Austin Joyner fondly remembers his first varsity touchdown at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
It came Oct. 21, 2011, in his freshman year with the Tomahawks. He had recently been called up from the freshman team to play on the varsity.
“It was against Monroe,” Joyner said. “I trucked a kid and scored from, I want to say, like 37 yards out.”
Joyner wore jersey No. 35 then. He later switched to No. 5 but continued to truck over defenders the next three seasons.
The star running back capped his Tomahawks career with 1,768 yards and 32 touchdowns on 133 carries in 2014, his senior year. He also caught seven passes for 107 yards and a touchdown, returned three punts for scores and even threw a 46-yard touchdown pass this season. The offensivee spark he provided helped Marysville Pilchuck make the state semifinals for just the second time in school history.
Joyner’s impressive stats as well as the leadership he provided as a senior captain earned him The Herald’s Offensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.
“I think you could say that over the course of the last three years, each and every time he’s stepped on the football field, we’ve had the best player on the field,” Marysville Pilchuck head coach Brandon Carson said. “He’s a once-in-a-lifetime type of player for me as a coach. It’s going to be tough without him. He’s had some good guys around him, too. We’re going to have our work cut out for us next year.”
Carson has enjoyed a little more than three years with Joyner, who got promoted to varsity midway through his freshman season after Carson saw what his future star could do.
“I’d seen him make a run in a freshman game and knew this kid was different,” Carson said. “We called him up. In his first game he had like a 35-yard TD run down the sideline. He took a couple of guys on, ran a guy or two over and the rest is history.”
And it’s a pretty storied history. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior was a first-team all-area selection at running back, linebacker and kick returner this season. He finished his Marysville Pilchuck career with 5,593 yards and 538 points scored, both school records.
However, after three-plus seasons with Joyner, it’s not his cutbacks or stiff arms that impress Carson the most.
“I’ve had that question asked a lot,” Carson said. “You know the runs. But you know what my favorite thing to watch him do is? Block. He crushes people. It’s my favorite thing. He’s an incredible runner but after his sophomore year I’d seen all the runs. I think (blocking) might be one of his favorite things to do too.”
Joyner said that when he takes the field he has a pretty simple mindset.
“Just, ‘I’m ready.’ That’s what goes through my head,” Joyner said.
His senior year at Marysville Pilchuck was a bit tougher than most. After a tragic shooting at the school on Oct. 24, the community looked to the football team as a rallying point.
The Tomahawks did not disappoint.
“It was a crazy year, a roller coaster,” Joyner said. “It had its ups and definitely had its downs. But when we went down we made sure we came right back up. With the help of all the supporters we had, we were able to do it.”
Marysville Pilchuck advanced to the state semifinals where it faced Bellevue, owner of the nation’s longest winning streak at 67 games. The Tomahawks gave the Wolverines their closest contest since 2012, but lost 20-10. A week later, Bellevue’s winning streak ended with a 35-13 loss to Eastide Catholic in the state championship.
Joyner said MP’s game against Bellevue was one of the highlights of his career.
“Playing Bellevue is definitely one of the top moments because they’re one of the top teams in the nation,” Joyner said. “We wanted to go deeper than we did the previous year in the playoffs and we achieved that goal. That was the biggest thing we did.”
Another career highlight came in the regular-season finale against Oak Harbor in Joyner’s sophomore season. The Tomahawks trailed in the fourth quarter and then scored 26 unanswered points to beat the Wildcats. In the game, Joyner ran 18 times for 266 yards, scored a late touchdown and intercepted a pass to seal the victory.
“That was probably the best game I’ve ever played in,” Joyner said. “It was crazy. We were down like 19 points at half and we managed to come back and win that game.”
Joyner currently is unsure where he will play in college. But wherever he ends up, he’ll continue working toward a dream he’s had since he was a little kid: playing in the National Football League.
“To play in the ‘League.’ That’s my biggest goal,” Joyner said. “It’s been my goal since I was five or six. My dad used to always tell me how rare it is and how it probably won’t happen, trying to comfort me. Now, it’s starting to become a reality.”
Carson expects Joyner to continue to be successful on the field and, more importantly he says, continue to be a great role model off it.
“For as much that has been written about him and said about him and how heavily he’s been recruited, he’s just a down to earth kid,” Carson said. “He’s a superstar that doesn’t have a superstar attitude. He’s nice to everybody. He’s not a big ego kid.
“I can’t say enough about him as a person. He’s just a fun kid to be around.”
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