NORTON SHORES – Mark Konecny enjoyed winning a state championship last season, but probably not quite as much as his teammates did.

That’s because he was a talented junior quarterback standing on the sidelines most of the time, watching his team win game after game.

He had never spent much time on the bench before. He was a starting quarterback from little league all the way through junior varsity. Last season, when he reached varsity, he probably would have been the starter for 95 percent of the teams in the state.

But Mona Shores had senior quarterback Brady Rose, an All-Stater who was one of the most productive high school players in Michigan. So Konecny did a lot of watching as the victories piled up, culminating in a 12-0 record and a second straight state title.

He was very happy when his team won.  He just felt kind of empty because he couldn’t play a bigger role.

“It was just not being out there with my teammates – it was something I had never done before,” Konecny told MuskegonSports.com. “It was stressful and demoralizing sometimes, watching big plays happen and not being part of it. But now is my time. I’m  making up for the time I lost last year.”

Konecny is having a sensational senior season, particularly considering he’s a first-year varsity starter.

He has a very strong arm and has been great in the passing game, completing 47 of 68 throws for 812 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s also a very powerful runner, and is second on the team in rushing with 444 yards on 61 carries with 11 touchdowns.

Konecny is everything the coaches hoped he would be when he stepped in to replace Rose this season, and they are happy he will be under center this Friday for the big showdown with Muskegon at Sailor Stadium.

“He was in a tough situation last year,” said Mona Shores head coach Matt Koziak, whose 5-1 team will again be playing for the O-K Green Conference championship against the Big Reds. “He could have started for a lot of teams. He just had a really good football player in front of him. I think he took it great, learned a ton, and we knew he would have a breakout year this year.

“He’s a 200-pound quarterback, so he’s really like a running back playing quarterback, but he can throw as well. Because he is our trigger man, we need him to be able to run the ball the way he does. It sets up so many things. He makes our offense dynamic.

“He’s settled into being him, and being the best version of him, and he’s just been phenomenal.”

A lot of people wondered how Konecny would handle the pressure of replacing a star like Rose, and this answer is just fine. He’s a confident kid who always knew he would be a great high school QB when his chance finally came.

“I have my own story to write,” he said. “I’m my own player. I’m not Brady Rose or Caden Broersma. I just do what I do best – throw the ball down the field, and I’m also a very physical runner. I just go out there and play my game.”

Konecny admits he was a little rusty at the quarterback position at first, after taking a year off.

“A little bit for the first game, just getting acclimated to the flow and speed of the varsity game,” he said. “But after a few drives I got used to it again.”

He also admits that he was a little gun shy at first, because he wanted to be too perfect.

“I was a little too worried about failing, like I didn’t want to throw into tight coverage because I was worried about throwing an interception, and I was worried about fumbling,” he said. “But now I’ve got the butterflies out of my system and I’m not hesitant to do anything.”

Konecny has been great all season. He threw for 216 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 96 yards and three touchdowns in the Sailors’ 56-7 opening game win over Lowell.

Against Grand Rapids Union he rushed for 108 yards and one touchdown in a 56-21 win. Against Zeeland West he threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 69 yards and one TD in a 47-12 victory.  Against Zeeland East he rushed for 87 yards and two scores and passed for 122 yards in a 49-30 win.

Against Reeths-Puffer last week, he threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 69 yards and another score in a 56-7 victory.

When asked to grade his performance so far this season, Konecny said “B-plus.” Why not an A-minus? “Missing reads here and there, and missing a few throws here and there,” he said.

When asked if he preferred to run or pass the ball, he said “throwing the ball, for sure. Every since I was small I’ve just loved completing passes and throwing touchdowns.”

Konecny’s worst game came in Week 2 against Detroit Martin Luther King. He threw for 135 yards and a touchdown, but also had two interceptions. On the ground he managed only 35 yards on 16 carries.

That was the worst game for all the Sailors – a 40-19 loss, their first defeat since 2019. But Konecny thinks it was good for the team in the long run, because overconfidence had become an issue.

“It was good to be humbled and get back to square one,” he said. “It was not a good week of practice, we got off the bus thinking we were going to win, we were not mentally prepared to play and it showed. It was a good reality check for us.”