The name Patrick Mahomes has been around for years.

His father, Pat Mahomes, enjoyed an 11-year Major League career as a relief pitcher. And his son burst onto the local scene in 2010 when he helped lead a Tyler-based Little League baseball team to the Junior League World Series in Michigan.

In less than three years, the younger Mahomes has gone from local boyhood hero to national college football recruit.

Thanks to a stellar junior season, the Whitehouse quarterback is the 2012 ETSN.fm East Texas Super Team Offensive Newcomer of the Year.

Mahomes passed for more than 3,800 yards and 46 touchdowns in leading the Wildcats to a 10-2 record and an area-finalist finish in the Class 4A Division II playoffs. HIs numbers may have been even better had he not split snaps with fellow junior Ryan Cheatham through the first two games of the season.

“Once I started playing the whole game, I knew that I had kinda gotten that leadership role, especially being a quarterback on a mostly throwing team,” Mahomes said. “Once I was taking all the snaps, I got confidence; I was the man that had to make the plays and make things happen in order for our offense to roll.”

The honor comes days after his recruitment in both football and baseball have started to pick up. He currently holds offers in football from Texas Tech and Rice, and Arizona, Arkansas and Rice in baseball. Mahomes has also been invited to participate in three football junior days -- Texas A&M this Sunday, Baylor on Feb. 2, Texas Tech on Feb. 9 and SMU on Feb. 16.

“It’s going to be a lot of decisions,” Mahomes said. “I’m going to try to play to the best of my abilities and I’ll listen to what everyone has to say, and I’ll talk about it with my parents and I’ll make a decision from there.”

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