Like a good Neighbor, Mason has been there this season for Alburnett football

CEDAR RAPIDS — He showed the ability to be his team’s starting quarterback over the summer.

Mason Neighbor and his Alburnett teammates played in a 7-on-7 football league in June and July at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids. The opponents were all way bigger schools, like Cedar Rapids Washington, Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Iowa City West.

He more than held his own.

“I think it helped me see the field a lot better,” Neighbor said. “Knowing what to expect out of my receivers. Knowing their speed and ability to make catches and stuff like that.”

The kid showed the toughness necessary to be his team’s starting quarterback over the summer, too. Playing a bit of defensive back, Neighbor broke his nose catching an inadvertent elbow from an opposing player he was defending.

This didn’t just break his nose, it smashed it, forcing surgery that included the insertion of a couple of metal rods. Yet he didn’t miss a game, wearing a protective face mask and continuing to sling it around.

His days as a DB ended, though.

“The receiver comes across, took a jab step to the left, made a break to the right, his elbow came across and smacked Mason right square in the nose. Broke it,” said Alburnett Coach Rich Velasquez. “But that next week, that kid decided to play another 7-on-7 game. He went out, it didn’t affect him at all. He played with a broken nose those final four 7-on-7 games.”

“Everything is back to normal now. Everything is fine now and going good,” Neighbor said.

Good is an understatement. Alburnett took a 5-1 record and No. 10 ranking in Class A into its homecoming game Friday night against Wapello.

A large reason for the Pirates’ success has been their passing game. Neighbor had completed 64 percent of his throws for 1,139 yards, with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 16-to-3.

In his previous three games, the senior (who had only a bit of QB experience coming into this season) had completed 32 of 39 passes for 673 yards, 11 touchdowns and no picks. Two weeks ago against Highland, he completed 7 of 8 for 213 yards and five touchdowns.

Last week against North Cedar, Neighbor was 10 of 12 for 245 yards and four more TDs. Ridiculous efficiency.

“You know, we thought we could be pretty decent at throwing the ball around, after seeing what we could do 7-on-7,” Neighbor said. “But I didn’t know how much we’d throw, because usually Class A, in our district, our district isn’t known as being a throwing type. So I didn’t know how much we would be throwing during the season. But Coach likes throwing the ball around, and I don’t mind that too much.”

“I will honestly say that going into the season, we were going to run the football,” Velasquez said. “But then after seeing what Mason could do, not only Mason, but you have to have a receiver to catch the ball, and we have a couple of good 6-foot-3 receivers that come down with it every time. So that was something we wanted to implement, mainly toward the end of the season, something we wanted to (continue to) work on. But he took it head on, and it’s showing right now what he can do.”

The lengthy, glue-handed receivers Velasquez referred to are Grayson Carolan and Braydon Osborn. Payton Baker also has been a key contributor.

Those three and Neighbor did some summer workouts on their own to try and develop chemistry. Apparently it worked.

“We ended up doing that 7-on-7 league this year for the first time, ended up going up against some 5A schools and did very well,” Velasquez said. “Once we saw that, we basically implemented an offensive system that if we can get Mason out, get him mobile, have him move around a little bit, he’s just a little bit more accurate, believe it or not. As accurate as he is sitting in the pocket.”

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