Alex Wakefield is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Higley for AZPreps365.com

A chorus of whistles directs Higley High School’s offensive unit towards midfield. The sanitized version of Kanye West’s “Power” blasts from Higley’s stadium speakers.

It’s 4:54 p.m. on a cloudless 99-degree Tuesday in Gilbert, and Higley’s varsity football practice is coming to a close the way it always does: a final run through of the Knights’ hurry-up offense.

A nightmare for opposing defenses and those keeping stats, Higley’s hurry-up requires elite conditioning and breakneck speed. Higley has the athletes for it: short passes to junior running back Daxen Hall at full speed are a staple, and it often concludes with a touchdown pass to one of the Knights’ dynamic duo of senior wide receivers, Dominic Esposito and Carter Hancock. At its best, the scheme can operate with machine-like precision.

A machine, however, is only as reliable as its engine. And the Knights may have among the strongest engines in Arizona high school football with sophomore quarterback Jamar Malone II.

Listed on MaxPreps as 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, Malone II uses his encyclopedic knowledge of Higley’s offense to communicate plays to his line and receivers, and calmly executes. It is a complicated and fast-paced offensive system made to look easy by a quarterback of equal parts size and precision.

However, Malone II’s road to stardom as Higley football’s QB1 was hardly easy.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in the spring of Malone II’s seventh-grade year. Living in Los Angeles at the time, the Malone family faced the same challenges as every other family — with the added pressure of ensuring Jamar could continue to develop on the football field.

“In LA things were shut down basically,” Jamar Malone Sr., Jamar’s father, said. “We were pretty much on house arrest for 18 months. Football was completely canceled at the collegiate, high school, and youth level.”

After a completely upended 2020 high school football season across the state of California, the fate of LA’s 2021 season — Malone II’s freshman year — remained unclear well into the summer. For a family with strong roots in Southern California, this presented a difficult choice.

“It put us in a situation of trying to make a determination on what we were going to do his freshman year,” Malone Sr. said. “We know how important freshman year is to the development of an athlete.”

The Malones had traveled to Arizona a number of times for club football tournaments, and had developed a familiarity with the Phoenix area. Uncertainty surrounding LA’s high school football schedule led the Malone family to consider whether, for the sake of Malone II’s development, it was time to make a move.

“It came down to the decision entering into high school of what were we going to do?” said Malone Sr., who was born and raised in Los Angeles. “Were we going to not have a season or have an augmented season? Or were we going to move him somewhere where he could play a full season and really get that year of development that’s crucial for his position and for an athlete in general? So, we decided to make the move to Arizona.”

Malone II is now four games into his second season at Higley. Many may hear a big-time player has moved to an Arizona high school and assume they’ve arrived at a nationally recognized program like Chandler or Saguaro. Although Malone II certainly has the talent to play a premier role at any program in Arizona (and likely the country), the Malones sought a different track for Jamar.

“We decided to put him in a program that really allowed for his development,” Malone Sr. said. “[We] visited Higley, went on a tour, met Coach [Eddy] Zubey, got a good tour from the athletic director [Aaron Dille], got an opportunity to talk to Coach Zubey about football, and it just really looked like it was an opportunity to help a program grow, and to help Jamar develop all of the things that a quarterback needs to develop outside of throwing, running, and reading a defense. You know, to help him with leadership, how to win in other ways and facing adversity.”

To those who have seen Malone II play this season, the development is clear. The improvement has not only been stark from last season to now, it’s also clear from game to game. Malone II named and credited nearly every wide receiver on Higley’s roster before explaining that his own play wasn’t at the top of his mind.

“As of right now, I’m not really paying attention to that stuff,” Malone II said. “I’m more focused on the team-oriented goals, making the playoffs and making it to state. I’m not really concerned with what my personal stats are.”

For those who are concerned, Malone II leads the state in both total touchdowns (19) and total yards (1,559) among players who have played in four games (via MaxPreps). That comes out to 4.75 TDs and 390 yards per game. His standout performances have earned him a plethora of Division I offers, including Tennessee, Oregon and Utah.

As for Malone II’s team-oriented goals? The Knights are 4-0 and ranked third among azcentral’s 5A conference rankings. Zubey believes Malone II is a key part of that success.

“Jamar is the steward of our offensive ship,” Zubey said. “He’s the trigger man. His football IQ is off the charts. It’s really good. Just having him back there, just making sure when I screw up calls or the calls are screwed up that he makes us right.”

Malone II said that his family’s move has also paid dividends off the field.

“It’s been great, moving from California to Gilbert,” he said. “Slower pace, quiet, not the busy city, I kind of like that vibe. You can stroll around at night, walk around and see squirrels and stuff running around.”

Zubey said Malone II is also known as a standout in the classroom, taking the Honors or AP equivalent of each available class. Malone II’s Twitter bio includes his GPA (3.9), and he said he often works on homework after football games on Friday nights. Despite a rigorous school and training schedule, Malone II still finds ways to balance his life and enjoy football.

“My parents tell me to act like a kid,” he said. “You’re only going to be a kid for so long. So they say, just relax, have fun while you’re doing this. It’s a sport so you’re supposed to have fun. I would like to relax while I’m doing it.”

Not often do you hear nearly five touchdowns and almost 400 yards per game described as relaxing. But that’s exactly what it is for Jamar Malone II.