Saturday night’s Freedom Bowl Classic at Kiggins Bowl is the last chance for many of Clark County’s top graduated seniors to play football, as most won’t go on to play in college.

Union’s Kaben Humphrey-Butler looks at the Freedom Bowl as a last chance of sorts, too. It will be his last chance to compete with, and in some cases, against, some people he grew up playing with in youth and high school football.

But Humphrey-Butler is determined to extend his football future beyond Saturday night’s all-star game that benefits the Shriners Hospitals for Children. In February, he signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Central Washington, where he’ll enroll in the fall.

If he is to eventually earn the starting job, or even meaningful playing time, he’ll have to stand out against stiff competition. Central Washington signed five quarterbacks in its 2012 class. Undoubtedly, there will be attrition.

“I love to compete. I don’t like anything given to me,” said Humphrey-Butler, Union’s starting quarterback the past two years. “I’ve seen the other guys play. It’ll be fun going up and competing. I’m just going to go up and do the best I can. At the end of the day, if someone else is better than me, so be it.”

He reached college-level competition because of his love for football. Because he’s 6-foot-3, friends encouraged him to play basketball, but it didn’t interest him enough to put in the time.

He has some baseball bloodlines; his father, Michael, played at Clark College, and for a time in the minor leagues. But Humphrey-Butler gave up baseball in seventh grade because “I kind of got burned out playing it in the summer. Plus I went on a little growth spurt and got a little uncoordinated.”

Not so in football. He started with flag football in second grade, tackle football in third grade, and has yet to miss a season.

“Everything I dedicated my time to went to football,” he said.

Playing quarterback was an acquired taste. When offered a shot at the position in seventh grade, “I hated the thought of playing it.” But then, “I figured out I could touch the ball on every play.”

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