A Key Receiver

There’s a touch of magic running through Jared Bazar’s hands.

You see it when he catches a pass. You hear it when he plays the piano. You feel it when he twists a Rubik’s Cube and solves the puzzle at warp speed.

“I was just given a gift,” Bazar said.

At Hart High, a factory of prolific quarterbacks, Bazar’s contributions as a receiver are not going unnoticed.

As a sophomore, he caught 37 passes for 557 yards and one touchdown from David Neill, the starter at Nevada. Last season, he caught 59 passes for 1,030 yards and 11 touchdowns from Kyle Boller, the starter at California. This season, he has caught 33 passes for 523 yards and seven touchdowns from Kyle Matter, Hart’s single-game passing record holder.

Neill, Boller and Matter--has any region high school produced a consecutive group of quarterbacks better than them? What they have in common is Bazar as their receiver.

“He’s awesome,” Matter said. “It’s something he has, an innate ability to catch the ball.”

For a school that has produced 14 consecutive seasons of All-Southern Section quarterbacks, the Indians also have an impressive list of receivers, from Joe DeSchryver to Soren Halladay, from Cody Joyce to Jerry Owens.

Bazar, 6 feet and 180 pounds, with 4.6 40-yard speed, has joined the elite receiver group.

“There hasn’t been a better one,” offensive coordinator Dean Herrington said. “He’s so reliable.”

The most startling revelation about Bazar is that he never played football before high school, but somehow ended up on varsity by spring practice after his freshman season.

He was a soccer and volleyball player who caught only one pass on the freshman team. But assistant Rick Herrington noticed Bazar’s catching skills in practice and told the other coaches, “There isn’t anybody in the program who’s got hands like him.”

Up to varsity Bazar went. His intelligence and instincts helped him learn quickly the Indians’ sophisticated passing offense. He hasn’t come out of the lineup since.

He used to be known as a possession receiver, but improved leg strength this season is enabling him to pick up lots of yards after the catch.

“This year I’m definitely concentrating on staying on my feet,” Bazar said.

There are other assets Bazar can call upon. He has a 4.1 grade-point average and is particularly strong in math.

Matter still remembers the time Bazar proved to be a whiz solving a Rubik’s Cube.

“We were all trying to figure it out and he did it in half a minute,” Matter said. “It was a blur. He was twisting it and it was all lined up.”

Then there’s his piano playing. His older brothers, Adam, 20, and Matt, 22, started first. Jared followed when he was 7, took lessons for four years and now plays to relax or impress the girls.

“A lot of people are surprised,” Bazar said. “I guess they wouldn’t expect that from a football player.”

His mother, Anita, teases him that playing piano is responsible for his powerful fingers.

When Jared first went out for football, Anita asked, “Did you tell the coaches you play piano?”

“Mom, you don’t tell coaches you play piano,” Bazar replied.

Bazar and his older brothers aren’t afraid to pull the telephone to the piano and play for friends on the line.

Bazar doesn’t disagree that playing the piano has given him soft hands.

But his athleticism and competitiveness is what pushes him to the highest level. Whether playing football, soccer, pingpong or beach volleyball, Bazar expects to win. If he doesn’t, he demands an immediate rematch.

“You ask any neighbors, and he’s lived with a ball [in his hands],” Bazar’s father, Al, said. “I think he was born with one.”

If only Bazar realized the legacy he has created at Hart.

Next fall, look for the Herringtons to announce on the public address system: “Attention all students who play the piano. Football tryouts are at 3 p.m.”

The search is on for the next piano-playing Hart receiver.

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or [email protected]