Deer Park running back Matthew Jorgensen lights up Friday nights

Matthew Jorgensen grew up bathed in the “Friday Night Lights” of Deer Park.

The son of the Stags wrestling coach Matt Jorgensen, the senior is the fourth member of the second generation of Jorgensens to play football at the school.

“My mom and dad both went to Deer Park and played sports here,” Matthew said. “We lived on Loon Lake when I was born and I started out at Loon Lake Elementary, but I was always at Deer Park. I’ve been going to Deer Park football games since I was, like, 6 years old.”

From watching three older brothers play under those same lights to his own time as a running back and cornerback for the Stags, the home field is a revered place.

“There is absolutely no place I would rather be on a Friday night,” he said.

An All-Northeast A League offensive and defensive first-team selection as a junior, Jorgensen has been a major difference-maker, helping the Stags to a 3-0 start with wins over East Valley, St. Maries and Newport.

This week they play host to archrival Riverside.

“We still have room to get better,” Deer Park coach Keith Stamps said. “Even last week against Newport – we made a few bonehead plays. We can get better.”

Jorgensen brings speed on both sides of the ball.

“Matt is the fastest player we’ve ever had here,” Stamps said. “That’s saying something because the second- and third-fastest players we’ve had here are both his brothers. He’s the best running back we’ve had.

“But as good as he is as a running back, I think he may be an even better cornerback. He’s just got such great speed. We have a shutdown corner in him. We can take your best receiver and take him completely out of a game.”

Jorgensen has only recently quantified just how much speed he has.

At the summer team camp at Eastern Washington last summer he was officially timed at 4.46 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

And where many speedsters have trouble transferring their speed on a track into speed on a football field, Jorgensen has been able to make the shift.

“I have worked hard to make it work,” he said. “Mostly I just hit the hole and run just as hard as I can. I never realized just how fast I really am. I’m kind of impressed by myself.”

At least on offense. Defensively?

“I’ll just say that I haven’t had to sprint once yet this season on defense,” he laughed.

“I’m getting calls from college recruiters all the time,” Stamps said. “I think he has a really good chance to play at the next level if he wants it. We really don’t have any idea yet on just how high his ceiling is yet. No matter what else, 4.4 speed is 4.4 speed anywhere in the world.”

The Stags finished third in the NEA a year ago, but their fast start has made them an early favorite this season. Stamps, on the other hand, is taking nothing for granted.

“This is a tough league, maybe the toughest Class 1A league in the state,” he said. “You cannot take a week off against anyone in this league.”

Deer Park came into the season with question marks, including a young offensive line and an untested varsity quarterback. Jorgensen was a given, but would he find running lanes behind young blockers?

Last year’s fullback, Sam Riebold was shifted to the offensive line to fill one spot and junior AJ Stenbeck stepped up as a unit leader to help the rest of the group learn the offense and think their way through challenges during games.

“This group has really come together well,” Stamps said. “AJ has been awesome as a leader. He’s just a junior but he started last year as a sophomore. We put some new kids on the line with him and moved a couple players from other positions – a fullback and a tight end. The group communicates really well, and I like how they problem-solve during games.”

Deer Park is deepest along the defensive line, where Stamps can rotate as many as nine linemen in and out of games. But aside from having a lockdown corner in Jorgensen, the heart of the Stags’ defense is its linebacking corps.

“We have two really good linebackers,” Jorgensen said. “Bennett Lim is a guy with really good speed who will definitely run guys down. Sam (Riebold) isn’t as fast but he definitely steps up and hits people.”

Junior quarterback Chaz Bird had very few snaps with the varsity under his belt before getting the starting job this season.

Bird has run for a touchdown and thrown for four more through his first three games.

“He’s doing a nice job and is a solid, calm presence in the huddle,” Stamps said. “We haven’t had a situation where we’ve needed him to throw the ball a lot yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how he responds.

“He’s always been a quarterback. He was quarterback on the freshman team, and he was our backup last year. He’s making a good transition.”

Those Friday Night Lights are exceptionally popular in Deer Park, where the community turns out in numbers to support all high school sports – not just football.

“The Deer Park community unbelievably supportive of the school,” Stamps said. “We’re lucky and blessed to have the support we do. It’s a pretty good partnership between the school and the community.

“I’ve been here 16 years and I love it here. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”