High-Schooler Mark McDonagh Nears All-Time, All-Football Receiving Record

Mark McDonagh, a senior at Riverside-Brookfield High School in suburban Chicago, is likely to do something on Friday that no one, at any level of organized football, has ever done: Catch his 145th pass in a season.

McDonagh already owns the national high school record for pass receptions in one season with 143 catches this year. But 143 catches in a season isn't only the high school record: It also happens to be the exact record in both the NFL (set by Marvin Harrison of the Indianapolis Colts in 2002) and the NCAA (set by Nick Smart of Division II Southwest Baptist in 2007).

The only player in the history of American football who has ever caught more than 143 balls in a season was Chris George of Glenville State College in West Virginia. George owns the NAIA record with 144 catches in 1993.

McDonagh only needs two catches to break George's record, and considering that McDonagh averages more than 17 catches a game (!), it's probably safe to say he's going to break the record in Riverside-Brookfield's game against Ridgewood on Friday.

At this point, I know what you're thinking: How on earth can anyone catch 17 passes a game? Well, it just so happens that I've seen McDonagh play (my nephew is a teammate of McDonagh's at Riverside-Brookfield), and I can report that the offense, while not like anything you'd see in an NFL game, is a lot more than just some gimmick designed to feed one player the ball.

Riverside-Brookfield uses a sophisticated passing game not unlike the offense Mike Leach runs at Texas Tech. It mixes in some deep balls with a lot of quick throws to McDonagh and other receivers near the line of scrimmage, and although Riverside-Brookfield hardly ever runs, some of the short passes to McDonagh aren't much different from handoffs.

After setting the national high school record, McDonagh told MaxPreps.com, "It feels great – pretty cool. It's nice to have a record that's long-term. I didn't expect these kind of numbers. It's been fun and my teammates have been doing a great job."

McDonagh has been doing a great job, too. And on Friday he'll do something that has never been done before.