Fairview’s Jordan Rechel scored five touchdowns in a single quarter against rival-Boulder as a junior. Then somehow trumped that performance this past fall season, scoring on his first four touches in an October win over Prairie View.

“We use the term ‘Once in a generation’ type player,” Knights longtime coach Tom McCartney said when talking about the Daily Camera offensive football player of the year.

Rechel, a senior, led the 5A classification in touchdowns for a second straight season in 2024, scoring 29 times while leading Fairview to its first semifinal appearance in 11 years.

His 86 career scores puts him 23rd on the state’s all-time list. And he’s also among the few players to record both 3,000 receiving and 2,000 rushing yards, finishing his career with 3,494 and 2,413 for the Knights.

“He’s first-team, all-conference, all-state, all-Colorado,” McCartney said. “Then when you look at all the different ways he’s scored — taking a kickoff back, a punt back, an interception back, a fumble recovery back. He’s running the football, catching it. He’s just an unbelievable once-in-a-generation type player.”

McCartney, who’s won 232 games since taking over at Fairview in 1993, 17th-most in state history, said he knew Rechel was special within the first week of seeing him. He raved about the freshman’s ability to the track the ball and make plays with his hands and legs, and started him right away. By his sophomore season, Rechel was named an all-conference wide receiver. As a junior, he was decorated while playing at both wideout and defensive back.

In his final two seasons, he was selected as team captain, and later, a CHSAA 5A first teamer. Only Rechel and the state’s career passing TD record holder — Mountain Vista’s Austyn Modrzewski — were voted to CHSAA’s 5A first team by coaches in 2023 and ‘24.

Not bad for an “undersized” player.

“You know, coaches have overlooked me (during recruiting) because I don’t really pass the eye test at first as a receiver,” said Rechel, who is listed 5-foot-10, 160 pounds. “But I’ve been in the weight room since the season ended, getting bigger, getting faster, getting stronger. But I think on tape, I show how hard I play.”

Rechel is taking his time to decide where he’ll end up next. The process hasn’t been easy, he said. But he’s embraced it.

“I like when things get a little hard sometimes because it shows who you are as a person,” Rechel said. “Whenever things happen or adversity strikes, I really just try and stay positive. Just stay true to myself and keep the main things the main thing.”

The same was true on the field this season.

Of all his performances as a four-year starter, Rechel called his team’s comeback win over high-powered Mountain Vista in the 5A quarterfinals his favorite.

Why? — “because nobody thought we would win,” he said.

A game interrupted by a power outage and relocated to a different stadium after halftime, the Knights rallied from an 11-point deficit in the final minutes to stun the second-ranked Golden Eagles, who’d been Colorado’s most dominant team up to that point.

Ki Ellison connected with Ryder Villarreal for a late TD and Rechel followed it with a successful two-point conversion run to cut the lead to 45-42 with 2:15 remaining.

Villarreal recovered the ensuing onside kick and junior Toray Davis caught the game-winning TD with 27 ½ seconds left.

As for Rechel: He finished ‘The Game of the Year’ with 117 rushing and 147 receiving yards, scoring three times against a defense that came in allowing just seven points per game on average.

Fairview’s season ended in a loss to Legend a week later.

“We had a lot of camaraderie this year and went through a lot of adversity,” Rechel said. “We had eight two-way starters in our last game. A group of 20 guys, 22 guys, that were just locked in the whole year, playing for each other, playing for Coach, and we did something special.”