QB Magazine Athlete Feature
The game was not going well. That is where the story Dylan Perry wanted to tell begins.
“I was not playing well,” the Class of 2030 quarterback said. “And my dad talked to me and settled me down, and I went out there and performed better. We won the game.”
Asked for the most memorable moment of his football career, Perry did not pick a touchdown, a championship, or a highlight. He picked the afternoon someone talked him off a ledge — and then he went and fixed it.
That answer is worth sitting with, because most players choose the play where they looked best. Perry chose the one where he looked worst, and then got better inside the same game. It is a small distinction that says a great deal about how he measures himself.
The Throughline
Ask Perry about almost any part of his football life and the same person keeps appearing.
He started playing at five, and the reason was Sundays.
“Going to NFL football games with my dad.”
Ask who has had the greatest impact on his development, and the answer is one line that doubles as a philosophy.
“My dad always pushed me to be 1 percent better everyday.”
One percent is a deliberately unimpressive number. It is not a pep talk about being great; it is a rate. It means the goal on any given day is small enough to actually hit, and the results only show up if you keep hitting it for years. For an eighth grader in Pinole with a high school career still in front of him, it is roughly the most useful thing a parent could hand him.
And when the game went sideways, it was his dad who settled him down.
Origin, method, and rescue. Same guy, three times.
Moving Up
The hardest thing Perry has faced was a promotion.
“Moving up to a higher division,” he said. “And overcoming it by listening to my coach and having my teams support.”
Playing up is a specific kind of difficult — everything speeds up at once, and the things that worked at the level below stop working. His answer to it involved no heroics. He listened to his coach and leaned on his teammates, which is what the situation actually calls for.
His definition of the position lines up with that: studying, team camaraderie, holding yourself accountable, and leading by example.
Mendoza
His favorite quarterback is not an NFL star, which by itself makes the pick interesting.
“Fernando Mendoza. I admire the way he takes his leadership in football and in life serious. He is a team first guy.”
There is a local angle worth noting — <cite index=”4-1″>Mendoza spent three seasons at California in Berkeley before transferring to Indiana in 2025</cite>, which put him about twenty minutes down the road from Pinole for most of Perry’s football life. And then came the part everyone saw: <cite index=”4-1″>Mendoza led the Hoosiers to an undefeated season and a national championship, and won the Heisman Trophy.</cite>
But Perry singled out leadership in football and in life, which is a fair read of the player. <cite index=”6-1″>Mendoza is a founding member of a global organization supporting youth in need, organized a turkey drive that fed hundreds of families in Miami-Dade County, and helped host a football clinic for youth with and without disabilities while at Cal.</cite>
A thirteen-year-old picking that quarterback, for those reasons, is a decent signal about what he is trying to become.
The Work
Perry trains with NorCal Passing Academy and has been through First Down Training and the AJ Greene youth camp.
His goals are split neatly between the technical and the personal. Short-term, he wants better footwork and a deeper understanding of defensive coverages. Long-term, he says simply that he wants to work on being more of a leader.
Not a bigger arm. Not faster. A leader.
What he loves about the sport, he says, is the competitive side, learning the game, and the camaraderie of a team. High school is coming, the divisions will keep getting harder, and the plan stays the same as it has always been.
One percent.
A Note on Memberships
Dylan is heading toward his first high school season with a clear pair of goals — cleaner footwork, better coverage recognition — and a training habit built around small daily gains.
Heading into the fall, an upgraded QB Magazine membership adds a professionally designed athlete graphic, feature placement across QB Magazine’s channels, and a profile that grows season by season as he does. For a player whose whole approach is incremental improvement, having each season recorded as it happens is what makes that progress visible — a documented line rather than a page put together later on.
Explore membership options at quarterbackmagazine.com/memberships.