Talented but humble Laws leads Thunderbirds

"I just thought it was the best part," the East High junior said. "It's fun scoring touchdowns."

The 6-foot-2 Laws hauled in nine touchdowns in eight games this season, impressive considering East's passing game produced 10 touchdowns.

Laws, who also plays defensive back, is a big reason the Thunderbirds reached the state playoffs for the first time since 2007. His 31 receptions make up more than half the team's total and his 620 receiving yards account for about two-thirds of East's aerial assault.

First-year East coach Jeff Trotter said Laws is equipped with great football instincts that enable him to find openings in the defense, but his humility and mental approach to the game is his best attribute.

"Good attitude, modest, truly modest," Trotter said. "He's not a 'me' guy at all."

Though Laws prefers to remain inconspicuous, averaging 20 yards per catch tends to catch the eye of opposing defenses. Laws said by the midway point of the season, he was often getting double-teamed.

Laws gradually made his presence felt. He caught one pass for 10 yards in a season-opening 14-0 loss to Palmer, but caught two passes the next week, a 29-yard and 33-yard touchdown against defending state champion West.

East won that game 28-9 and Laws' touchdowns did much more than help the Thunderbirds gain a victory.

"I think that West game honestly changed the whole season," Trotter said. "These kids finally got that feeling that this can be done, that some of the plays they were practicing actually worked."

Trotter said Laws can be a quiet leader, but he can also grab his teammates' attention when the situation calls for it.

"If we need to get fired up, he gets going and the rest of the team gets going," Trotter said.

After the victory over West, the Thunderbirds lost two in a row and desperately needed to get going. At 1-2 in the Cook Inlet Conference (1-3 overall), East was in danger of missing the playoffs for a fourth straight season, but Laws got the team going again with his best game of the season against Dimond. He caught eight passes for 156 yards, both season-highs, and matched a season-high with three touchdowns against Dimond.

Laws was quiet in a win over Eagle River the next week but helped East clinch a playoff berth with a 100-yard receiving effort that included a 60-yard touchdown in a win against Bartlett.

East lost its last two games to finish 4-3 in the CIC (4-4 overall) to earn the conference's third playoff seed. The T-Birds play tonight against Juneau, the No. 2 seed from the Railbelt Conference.

Trotter said he expects a rowdy Juneau crowd of 3,000 or more to support the 7-1 Crimson Bears, who have made the state semifinals seven of the last eight years and won two titles in that time.

"They're huge and they have really good cornerbacks," Laws said. "It's gonna be fun to hear the crowd. It should be a good game."

Laws' favorite subject in school is history, and when it comes to the history of championship football in Alaska, he is well aware that the last time East won a state title was 2003, when his brother Derek quarterbacked the Thunderbirds to a win over Juneau in the championship game.

Jarred is also following in the footsteps of brother Andre, who played wide receiver for East before graduating in 1998. Both big brothers live out of state but they still influence their little brother.

"They're always behind me," Laws said. "I see film on my brothers and I try to play like them."

Laws mostly strives to emulate his brothers' competitive fire -- the way they maintained intensity from the start of a game to its finish.

"They never give up," he said. "They want people to fear them."

At the pace Laws is on, opposing teams might understandably start fearing him, but he isn't one to let success go to his head.

"I try to stay humble about it," he said. "My parents always taught me to be humble, 'cause someone is always watching."

Reach Jeremy Peters at jpeters@adn.com or 257-4335.