That toddler in Gale Gilbert’s living room has grown into a top national recruit who will try to win his second Class 4A championship in his final game for Austin Lake Travis.
The younger Gilbert will take another title into today’s 4A Division I final against Longview in Waco: Texas Sports Editors Player of the Year.
The future Texas Longhorn received the honor Friday after throwing for 3,043 yards during the regular season with 38 touchdowns against just two interceptions.
“When you take a little boy, these are his dreams and they are coming true,” said Kim Gilbert, Garrett’s mom. “That’s pretty cool.”
It’s been pretty well understood since those days in San Diego in the 1990s that Garrett Gilbert wanted to be like his dad. Now the only question is where that career will lead.
Gale Gilbert’s career was notable for its quirks.
He was California’s starting quarterback opposite John Elway in the famous Cal-Stanford band game of 1982, which means he was watching when his teammates lateraled five times on a kickoff return after time ran out and scored the winning touchdown by weaving through Stanford band members who marched onto the field prematurely.
As a pro, he went to five consecutive Super Bowls - four with Buffalo and one with San Diego. He was a backup every time, but he’s still the only player who can say that.
“I think that would be my only claim to fame,” Gale Gilbert said.
Now he’s known as the tutor of one of the most prolific quarterbacks in Texas high school history. Add his playoff games, and Garrett is 350 yards shy of the state career record of 12,532 held by Graham Harrell, who won a title at Ennis before leading Texas Tech to the highest ranking in school history this season.
Garrett is looking for most of his great times to be in Austin over the next few years. He’ll wait until the summer to report to Texas, bypassing the trendy move among quarterbacks of graduating early in order to go through spring practice as soon as possible in college.
College success for Garrett seems pretty certain. He’s the No. 2-rated pro-style quarterback in the country, according to the Web site rivals.com. He’s 6-4 and 205 pounds. Coaches say he can make all the throws, and his senior season has been notable for his improvement as a runner.
If he sounds like a player everybody should know about already, there might be a reason he isn’t. As long as they’ve known their son wanted to be a quarterback, Garrett’s parents have worked to make sure he kept things in perspective.
“They remind me all the time that it’s not about me,” Garrett said. “I wouldn’t have any of what’s going on right now without the other 10 guys on the field."
