Patterson, Berwick players receive Class 3A all-state recognition

Area football players received Class 3A All-State recognition as four players from Patterson and one from Berwick were recognized.
Patterson’s Daylon Charlot led the area selections as a first-team pick at wide receiver.
Fellow wide receiver Mykel Jones, quarterback Sirbatian Charles and linebacker Malik Bass were honorable mention selections for Patterson.
Berwick athlete Audwin Williams was an honorable mention selection.
Charlot finished his senior season with 30 receptions for 711 yards and 14 touchdowns. He averaged 23.7 yards per reception.
While Charlot’s numbers were down this year, Patterson head coach Chad Blanchard said it’s because he played a lot on defense and because opponents respected him enough to put extra effort out to stop him on offense.
“At the same time, he ended up with 30 catches and 14 touchdowns, so he was still real efficient for us. … He had a big season,” Blanchard said.
Jones finished his junior season with 44 receptions for 710 yards and 10 touchdowns. He averaged 16.1 yards per catch.
The junior standout also rushed four times for 50 yards and a score. He averaged 12.5 yards per rush.
“We did some different things with Mykel this year,” Blanchard said. “We did some things with him out of the backfield, which I think really helped to get him touches. … He ended up with a few more touches in a lot of different ways, not just catching the ball but also running the ball … and he’s so good in space.”
Blanchard said some of the things they were able to do with Jones and his abilities created challenges for defenses.
“A lot of it has to do with the fact that he could pick up so many different things,” Blanchard said.
Charles, a junior, was a first-year starter at quarterback for Patterson this year.
He finished the 2014 season completing 131 of 203 passes (64.5 percent) for 2,110 yards, 32 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also rushed 96 times for 433 yards and five touchdowns.
“Just like any other first-year starter, he’s going to struggle some early on, and we expected that,” Blanchard said of Charles. “We also know that ever since he was a freshman, he’s always done a really, really good job of what it is that we’re trying to do offensively. He fits in to the scheme that we’re trying to do probably better than anybody that we’ve had in the past. He’s a smart kid. He’s a really good runner. He makes good decisions, and he’s an efficient passer and you saw that in his numbers by the end of the season when he threw for over 2,000 yards, completed 65 percent of his passes, only had six turnovers and 37 touchdowns.”
While they ask a lot of Charles, Blanchard said his quarterback did a great job of doing what the coaching staff wanted him to do.
Bass, a senior, finished the season with 76 tackles, 62 assists and seven tackles for 40 yards in losses. He had four sacks, one quarterback hurry, forced three fumbles and recovered two.
Blanchard said Bass is a good football player on defense.
“He’s a great tackler,” Blanchard said. “He’s really instinctive. He’s a three-year starter for us, and he finished with over a 130 tackles. I thought he was the most important person that we had on defense. That’s probably why he was the district MVP, made all our calls on defense and he’s our defensive leader (and he’s) fantastic on special teams. Just an all-around great football player and even better kid.”
At Berwick, Williams, a junior, finished his season with 37 catches for 520 yards and six scores on offense. He averaged 14.1 yards a catch.
On defense, Berwick coach Craig Brodie estimated Williams had about 40 tackles and broke up a few passes. He said the junior was one of the team’s leading tacklers.
Brodie said playing defense was something Williams hadn’t done before, but they used him because of his athleticism.
Brodie said Williams was a “big asset on both sides of the ball. He was named first-team athlete in our district because of that.”
Additional reporting by www.theadvocate.com/sports