Pearman proving he’s one of SC’s best QBs
CENTRAL, S.C. (BVM) — When Trent Pearman took his first steps, it might have been on a football field. His father has been a Division I coach for 35 years, working with the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. His great uncle is Danny Ford, a former national champion head coach at Clemson.
Whether he liked it or not, football was inevitable. Pearman was going to probably end up giving it a try.
“Being a coach’s kid, you grow up and see a lot of football, go to practices, see the colleges play and then you naturally play it,” Pearman said. “I’ve been playing it since day one of my life. Football has been every day since the start.”
Now 17 years later, Pearman’s football journey has come full circle. Not only did he give it a try, but with that thick football blood also running through his veins, he dedicated himself to it. And, in a year that might have been unexpected, Pearman became one of the best quarterbacks in South Carolina, being named the Gatorade South Carolina Football Player of the Year.
Going into this past season, the 6-foot-2 breakout star was entrenched in a three-QB race. Pearman was a junior battling two seniors for that starting gig. With no summer workouts thanks to COVID-19, the trio wasn’t able to properly compete for the job in camp. It had to be won over the first couple weeks of the season.
When Pearman finally got his chance, he took the game over, and the rest is history.
From week three on, he became the D.W. Daniel Lions’ full-time starter. It turns out that it was one of the best decisions the Lions coaching staff has made in 20 years. Pearman led the team to a Class AAA championship, the school’s first since 1998, and he did it by passing for 2,786 yards and 35 touchdowns.
“I kept, every day, training and practicing like I was the starter,” Pearman said. “I watched hours of film, spent countless hours training outside of football, all the unseen work. When week three came, I was ready. It wasn’t a shock to me and I wasn’t rattled, I was ready.”
The seniors whom Pearman beat out for the starting job weren’t just looked over, though. Pearman was sure to credit them for what he was able to do on the field. While sitting back and watching them for the first couple weeks of action, he learned a lot about what it takes to be in their position.
“I learned from both of them about leadership,” Pearman said. “Both of them could talk to any coach and any player on both sides of the ball and help them on the field or off. I sat back and watched their leadership and that’s what I’ve been working on this year, trying to be a better leader.”
With his newly-touched up leadership skills, Pearman was able to navigate the Lions’ offensive weapons to a 10-0 season. The soon-to-be senior said that many of their high-level contributors were seniors, so there’ll be lots of new faces in new places this season. He hopes that he can prove to be a complete QB this time around, elevating the game of these teammates.
“I want to be a complete QB where I can pre-snap decide where I’m going, have better footwork, become quicker and faster,” Pearman said. “I want it to be where I’m leading the team and it’s all on me.”
Thus far, Pearman only holds an offer from the University of Alabama – Birmingham, but hopes that he can make more of a name for himself when he attends multiple college camps this summer. The fact that Pearman grew so much as a player on such short notice goes to show that the sky’s the limit.
“Hard work pays off, I’m a true believer in that,” Pearman said. “There’s great players out there but I think I’m up there with them. I just have to keep my head down and keep grinding.”
