same conversation as a local legend like Starling. In addition to seeing Starling from time to time when the local star visited the youth baseball events in the area, Powell also still hears stories from his mom about when Starling babysitted him back in the day.

Powell was too young to remember much of that, or really any of Starling’s playing career. But he is very cognizant of making sure he tries his best to reach the same heights as what Starling accomplished, both as a player and as a leader of the community.

A perfect example of Powell trying to take on this role took place after Gardner Edgerton’s 34-25 win over Blue Valley West in the state semifinals this year.

As Powell completed the postgame handshake line, he took a quick detour prior to joining his teammates’ celebration in the middle of their home field. Much like how he darted toward his coaches following the opening-drive touchdown in his first start, Powell made a similar bee-line toward the southwest corner of the end zone.

Before he could get anywhere near the goal line, a pack of energetic kids flanked him with the speed and determination that opposing coaches would envy from their own players in trying to corral Powell.

Luckily for these kids, Powell was perfectly fine with letting the youthful fans cut off his path. 
Instead of lowering his shoulders to run through them, Powell brought down his pad level only so he could dap up, high-five and hug each one of them while simultaneously belting out phrases such as “Let’s go,” and “Are you ready for state?”

To Powell, this type of celebration and connection with young fans is just as essential to his quarterback duties as watching game film or taking reps in practice.

“That’s the future of the program,” Powell said. “We want the Blazer blood to run deep. The more those kids are involved, the more they have passion for the program and the better it is in the long run for the coaches. It's harder for those kids to let go and it creates tough kids and tough culture. Just kids that are willing to do anything and lay it on the line for this team and that's what makes us successful.”
 

Powell says that mentality originates from his connection with his own family. 

“I just think of my siblings and how much they mean to me and what I would want in their shoes,” Powell said. “That’s really all it is, just trying to give back to a community that gives a lot to me.”

But to get to those moments where he can inspire the crowd with his play, Powell had to put in all the hard work in the years leading up to this moment.

Obviously, his performance as a sophomore in 2022 already showed Trailblazer fans and his coaches that Powell was the real deal at quarterback. But it wasn’t until his junior year that he got the chance to start working with a quarterbacks coach to improve his skills in the passing game even more.

Powell sees that addition to his preparation as a big reason why his offensive coordinator felt comfortable with tweaking the offense a bit during his junior season.

“It gave (Dustin) Delaney a little bit more trust in me,” Powell said. 

Powell said that trust was already growing as his OC saw him consistently putting in the work throughout the season and in the offseason.

During the beginning of that 2023 campaign, Powell noticed as Delaney continued to open up the offense a little bit more each week until it quickly became the dynamic attack that powered the Trailblazers to 12-1 record. Gardner Edgerton ended up averaging 35.8 points per game throughout the playoffs on the way to the program’s first state title.

After the graduation of slotback Randy Singleton and pass-catching tight end Colton Hawkinson, the team opted to close the offense a little in 2023. It is not that the trust between Powell and the coaching staff had dissipated though. In fact, it was at an all-time high heading into his senior year.

But based on the roster, which also saw quite a lot of turnover on the defensive side of the ball as well, the team saw its best chance of returning to the state title game for a third straight year resting with the offense returning to the run-heavy attack it used to great effect in 2022.

Powell paired with junior fullback Syre Padilla to form a formidable rushing duo this season. Padilla racked up 1,704 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns while Powell finished just two yards short of giving the team multiple 1,400-yard rushers. Powell also led the team in rushing touchdowns with 27.

Despite junior Porter Swaim and senior Richard Vanlerberg giving the team another 1,431 yards and 17 touchdowns on the ground, Powell still produced solid passing totals. 
 

While not nearly as prolific as the 1,297 passing yards he accumulated as a junior, Powell did improve his TD-INT ratio from 13-3 to 14-2. Powell finished with 850 passing yards, with senior wide receiver Tim Chartier serving as his primary target with 381 yards and five touchdown receptions. Vanlerberg added another 185 yards and three scores.

And yet, Powell’s dip in passing stats seems to have coincided with a quieting of talk around his recruitment at the college level. Although he’s recently received offers from nearby schools such as Emporia State University and Hutchinson Community College, there has been a surprising lack of chatter from Division I schools, either near or far.

But if he’s in any way disappointed in the level of his recruiting interest not matching what might be expected for a quarterback who helped lead his team to two straight state championships, Powell doesn’t let those feelings show in any way when discussing the topic.

“At the end of the day, JUCO, DII, DI, they’re all very good football,” Powell said. “With the transfer portal, there’s a bunch of opportunities to be had after one year at anywhere. For me, the biggest thing is just going to a place that really, really wants me, and then is just going to develop me and help me get to my best self in the time given.”

Powell just hopes there will be college coaches that look at his play as a senior and end up taking away one key piece of context when it comes down to the raw stats of his passing totals.

“What I put out there is just that I’m going to adapt and I’m going to be as successful as I possibly can with whatever situation I’m given,” Powell said. “There’s no excuses and just the fact that no matter what the coach is throwing at me, I’m going to handle it to my full capability.

“That’s a big thing that I would hope these coaches value when they’re recruiting me.”

As the coach that’s received an up-close look at what Powell can offer any college team lucky enough to have him, Owen described it as a little frustrating to not see more college recruiters beating a path to his door in an effort to try and convince Powell to choose their school.

