Sabe David is having his best year as quarterback for the 5-2 Pirates. (Photo Michael Odendahl)
Sabe David was the named the Gulf Coast Bank's Offensive Player of the Week honors. Handing him his shirt is Murphy Guilbeaux of Gulf Coast Bank.
Kaplan's Sabe David no longer a 'manager of the game' quarterback
KAPLAN - Before this season kicked off, senior Kaplan quarterback Sabe David described his role with the Pirates as “the manager of the game.”
For the first 22 games of his sophomore and junior years, David mainly handed the ball off to the running backs and watched them hustle down the field.
During those seasons, he might have thrown for around 400 yards total.
Before this year, he had only topped 100 passing yards once in 23 games, and that was during a big win against Beau Chene.
Last year, in 12 games, he didn’t hit the 100-yard mark in any game, sometimes completing just one pass for as little as four yards.
But everything turned around in 2025 when a new head coach came in and shook things up.
With head coach John Thompson at the helm, the Pirates switched to a spread offense, putting David in the shotgun formation.
The days of just handing off the ball and letting the running backs rack up yards are behind him.
This year’s Pirates team is excited to have David, who’s on track to throw for around 900 yards based on how he’s been playing.
Yep, you read that right—900 yards!
In his last four games, he’s been averaging 100 yards per game in passing.
In last week’s win against Southern Lab, he threw for 113 yards, completing nine out of 13 passes.
Over those last four games, David has completed 68 percent of his passes (23 out of 34) for a total of 428 yards. For the season, he’s completed 29 out of 53 passes for 581 yards, giving him a 55 percent completion rate. He’s thrown eight touchdowns and, out of those 53 attempts, he’s only had one interception, which happened in the first game of the year.
So, for the last six games, David hasn’t thrown any interceptions, and the Pirates are doing great with a 5-1 record overall.
David really enjoys his new role as a full-time quarterback, noting how different it feels compared to just being a “manager of the game” quarterback.
“It’s so much more fun.” David shared on Monday. “Being able to throw the ball really boosts our offense. By opening up the passing game, we give defenses a lot more to think about.”
In the last two games, David has thrown for 208 yards, while Kaplan’s ground game has racked up over 700 yards.
“I really believe that throwing the football helps open up the ground game,” David mentioned.
His standout game this year was during the loss to Loreauville, where he completed seven out of nine passes for 120 yards.
With Thompson joining in August, just four weeks before the season kicked off, the whole Pirate offense had to get used to new terms and plays for the spread offense. A lot of the pressure to learn quickly fell on David, as he and his teammates had to get the hang of the new system in a short time.
His new head coach loves watching him play. “I can’t say enough good things about him,” Thompson said.
Prior to arriving at Kaplan, Coach Thompson was an assistant coach at Vermilion Catholic, which is a school that produces quarterbacks who throw for 1,000 or more yards a season. One of the first things he did when he arrived at Kaplan was watch film of David. One of the first things he recognized was David’s strong arm.
With three games remaining in the regular season, David has a chance to reach the 1,000 yard mark throwing the football. He would have to average 133 yards a game passing. In 1986, Darren Touchet threw for 1,100 yards in 11 games.
“I am not worried about that,” he said. “If I throw for 100 yards and Kaplan wins, that is great. If I only throw for a few yards and Kaplan wins, that is also great. I care about the wins more.”
