At Northwest High School last Friday, Quarterback Jason Powers, junior, calmly adjusted his helmet and said a few words to his receiver Cairon Wesley, junior, as the four MHS captains carefully marched along the 50 yard line to meet  the Lions’ captains for the coin toss.

Jason’s older brother, Austin, trudged the same path with his group of captains just a short season ago.

“I started playing football in fourth grade, and I started playing quarterback in sixth,” Austin, who graduated in 2014, said.

Jason started playing football in seventh grade as a defensive end but eventually moved to quarterback.

“I was really bad,” Jason said. “And then at practice I was just throwing with some people and then backup quarterback and then quarterback.”

He explained that despite their different personalities and playing styles, he considers Austin his role model.

“We’re pretty different,” Jason said. “He likes to run around and do stuff like that. I just kind of sit there and don’t really run that much. Personality-wise, I don’t know, we’re just different.”

Austin said that succeeding his dad as a high school quarterback and preceding his brother as the starting quarterback for MHS has increased their sibling rivalry

“Both of us being quarterbacks just made sort of a sibling rivalry to earn bragging rights about who was playing better that year, and it always pushed us to go harder,” he said.

Jason joked that the only reason he and his brother started playing quarterback is because they couldn’t play other positions.

“It was the only thing we could really do on the football field,” he said. “If we couldn’t do that, we wouldn’t play anywhere else.”

Austin said he and his brother share similar traits when it comes to accepting the pressure of being a starting quarterback.

“Jason told me that his first start as a varsity quarterback he was pretty nervous, and that was the same for me,” he said. “After the first game there wasn’t any nervousness about playing the game, but the pressure of knowing that everyone watches you every single play. I think Jason will start to feel the same way as this season goes on and he will feel the same way I did.”

Despite this, Jason doesn’t believe he has to live up to or outshine any of his brother’s achievements. Last season, Austin almost broke the MHS record for completion percentage after completing 56 percent of his passes for 1211 yards and 7 touchdowns as the starting quarterback.

“I’m going to keep on doing me,” Jason said.

As for this season, Jason said he’s working on the present and trying not to look ahead.

“Take it game by game,” he said. “Just see if we can pick up wins game by game.”