It's Patu's time now; his faith and family have prepared him

Ari Patu has been molded by his faith and a competitive family of athletes to have the maturity beyond his years that he's used to keep perspective in times when typical young men might be frustrated.

That characteristic as much as anything explains what drew him to Stanford and impressed the Cardinal coaches.

Patu is poised to be the next quarterback at Sacramento area Folsom High in the fall. One of the best teams in the state for the last decade, it is famous for its up-tempo, pass-heavy offense, which is sure to give Patu his first real chance to shine in the spotlight.

He expected that to happen his sophomore year.

Patu broke his leg in the second game of that season at Rainier Beach in Washington and last year he partnered with senior Jake Reithmeier in a two-quarterback system. (Patu often entered the game for the first time after a couple series.)

“His faith has been huge,” said his father, Saul. “He leans on his faith with the Lord and embraces the process. He understands that he doesn’t control all the factors. There has been a real maturity about him when it comes to understanding that regardless of whatever the circumstances are he’s not going to change his work ethic, how he treats his teammates, how he approaches the game. He has always prepared to be the starter.”

It has not been the ideal path for a highly competitive high school athlete. But Ari did what those around him have come to expect -- he looked for a way to grow through adversity.

“As a competitor, you always want to be that dude for your team and the guy leading the team out on the field," Ari said. "The situation was a little unique last year when I wasn’t the starter. Of course, I did everything I could to try to change that.

“Growing up in a family of athletes, that leadership aspect of the game came naturally to me. There were a lot of lessons I learned along the way from my parents and other mentors I’ve had throughout life. Even though I wasn’t leading on game day, walking out for that first snap, I was always doing my part leading in the weight room or during practice. Friday isn’t when the leadership turns on. When you’re a true leader you’re a leader 100 percent of the time.”

His father, Saul, played defensive line at Oregon from 1997-2000 and then for eight years in the NFL/AFL. Saul met his wife, Alana, at Oregon, where she played softball. Ari’s older brother, Orin, is a linebacker at Cal and his sister, Saniyah, plays basketball at Valdosta State.

His younger brother, Kayo, will be a freshman at Capital Christian next year, where Saul has taken over as head football coach.

The Patus didn’t set out to establish a competitive culture in the family, Saul said. That seems to have just happened naturally. What was purposeful was that their faith was also part of their athletic pursuits and competitive drive.

“We’ve taken that value of competing to be a good thing in our house -- whether it’s competing to do the right thing amidst a lot of things out there that may be moving in the opposite direction, or whether it be a sport.”

Ari has only known one way to approach every aspect of his life: Strive to be the best on the field, in the classroom and to do the right things every day to be a good person.

“For both my parents, God was a huge part of their journey in becoming athletes and sticking with it,” Ari said. “I think that’s the biggest thing they took away from their experiences in life and sports. That’s the biggest thing that impacted mine as well. I think the faith aspect of it is definitely hugely related to the athletics side as well. They go hand in hand for my family.

“Also, the competitiveness growing up in a family of athletes, everything was a competition. Whether it was who can finish their cereal first, who can get to the car first or everything was a competition. That becomes natural to you to compete and be the best version of you.”

A year ago at this time Ari was largely an unknown in the recruiting world. His transfer to Folsom got him some attention, though, and when he participated in camps it was obvious he had the physical tools to play the position.

But camp reps are not game reps and Patu didn’t have many of those under his belt. He hoped to change that last summer and fall.

Paul Doherty took over as Folsom head coach last season after a year as an assistant coach and head of the program’s strength and conditioning. One of the most important decisions he had to make was who to start at quarterback: the promising Patu or the established senior, Reithmeier.

“I don’t know if it’s a common scenario when maybe the best quarterback on the team doesn’t make the team the best team on the field,” he said of Reithmeier starting ahead of Patu.

“Ari is crazy competitive. He did me a huge favor in not causing as much conflict as he could have, or maybe even should have, not taking every rep so our football team was able to play well with both those guys. Make no mistake, that kid is a killer and he has a really high standard for himself.”

According to Maxpreps, Patu played in eight games and completed 57 of 102 pass attempts (55.9 percent) for 853 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. He carried the ball 40 times for 166 yards and scored four more touchdowns.

“The game reps were huge for me,” Patu said. “Week by week it was steady progress in terms of production. When I got there the competition was open, but I needed to learn the offense and Folsom’s offense is complex and has a lot of moving pieces.

“Of course, going into week one I had an understanding of the offense -- I knew that this play meant this and this protection meant this -- but the longer you’re in an offense the more comfortable you feel. You have a sense for the game and you have trust of what’s happening. I think that was the biggest thing going against me.”

Those 102 throws last season are a large enough sample size to easily pick out areas where Patu needs to show improvement next season. No number stands out more than the completion percentage. Patu and Doherty had a plan to make that a focus for his development this offseason, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult.

Doherty has already seen improvement, though. Folsom lost to Monterey Trail in the section playoffs the day before Thanksgiving and Doherty recalled that Ari was on a field the next day with about 10 of his receivers. Patu threw with them for about three weeks straight and Doherty said he was on the money with his passes.

“Last season he was maybe not as consistent or accurate because he was playing a two-quarterback system with kids who were new to him,” Doherty said. “He hadn’t had enough time and reps to be dialed in with those guys. He bought into that and I think it paid off. The offers started coming in.”

Schools such as Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, Colorado, ASU and others offered Patu based on what they thought his potential ceiling could be. It’s also a fact of recruiting that all those schools are not shy about offering multiple quarterbacks -- sometimes more than 10 in a class -- and having a tiered system on their board of who has a “committable offer”.

Stanford only wanted to make one offer at quarterback in the 2021 class and Ari got the call on March 25. He announced his commitment April 14.

Ari grew up an Oregon fan for obvious reasons, but from a young age Saul saw in his son certain characteristics that made it unsurprising that by the time high school started Ari gravitated to Stanford.

“When Ari was in elementary school he came to his mom and I and was super excited. We were trying to figure out why he was so excited and it was because he figured out something that he really wanted to do. We asked him what it was and he told us that he was going to create the very first car that ran on air. We were like, ‘Something is different about you, but that’s awesome. Go play with your brother now.’”

His brother will soon be his competition. In a funny twist of recruiting, Ari and Orin will face off against each other in the Bay Area “Big Game” rivalry. Fellow Folsom junior Kaleb Higgins is committed to play defensive back at Cal and will compete against his brother, Elijah, a rising sophomore wide receiver at Stanford.

“This has been a topic of conversation for a while,” Ari laughed. “(Orin’s) happy for me and wants the best for me. Of course, he wishes I was with him at Cal but he’s happy for me and excited to play against me.

“We have a $10,000 bet that in a minimum of two games started against each other he will not sack me. That’s a little rivalry going on there. I think we made that bet in fifth or sixth grade. That (dollar amount) may drop down a bit.”

Stanford head coach David Shaw and offensive coordinator Tavita Pritchard are hopeful that Ari develops into the type of quarterback who can easily cover a bet like that with his first NFL contract.

Ari is confident he found the right fit to become the best version of himself possible.

“When you go to Stanford you’re surrounded by great people everywhere you go, not just in football. You can go to class and be around some of the greatest people in the world. There’s a reason it’s such a prestigious university -- it’s not the buildings, but the people who come in.

“No one is big-timing. They’re all just regular dudes living their best life in Palo Alto. I felt like it was a place I could go be myself and not worry about this guy or that guy.”