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All in the Family: Smalls looking to build own niche in Panthers program

BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com

Published: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 1:32 PM CDT

One could say quarterbacking is in the blood of Plano East senior Mario Smalls.

It's been evident in the signal caller's rise through the East feeder schools, growing up in the same system that he's now helping orchestrate at the varsity level.

Before donning some black and gold of his own, Smalls was still a regular attendee at Panthers football games, at least as far back as his days slinging passes at Bowman Middle School. While still a fan at the time, Smalls was also a student; a pupil taking notes from one of the best tutors at his disposal: his brother Riko.

"Watching Riko play was an inspiration for what I needed to do," Mario said. "But I'm not Riko; I just need to be myself and do what I have to do for this team."

Five years before Mario set foot on the city gridiron to begin his senior year, Riko was doing the same in 2007 at the helm of the Panthers' offense.

Mario was there for practically every step of the way during his brother's two-year stint quarterbacking the East offense. During the week, Mario said he'd attend practice alongside his brother whenever the chance arose, just as a means of further learning the system and honing his technique.

Those lessons would pay off in the coming years, with Mario rising from the junior varsity ranks to backing up alum Corey Wesley on varsity as a junior last season. The learning process only steepened.

"The speed of the game is actually really fast," Mario said. "From playing on JV and going to varsity are two entirely different game speeds, so you have to adapt at the start."

Mario threw just one ball in varsity action that season -- a 26-yard completion in the Panthers' bi-district playoff loss to Southlake Carroll. With Wesley now graduated, Mario has taken the reins of the Panthers' offense, filling the shoes left by many a predecessor, including his brother.

Now the younger Smalls is looking to carve out his own niche in Panthers' lore, even though some comparisons and contrasts to his brother may never go away.

"We tell [Mario] his nickname is '5 Yards,'" said Johnny Ringo, East head coach, "because that's all he's going to make if he starts running. His brother might have gone 60, because he was a bit faster. But for us, 5 yards with our quarterback running is huge and Mario is a dual-threat guy, a big guy, a smart kid and a good leader for us."

With one career start in the books, so far, so good as the Panthers' 35-20 win over Garland to start the year Friday marked East's first season-opening win since, coincidentally enough, 2007 when Riko led the Panthers past Mesquite, 46-20. Despite watching the Owls jump out to a 13-0 lead through one quarter, Mario and Company rallied for 35 unanswered points to leave Garland in the rearview mirror. Mario had three touchdown passes, all to senior Collin Shaw, on scores of 27, 50 and 20 yards.

"It felt great," Mario said. "[The first touchdown] was a good ball to Collin and a great catch by him. Getting hammered by the line, I'm not going to forget that and I'm not going to forget that first touchdown."

Mario admitted pre-game jitters, but settled down as the game went on. The numbers showed with Mario throwing for 212 yards and three touchdowns on 13-of-20 passing.

Two days later, Mario was back in the stands as a spectator, watching Riko help lead Texas Southern to a 44-41 victory over Prairie View A&M.

This week, it's back to his own gridiron in preparation for Garland Naaman Forest at 7:30 p.m. Friday from Williams Stadium.

And Mario is ready to take the next step in a season he's been waiting on for years.

"My personal goal is to do better and keep improving," he said. "I want to encourage my teammates and help them improve. They come before I do, so I'm going to do my best to help them out first."

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