MISSION — Sharyland Pioneer sophomore receiver Joseph Graham Jr. caught three passes in his varsity debut with the Diamondbacks this season. Two of them went for touchdowns.
It was a solid outing for his first varsity game, but Graham wasn’t satisfied with his performance.
His play was just scratching the surface.
“That first game I had two touchdowns, but I only had 13 yards. I went home and started thinking, ‘This is not how my first year of varsity is going to be,’” Graham said, determined to improve. “And from that day on, I gained confidence.”
Eight games later, Graham finished his initial varsity season leading the Rio Grande Valley in yards (1,075) and touchdown receptions (13) on 51 catches.
The sophomore wideout admitted there were nerves at the start of the season. By the end of it, however, Graham was playing like a seasoned veteran.
For his performance on the gridiron, Graham is The Monitor’s 2020-21 All-Area Football Newcomer of the Year.
“It means everything, just being rewarded for all the hard work and hours put in the offseason when no one’s looking. I give it all to God,” he said.
Equipped with blazing speed, strong hands and elite jumping ability, Graham can do it all at receiver. He also provides big-play ability shown by his 21.1 yards per catch average.
“His mentality is not like a sophomore. He runs really good routes, and he’s only getting better,” Pioneer head coach Tom Lee said. “He developed a quick chemistry with Eddie (Lee Marburger). He gives us speed downfield and the route running ability has just been unbelievable.”
Graham credits his father, Joseph Graham Sr., for helping fine-tune his hands.
“It’s all about your reaction. My dad has always trained me to work on my hand-eye coordination. Keep my eyes on the ball — and then I just beat them with natural speed,” he said.
This season, Graham quickly became one of Pioneer quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger’s favorite targets in the Diamondbacks fast-paced spread offense. Their work together began during the summer.
“He (Eddie) just hit me up out of nowhere and was like ‘Let’s go throw, we gotta build that chemistry.’ We started running hills, training together, getting better and building chemistry. And it paid off on the field,” Graham said.
Their connection was clear and helped lead the Diamondbacks to the District 16-5A DII championship and into the fourth round of the playoffs, a Pioneer program record.
“My mentality was when I saw the ball in the air is it’s mine, nobody else’s. I know I could beat people with speed, so I like to go get it,” Graham said.
Once the district title game and postseason rolled around, Graham took his game to another level.
“Our coaches taught us to visualize making plays, so every night I would just visualize myself making big plays. My mentality changed from the regular season into the postseason because I wanted to make history, and that’s what we did,” he said.
Graham’s stat lines in the playoffs included an eight-catch, 143-yard, two-touchdown game against Georgetown East View in round three, and an 11-catch, 182-yard, one-touchdown performance against Liberty Hill in the fourth round.
He exploded during Pioneer’s second-round playoff game against Marble Falls as he posted 242 receiving yards and four touchdowns on nine catches.He also scored the game-winner with just more than 30 seconds remaining in the game.
“Eddie came to me and said ‘Big-time players make big-time plays in big time games. Let’s go score,” Graham said.
That’s exactly what they did.
On the game-winning play, Marburger rolled right, locked eyes with Graham downfield and delivered a strike. Graham hauled it in, shook one tackler off his back, spun off another and dove into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown and a 54-47 victory.
After the playoff win against Marble Falls, Marburger put it plainly.
“Nobody can guard him,” he said.
With his junior and senior seasons ahead, Graham said he’s not close to done.
“This was just the starting point. I’m going to continue building on everything I did this year,” Graham said.
