Lynch enters record book

Connor Lynch played 14 games for the Pilot Point Bearcats in 2019, helping his team go four rounds deep into the playoffs.

The 6-1, 240-pound senior anchored the Bearcats’ defense at linebacker. He was a force all season, recording 164 tackles.

That accomplishment puts Lynch in a special place in Bearcat history. He is now the fourth player behind Bret Renfro (211), Tommy David (178) and Mike Hall (169) with the most tackles by a player in a single season. He even surpassed his coach, Danny David, who had 162 tackles back in the 1982 season.

“That’s pretty good,” Lynch said. “Wish we could have played those two other games, that would have probably gotten me a little higher, but overall I’m happy. I think it was really good. When we lost against Gunter and then we came back and won and kept winning that proved that we were here to play. I’m just glad I was able to help the team win.”

Lynch started playing football since he was five years old and always as a linebacker. His athleticism does not go unnoticed. He is big, he is tall, and his neck could easily be mistaken for a tree truck. He can bench press 300 pounds and can squat 575 pounds as well.

He played football, baseball and, in middle school, had a brief stint playing basketball but ended up not liking it. Currently, aside from football, he also participates in baseball and shot put and discus for the Bearcats. But overall, he said, football has his heart.

“I love football,” he said. “I like everything about it. I love waking up early and going to the workouts, practicing and hanging out with all my friends. It was awesome and I loved it.”

Lynch credits his ability to understand football to the time he invested during and after practice and the amount of time he’s been playing the game. He said reacting to the plays in a game just comes easy to him.

“I studied a lot of film, a lot more than last year that is for sure,” he said. “I looked at the scout reports all the time. I remember they would line up and I knew what they were running. Me and Javon knew what they were running because we watched so much film, so I think that helped me a lot.”

Lynch said he knew about the record but didn’t really think about it. Focusing and winning were his main priorities as the season progressed.

“We were winning all year, and we couldn’t get comfortable,” he said. “We had to keep working hard because the next week there was another team and we had to go beat them. We knew that we needed to go take care of business because anything could happen. We just kept doing that every week, so I was not really worried or thinking about the record.”

Coach David knows exactly the hard work and ethic that Connor brings to the football field. David became the Bearcats coach when Connor was in his sophomore year.

“It’s kind of bittersweet because I was at fourth,” he said. “But I am very honored he got something like this. He deserves it. Records are meant to be broken. Connor has been on varsity for four years and has worked hard those four years. It’s a great accomplishment, especially with the story and tradition that Pilot Point has.

“Connor plays old school football. He does not mind hitting and he does not mind getting dirty and I like that. For the most part, he was fairly healthy the last two years and that helped us a lot.”

David and Connor have not talked regarding the record being broken, but David said, “Connor is a winner so I’m pretty sure he’ll give me a hard time and I’ll give him a hard time, but regardless, we’ll have a good laugh about it.”

“He is more worried about winning than anything else. When you play that way, that is when things do come your way. That is when you do break records and stuff like that.

“He is a good kid, and we’re going to miss him.”