For quarterback Jackson Pavitt the four-year run at Cardinal Newman has ended in a lot of positives but the road has been a bumpy one.

Now, after leading Newman to its first ever CIF state championship Bowl Game title in three tries, Pavitt has been named the Prep2Prep Senior of the Year for the 2019 football season.

“It feels great but, and it’s amazing, and I’m kind of at a loss for words, but I have to give credit to all my teammates. They had toughness, hard work and attention to detail all year long,” Pavitt responded to being honored.

Just like he wants to credit his teammates, Pavitt has balked at saying it was his destiny to lead Newman to a state championship, but he does have his own way of explaining his and the team’s journey.

A little over two years ago half of the Cardinal Newman campus and much of the surrounding neighborhood was destroyed by the Tubbs fire. At the time Pavitt was a sophomore and the backup to Beau Barrington, who lost his home in the fire.

In their final game of what was a trying season, with ESPN shadowing the team for weeks, and every other media outlet in the Bay Area represented at the game, Pavitt watched from the sidelines as the Cardinals led the entire game only to lose inside three minutes to go in a 59-56 loss to Marin Catholic-Kentfield in the North CIF NCS Division 3 championship.

Last year, with Pavitt under center, Newman was an overwhelming favorite to beat Eureka in the NCS Division 3 title game, but to play the game meant forfeiting a chance to play for a CIF Bowl Game title since the NCS moved out its playoffs due to air quality resulting from last year’s fires. Instead, the team, including Pavitt, opted for a coin flip that vacated the NCS championship. They lost the flip and Eureka advanced, and another season ended in utter disappointment.

This year Newman was only beaten once in a 14-1 season, a very respectable 17-13 loss to the Prep2Prep NCS No. 3 Liberty-Brentwood team the Cardinals fell in behind in the NCS rankings. In that game Pavitt had 235 yards passing and two TDs, and most observers felt he outplayed the Lions’ Oregon-signed quarterback Jay Butterfield.

They say the third time is a charm, and for Pavitt and Newman it became a reality in three different ways with the 6-2, 190-pound Cal Poly-signed senior signal caller leading the way.

For the third straight year the Cardinals were in the hunt to go to a CIF Regional Bowl Game, and twice before, in a 2006 overtime loss to Oaks Christian-Westlake Village and in 2008 to St. Bonaventure-Ventura, Newman fell short of a state championship after reaching the title game in Carson.

This past season, with Pavitt as the field general they almost blew a 10-0 lead, but thanks to kicker Ethan Kollenborn the Cardinals got past Marin Catholic, 13-10 in the NCS Division 4 championship game after falling twice previously to the Wildcats in NCS title games. The weather was bad, and he threw an interception, but Pavitt passed for 257 yards and ran for 70 more and his team’s only touchdown.

From there everything fell into place.

Cardinal Newman was placed in the 3-AA Division and as the higher seed they hosted and toasted Los Gatos in a 42-7 victory where Pavitt let junior running back Shane Moran carry some of the load but he still passed for a TD and ran for two more.

With the CIF playing all games from 2-A up to the Open Division at Cerritos College in Southern California, but from 3-AA down in Northern California at home sites, Cardinal Newman got to host the 3-AA Bowl Game championship against El Camino-Oceanside from the CIF San Diego Section.

In front of a standing room only crowd that lined the fences along the field, and included a lot of fans from Oceanside, Pavitt made the third time for every one of the three situations a real charm when he led Cardinal Newman to a convincing 31-14 victory.

Pavitt didn’t have his best game throwing the ball, but he was 15-of-21 for 158 yards and one TD and one of only two interceptions he threw all season, but running the ball he was like a player possessed. He carried 21 times for 183 yards and two TDs, including a 58-yard romp that gave Newman a 14-7 lead.

After Kollenborn booted a 31-yard field goal that gave the Cardinals a 17-14 lead they never relinquished, Pavitt sealed the deal with a 36-yard TD pass to Giancarlo Woods and a 1-yard plunge to close out the scoring.

