The Diamondbacks’ gunslinger began playing the position in his little league days.
“I played quarterback and I was not very good, I would say. I mean, I was OK, but I suffered with a lot of anxiety,” Marburger said. “I was nervous and I wouldn’t be able to play my best game because of that.”
Looking back now, Marburger said those early failures were building blocks to become the player he is today.
“You could kind of see his (Marburger’s) mentality change to, ‘I want this. This is what I want to do and this is where I want to go.’ And since that day, he just took off,” said Pioneer head coach Tom Lee, who, along with Marburger’s parents, helped the quarterback overcome anxiety.
After throwing for 3,365 yards, running for 1,177 yards and scoring 62 total touchdowns this season while leading the Diamondbacks into the fourth round of the Class 5A playoffs, Marburger is The Monitor’s 2020-21 All-Area Football Player of the Year.
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Sharyland Pioneer quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger (12) carries the ball against Georgetown East View in a Class 5A Division II Region IV Semifinals at Buccaneer Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020, in Corpus Christi. (Joel Martinez | jmartinez@themonitor.com)
Rise to the top: Sharyland Pioneer's Marburger named All-Area Player of the Year
Bryan Ramos
Feb 14, 2021 9:30 AM
MISSION — Sharyland Pioneer quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger paid his dues long before the Mr. Texas Football nomination, 10-touchdown performance, and record-breaking numbers he delivered this season.
The Diamondbacks’ gunslinger began playing the position in his little league days.
“I played quarterback and I was not very good, I would say. I mean, I was OK, but I suffered with a lot of anxiety,” Marburger said. “I was nervous and I wouldn’t be able to play my best game because of that.”
Looking back now, Marburger said those early failures were building blocks to become the player he is today.
“You could kind of see his (Marburger’s) mentality change to, ‘I want this. This is what I want to do and this is where I want to go.’ And since that day, he just took off,” said Pioneer head coach Tom Lee, who, along with Marburger’s parents, helped the quarterback overcome anxiety.
After throwing for 3,365 yards, running for 1,177 yards and scoring 62 total touchdowns this season while leading the Diamondbacks into the fourth round of the Class 5A playoffs, Marburger is The Monitor’s 2020-21 All-Area Football Player of the Year.
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Sharyland Pioneer quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger (12) passes the ball against Medina Valley in a Class 5A Division II bi-district playoff game at Richard Thompson Stadium on Friday, Dec. 11, 2020, in Mission. (Joel Martinez | jmartinez@themonitor.com)
“Going on to sophomore year, my dad helped me work out a lot. When I tell you we worked out a lot, it was two times a day,” Marburger said. “Waking up before school, running and throwing, then after school running and throwing, while also doing school workouts. If people would see the grind, they would understand why I’m here where I’m at.”
“It’s definitely one of the biggest honors I’ve had throughout the years. There’s a lot of talented players here in the Valley, so for me to be recognized with the most talented players, I thank God for giving me the ability to play this game,” he said. “I’m very thankful for my offensive line doing a tremendous job all season, and our receivers stepped up huge and played very well this year.”
With Marburger running the show, Sharyland Pioneer’s prolific spread offense ended the year ranked No. 1 in the nation in total yards per game at 588.3, and No. 3 in scoring offense with 54.8 points per game, according to MaxPreps.com. Marburger was also the top player in the nation with 504.7 total yards per game, nearly 78 yards ahead of the next-closest player.
Just as any defense’s goal is to get a stop, Pioneer’s only mission on offense was to finish each drive in the end zone.
“Every drive, the goal was to score. That’s how we played it. Every drive was its own challenge in itself to go and score,” Marburger said. “To be honest, I never cared about how many touchdowns, how many passing yards, how many rushing yards. That never mattered to any of us. It was just, how are we going to put the ball in the end zone?”
The aggressive mindset worked wonders as the Diamondbacks won their second consecutive District 16-5A DII Championship and finished the year 8-1 overall. Pioneer also became just the fourth RGV team in the past 11 years to reach a regional championship game.
The Pioneer quarterback eclipsed the 400-yard passing mark in six of nine games this season. In a 77-64 third-round playoff win over Georgetown East View, Marburger went wild with 688 total yards of offense and 10 total touchdowns.
“We were just having fun. We were laughing on the sideline, having a good time,” Marburger said in describing a typical game-day atmosphere on the sideline. “We studied the game, we knew how to attack teams, and the hard work that we put in before the game really showed up during the game. The game was the fun part for us. We put in all the hard work in practice and the games come easy for us.”
Marburger completed his career with 8,966 passing yards, 103 passing touchdowns, 2,381 rushing yards and 44 rushing touchdowns. The 103 passing touchdowns ranks No. 1 all-time in the RGV, as do the 58 total touchdown passes he threw in a single-season in 2019-20.
Now that his high school career is over, Marburger has earned a seat at the table when the discussion of RGV quarterback greats comes up.
While a case can be made for Lupe Rodriguez, Koy Detmer and Landry Gilpin, Marburger is simply appreciative to be mentioned in the same sentence as all-time Mission quart... Click here to read full article
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