In Owen’s opinion, Powell checks all of the boxes that college teams should have in finding a quarterback.

“Physically, he checks boxes with being a dual-threat guy and having the arm strength to zip it around,” Owen said. “Getting back to the leadership traits and in influencing other people to be better, that’s a very important trait you have to have at the quarterback position.

“His high football IQ, his ability to make the right decisions and the timely decisions in those circumstances in tough games has been paramount for us. I know what he's capable of and what he can do. He's gonna make a really good quarterback for somebody.”
 

Owen pointed out the disconnect he sees in recruitment sometimes in regards to the weight put on stats over maybe finding a more accurate context of what a player has accomplished, and against who. 

“Padding stats and throwing for a zillion yards a game against an opponent that wins three games all season, that can be very misleading,” Owen said. “When you look at the sum total of a player’s stats, this kid played his best ball in the biggest moments against the best competition. Those stats are what matters to me and I wish other people saw that.”

When addressing a conversation that has popped up in recruiting circles about the potential for Powell’s recruiting interest to increase if he opened himself up to the possibility of playing a different position at the next level, Owen provided a swift and succinct rebuttal to that suggestion.

“No, he’s a quarterback,” Owen said. “Again, he makes people better and that’s what you need. The stats, with what we do as a triple-option offense, aren't gonna be off the charts when you look at passing stats for a QB. But the stats that matter … he has a 14-1 career playoff record. That one loss being as a sophomore in double-overtime (at state).

“We had to overcome a 13-point deficit this past season. We had to overcome a 12-point deficit. To be able to answer in those situations of the game, when you need an offensive score, to be able to step into the huddle and command the confidence of the other 10 guys so that they can do their job so that we can go down and get a score, those are the stats that matter.”

Although Owen remains adamant that Powell’s future at the next level should definitely remain at quarterback, that should never be confused for the idea that Powell would ever waive off additional duties outside of that position. In fact, Powell has more than proven during his high school days that he’ll do everything asked of him and more.

“He'll do whatever it takes,” Owen said.

On that point, Owen talked about how Powell is normally a player penciled in as a possible sub on defense in a Hail Mary situation. Gardner Edgerton faced that at the end of this year’s state final when Manhattan responded to the Trailblazers go-ahead score with 10 seconds left by navigating their way to their opponent’s 35 with time for one last play.

“Bravin’s always been penciled in as one of those three guys (playing prevent), if we need it,” Owen said. “Obviously, there’s no better time to need that than what it came down to (there).”

But Owen and his staff decided against the idea, likely after envisioning the scenario of the ball going right to Powell and him forcefully batting down the ball with his injured hand, and without second guessing the decision.

“We just couldn't put him back in there with his hand, but he was wanting to go in there,” Owen said with a laugh.
 

In terms of other intangibles, Owen also pointed to Powell’s 4.2 GPA and outgoing personality that he feels should earn his standout player quite a few stars in his ranking as not only a prospect, but as a student and as a person.

“He treats every person in our building, both adults and his peers, like they're the most important people in the world,” Owen said. “He looks people in the eye, he smiles, he gives them the time of day. He just is a great kid and obviously you see that kind of spill over on the field.

"But he's so much more than just a 6-foot-4, 205-pound good athlete. Again, he has the leadership traits to just do extremely well in life.”

Owen said seeing it from his perspective as a father who is raising a daughter, Powell is the type of person who would be everything a father would want to have in a son-in-law. In addition to being a winner on the field, Owen described Powell as a great kid who you wouldn’t hear a single negative thing about from anybody who actually knows him.

Owen even tells a lot of people about a certain prediction he sees for Powell down the road. His projection is generally received as a joke, but he says he’s not joking.

“The guy could be president one day,” Owen said. “He just has an uncanny ability to raise people up and he’s inspiring. His smile will light up a room. Whenever he’s been in front of a camera … he knocks it out of the park. I joke with the coaches, (he) makes us look bad. He’s a great interview.

“He should be president. I’d vote for him.”

Owen continued his praise: “He's clever. He is smart. He's got tons of potential in life beyond just being a football player, a good athlete. He checks a lot of boxes and I just wish all the recruiters could see that and understand that. Because I think those intangible things are what can separate you from other guys that are equal or maybe slightly better than physically, attribute-wise. He just has those intangible things that make him a winner, man. He's a winner.”
 

Even if his quarterback doesn’t decide to pursue politics, Owen is sure that Powell will have success for the rest of his football career and beyond.

“When football is over and he's just getting after it in life in general, he's gonna do very well just because of the person that he is,” Owen said. “It was pretty cool to have the opportunity to coach him. He makes coaches look good.”

Although it will be tough for Owen to find Powell's replacement at the quarterback position going forward, he said he has not had any bittersweet feelings even as it finally started to set in that No. 6 has played his last football game for the Trailblazers.

“No, not at all,” Owen said. “We are thrilled and happy that we've had the opportunity to coach the teams that we've had the last few years. The kids, we’re so appreciative of all their efforts and sacrifices they’ve made. It’s been an honor and there’s zero sadness, man.

“We’re just thrilled that it happened.”

No doubt that this three-year run for Gardner Edgerton with Powell leading the way will remain unforgettable, too.