“Yes, it was my chance, but it wasn’t so much my destiny,” Pavitt said. “Ever since I was a little kid my mom has always been big on visualization, visualizing what you want to happen. So for me coming into my senior year I couldn’t possibly visualize it going down on bad terms. I was going to use everything I had in my skill set and ability to try to get the team a win.”

“I visualized it and helped make it happen for the team, the community, the school, for all the coaches,” Pavitt continued. “Everyone was part of it.”

The journey was now complete and Pavitt finished the season with 2,750 yards passing and 30 TDs with two interceptions while completing 68.5-percent of his passes. He was second on the team to Moran in rushing but only by six yards and one TD after finishing with 744 yards and 11 TDs on the ground.

For his two years as a varsity starter Pavitt led Cardinal Newman to a 25-2 record while passing for 5,244 yards and 60 TDs with only five interceptions, and he rushed for 1,296 yards and 22 touchdowns. Overall he leaves Newman with 5,260 yards and 60 touchdowns passing and 1,496 yards and 24 TDs rushing.

“Jackson’s passion for football was influential to his teammates,” Cardinal Newman Coach Paul Cronin remarked. “He elevated everyone’s level of play because of the energy he brought to the game.”

A lot of the other media outlets awards where Pavitt is sure to get quite a few honors are not out yet, nor is the Prep2Prep All NCS Team, but besides the P2P Senior of the Year, Pavitt is the North Bay League – Oak Division Player of the Year and was the Cal-Hi Sports MVP for the 3-AA Bowl Game.

Among awards Pavitt will likely duplicate or exceed this season, last season he was the Prep2Prep All NCS Second Team quarterback, the North Bay League – Oak Division Offensive Player of the Year, an All-State selection for both Cal-Hi Sports and MaxPreps, and a San Francisco Chronicle All Metro Second Team election, plus others.

It only took a couple of days for Pavitt to commit to Cal Poly after new head coach Beau Baldwin offered him a scholarship last month.

“Cal Poly is a beautiful location, great school, program on the rise and I think I will fit right in,” Pavitt remarked. “I have a great relationship with Coach Baldwin and Coach Meyer, and I’m in the works building relationships with the rest of the coaching staff.”

A bit of a twist to the Pavitt story is despite Calistoga being a resort and wine town of just over 5,000 residents at the north end of the Napa Valley, Jackson is not the first quarterback to come over the hills that separate Napa and Sonoma Counties the nearly 20-miles to the Cardinal Newman campus.

When Jackson was still in grammar school in 2012, he was working out in Calistoga and ran into Keaton Dunsford, a junior at the time and a the Newman quarterback who also lived in Calistoga.

“He (Dunsford) had great things to say about Cardinal Newman and Coach Cronin,” Pavitt remarked.

The seed was planted, but even so, Pavitt played running back and middle linebacker in youth football and was considering Justin-Siena-Napa for high school. He decided on Cardinal Newman and took his first snaps at quarterback as a freshman.

For his last snaps as a high school quarterback, Pavitt left for Hawaii on January 7 for the Paradise Classic where he will be part of a team from the Bay Area coached by Clayton Valley-Concord Coach Tim Murphy

Pavitt will study business at Cal Poly but that doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to take over the family’s Phifer Pavitt winery in Calistoga. “It’s always a possibility, but personally I’d rather make something of my own.”

The Pavitt legacy at Cardinal Newman is not quite over yet. His parents Shane and Suzanne Pavitt have another son, Jackson’s younger brother Rhett Pavitt, a 6-foot-5 junior wide receiver that saw limited action this past season but who Cronin is high on for next season.

While little brother Rhett will be fighting for playing time at Newman, big brother Jackson will be doing the same as a Mustang at Cal Poly.

For his efforts this past season, however, we are pleased to recognize Jackson Pavitt as the Prep2Prep North Coast Section Senior of the Year.

Other players considered include Monte Vista’s Nate Rutchena, Las Lomas’ Isaiah Newell and Liberty’s Payton Zdroik.