NORTH MUSKEGON – James Young had just started feeling comfortable in his very challenging role as a freshman varsity quarterback last year, and thought the best part of his first season was yet to come.

He admits he was nervous at first as 15-year-old playing with the big boys. The results were so-so, like in Week 1, when he threw two touchdown passes but several interceptions in a loss to Muskegon Catholic Central.

Young really found his comfort zone in Week 6, when the Norse went nose-to-nose against powerhouse Oakridge, and started to show what he could do against top competition.

He threw for 256 yards and three touchdowns, and even though North Muskegon lost 32-27, his success signaled his growing confidence.

That carried over to the next week when North Muskegon hosted a tough Ravenna squad in its Homecoming game. The Norse scored on their first possession and were leading 6-0 early in the second quarter, when a terrible turn of luck hit the young QB and his team.

Young was carrying the ball on a designed quarterback run and cut back toward his team’s sideline. A Ravenna defender was tackling him as he reached the edge of the field, and he relaxed his body a bit, expecting to be pushed out of bounds.

But the tackle continued longer than he expected and Young came down hard on his left shoulder. It only took a few minutes for trainers to determine that his collarbone was broken and his first varsity season was suddenly over.

“About 15 seconds after I took my pads off, I was kind of lobsided on my left side, my dad asked me if I would get my shoulders even, I said no, and we knew from there,” Young said.

To make matters worse, the emergency room at the hospital was busy and unable to treat Young that night, so he was forced to wait until morning.

“They said it was going to be a five-hour wait, so I had to get through the night in my grandpa’s big chair, and I went in at about six the next morning,” Young said. “I probably got a total of an hour’s sleep. I was constantly waking up in pain.”

Medication finally eased Young’s physical pain, but having to spend the rest of the season watching from the sideline caused a lot of mental anguish.

The Norse went on to lose to Ravenna 16-7 in the game where Young was injured. They won their next two games and snuck into the playoffs with a 4-5 record, then lost a heartbreaker in a rematch with Ravenna, 7-6.

“It was so hard,” Young said about being forced to be a spectator. “I had finally gotten comfortable at my position. The week before against Oakridge was the week where I found my ability to do stuff, then I got hurt and I had to watch my brother and all the rest of my teammates play without me.

“They made the playoffs then lost a heartbreaker. If Denny Belmonte (the backup quarterback who was also injured before the playoffs) and I had been able to play, we would have had a much better chance.”

Even with an abbreviated season, Young’s freshman experience can only be labeled a big success, and a big clue about how good he could become over the next few seasons.

He completed 72 of 117 passes for 934 yards with 12 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. His total yardage was fifth in the area behind four outstanding senior quarterbacks – Fruitport’s Gavin Reames, Holton’s  Austin Fowler, Mona Shores’ Mark Konecny and Spring Lake’s Jackson Core. And Young put up those numbers in only five games and one quarter of play.

There’s no telling how well he may do this season, beginning on Aug. 26, when the Norse host Muskegon Catholic Central in their season opener.

“The sky is the limit for James,” said North Muskegon head coach Larry Witham. “Against Oakridge his true characteristics really started to come through. He and the receivers carried us in the passing game and kept us viable until the end. The game finally slowed down for him. When the game slows down is when quarterbacks become most effective.

“Unfortunately against Ravenna, when he started having another banner game, he was injured, but that didn’t stop him. He’s been working hard at getting the ball to the right receiver and not forcing balls. We’re really looking forward to seeing him on Aug. 26^th.”

Young was able to play varsity basketball last winter and baseball in the spring. Now he’s eagerly preparing for his sophomore year of football, which should be a pretty exciting one for the Norse and their fans.

North Muskegon returns any number of speedy skill position players on offense – guys like Belmonte, Ben Meyers, Carson Moat, Landon Christensen and Brandon Rypstra – to name just a few. That means the offense should put up a lot of points in different ways.

“We’re not going to be one-dimensional at all,” Young said. “We have really athletic receivers and running backs this year.”

North Muskegon will be competing in the new lower tier of the West Michigan Conference, with similarly smaller schools like Ravenna, Hesperia, Holton, Hart and Shelby. That means the Norse won’t have to beat bigger powerhouses like Whitehall, Oakridge and Montague to compete for their first conference title since 1986.

“We’re finally going to get to prove to people that we’re legit, playing schools our own size,” Young said. “We’re going to try to get that conference title and then keep going in the playoffs.”

The best part is that Young will enter the season with a sense of confidence that he did not have last summer, when he moved straight from eighth-grade football to playing against 17- and 18-year-old opponents.

He admits that it took some time to get comfortable as a varsity quarterback, particularly with his team playing three very tough opponents – Muskegon Catholic Central, Montague and Whitehall – in the first five weeks.

“I was definitely nervous, even in practice, and I was an uneducated quarterback,” Young said. “Like in the Muskegon Catholic game, we scored twice on two deep balls, then their defense adjusted and I threw three or four interceptions. I tried to force the deep ball.

“Then against Oakridge, that was my best game, I had learned to take what the defense gave me and hit the right spots. I was just bummed that I got hurt the next week.”