By: Josiah Jones
After 4 years, one torn ACL, and a stellar senior season, Tristan Szabo has capped off his career with yet another milestone, the Bulldog’s four-year starting football quarterback has done it. He is now the all-time leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns for the Bulldogs. With 7,670 yards passing and counting as well as 76 passing touchdowns and counting. He was able to break a record that was previously held by Shane Mascarenas for 10 years and counting. Szabo initially tied the Touchdown record on November 2, against nationally ranked Evangel University where the bulldogs won.
With Szabo now being the lone leader in passing touchdowns and yards, I talked to him about his journey and what went into it. I first asked him how it feels to have the record and he replied with, “it feels great knowing something I strived to get four years ago finally came into fruition knowing that all the long nights and early mornings weren’t for nothing”.
With the season being one of the biggest in Bulldog history coming to an end and Tristan at the head of this great run, I asked him how he knew this was possible four years ago and what needed to happen. He said that he set this goal out for himself as a true freshman and said with the dedication of film study and countless hours of work he knew that he could reach the top of the totem pole[SLU1]
Szabo also gave great praise to his offense linemen and coaches for believing in him over the years. I also was able to talk to him about coming back prepared after having a season-ending injury last year to which he answered that it was hard and he had days where he struggled just because he couldn’t help the team like he wanted. He still prepared in the off-season, trusted his body, and trained to get back in the best shape he could for his senior year.[SLU2]
So what’s next for Szabo? He responded with, “getting my degree and finding a job after college near my home state of Nevada.” Professional football isn’t on his mind but if the opportunity presents itself and his body is able to withstand the physical nature of the game then he will see.
[SLU1]Is Tristan saying this about himself??
[SLU2]Once again is Tristan saying this about himself or is someone saying this for him? The only way to make this work in the paper is to rework the quote but it’s hard to do that without context.
