Lake Zurich senior wide receiver Jackson Piggott is keeping it in the family — and adding more.
The most decorated pass catcher in program history, Piggott has broken the Bears’ career records for receiving yards and receptions and is within reach of the career record for touchdown catches.
Piggott’s older brother James, who graduated from Lake Zurich in 2020, had held the yardage record.
“I like to make jokes now, and he doesn’t like to hear them,” Piggott said. “We argue about who the better receiver is, and I just say to look at the stats. He pulls out a bunch of reasons that don’t make sense.”
Lake Zurich quarterbacks have good reason to throw the ball to the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Piggott, who set the new marks for career receptions in Week 2 and career receiving yards in Week 5. He will go into the Bears’ North Suburban Conference game against Warren in Gurnee on Friday with 87 catches for 1,394 yards and 11 touchdowns in his career. He’s three TDs shy of the program record.
“I think I’ve been pretty reliable, and that has helped the connection between me and the quarterback and the coaches,” Piggott said. “Especially since last year, when we’ve needed a big play, I feel like the team could rely on me to make one.”
Indeed, Piggott has done that over and over again since 2022. Back then, Lake Zurich’s top receiving target was Tyler Erkman, who is a starting safety at North Dakota. Piggott recalled that Erkman’s presence helped lay the groundwork for him.
“I saw how teams would adjust their defense to account for him,” Piggott said. “In our Batavia game (in the Class 7A state semifinals), there were two or three guys always on him, and that opened up a touchdown for me.”
Erkman’s graduation opened up significantly more opportunities for Piggott, who has 28 catches for 414 yards and four touchdowns in his second season as the No. 1 target for the Bears (4-3, 4-1).
“We’ve had to become creative to make sure he gets the ball, which is fun,” Lake Zurich coach Ron Planz said. “There have been few teams that have been able to stop him. We feel like on 50-50 balls, it’s more 70-30 or 80-20 that he comes down with it. It’s been his show for two years.”
Piggott is used in a variety of formations and runs a variety of routes, mostly designed to make it difficult for defenders to pick up tendencies.
“Once I started getting more catches last year, I noticed a safety shifting over to my side,” Piggott said. “So this year I’ve been on the wing, in the slot, everywhere. It’s about how I’ll fit in each week.”
For two games, that even meant Piggott lined up as a cornerback due to an injury among Lake Zurich’s safeties. In the second game, against Zion-Benton on Oct. 4, Piggott made two interceptions. He also scored a touchdown on offense.
“Being a receiver made it a lot easier to step in because I knew a lot of what the receivers would be trying to do,” he said.
Piggott is back at receiver exclusively and has been adjusting to a new quarterback, junior Reid Pfeifer, who was pressed into duty against Libertyville on Sept. 20 when senior Cole Kenyon suffered a season-ending knee injury. Pfeifer has completed 21 of 28 passes for 302 yards in three-plus games.
But Piggott and Pfeifer have known each other since they were young. Piggott also went out of his way to work with Pfeifer even when Kenyon was starting, just in case Pfeifer got the call.
“I never imagined I’d be throwing passes to him, but practicing with him over the years has built trust, and we’ve gotten our timing down,” Pfeifer said. “The last few defenses we’ve faced have been man, so even something like comeback routes have kept the chains moving. I always know he’ll be open.”
Piggott knows that, as well, and over time he has embraced the reality that Lake Zurich relies on him.
“I love having to beat their top guy,” he said. “Part of that stress makes my play rise. Competing against the best makes the success you have feel that much better.”
Now Piggott is breaking records.
“It’s obviously cool to know that I’m in the history books at Lake Zurich,” he said. “Records like these are a blessing, and I imagine I’ll be able to reflect on them more after the season is over.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
