It’s not hard to find Odessa High’s Ivan Carreon on the football field.
At 6-foot-6, he towers above many of his teammates … and opponents, a fact that he put to good use during the 2021 season.
A sophomore, Carreon was an unknown quantity when the Bronchos made the drive to face Lubbock Monterey in the season opener on the final weekend of August.
After 48 minutes against the Plainsmen, he was suddenly front and center in the minds of the next nine defensive coordinators that Odessa High would face the rest of the way.
With seven catches for 134 yards and one touchdown, it was as perfect a debut as Carreon and the coaching staff could have hoped for heading into the contest.
“I was pretty nervous before the first game,” Carreon said. “The coaches told me that I was going to be starting in my first varsity game.
“But when I caught my first pass, I was able to relax and go from there.”
Go, indeed.
Carreon used the breakout effort in Lubbock to launch a season of catching the football unlike any other Bronchos’ receiver.
He finished with 77 catches for 1,114 yards and seven touchdowns.
The receptions and yardage are single-season records and just seven catches and 15 yards shy of setting Bronchos’ career marks.
Carreon set another program mark with 12 receptions in a single game, accomplishing the feat against Wichita Falls Rider and Wolfforth Frenship.
On seven different occasions, he caught passes for more than 100 yards in a game, with a high of 175 against Del Rio.
For his efforts throughout his first season at the varsity level, Carreon has been selected as the Odessa American’s Newcomer of the Year.
“When we got here, you could tell he was still kind of timid, you could tell he was a freshman,” Bronchos offensive coordinator Creighton Reed said. “He was more athletic than any freshman I’ve ever seen before.
“Normally you see a kid’s that’s 6-6 and they kind of have baby deer legs and don’t really know how to control their body. Well he knew how to control his body; he was very good at route running and catching the football.”
There is a direct correlation between Carreon’s breakout season and the arrival of new head coach Dusty Ortiz.
Ortiz’s offensive scheme is built around getting the ball downfield and Reed is a perfect conductor, moving the players around into spots they can be the most successful.
Helping Carreon was quarterback Diego Cervantes’ breakout season in which he averaged more than 300 yards passing per game.
Fellow wide receiver Terrance Samuel also eased the pressure on his younger teammate, catching 50 passes for 720 yards and six scores.
Additionally, Samuel guided his younger charge in what it takes to be successful at the varsity level.
“He was one of the leaders on the team,” Carreon said of Samuel. “He worked hard and helped me in running my routes.
“Diego and I started working together during 7-on-7 last spring and it carried over to the summer and into the season.”
Carreon understands that he no longer is under the radar and that moving forward, he is going to have to find ways to get away from defenders at the line of scrimmage.
If need be, however, he’s content in taking the double coverage on one side of the field because that means a teammate is going to be single covered on the other side.
“We have some good guys coming back and if they want to double me, those guys are going to be open,” Carreon said. “That’s only going to help us win games, something we all want.
“This was a good year for us, but we want more next year. We want to be in the playoffs.”
>> Follow Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide
IVAN CARREON, WR/QB
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
ODESSA HIGH, 6-6, 195, SOPH.
>> Key Stats: Caught a program single-season record 77 passes for a single-season record 1,114 yards, finishing with seven touchdown, the first receiver in OHS history with more than 1,000 yards receiving in a season
>> Odessa High coach Dusty Ortiz says: “As far as the way he played, being a sophomore, was really impressive. He was solid all year and when we needed him, he stepped up and showed us some things that a sophomore normally doesn’t do.”
