One of the 17 players from Mater Dei of Santa Ana since 1980 to gain first team all-state honors for baseball was Blake Hunt (left) in 2017. At right is pitcher John Gavin from St. Francis of Mountain View in 2014. He is one of 14 players from that school to be on the same all-state team. Photos: Twitter.com & Norbert von der Groeben / SportStars.
With the MLB playoffs coming to a close, we’re matching a previous project for boys and girls basketball in counting up schools with the most all-state first team honorees in baseball. We’ve got these teams going back to 1980, just in time to get a promising outfielder from Serra of San Mateo chosen twice. The Padres are one of the leaders for all-state selections with 18, but the leader with 21 is a school that didn’t exist until 1990 — Rancho Bernardo of San Diego. Also right near the top are Chatsworth, Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Elk Grove and Riverside Poly. We have all of the players listed underneath their school.
Note: The following lists are based on first team overall selections only. They are not lists of players who should have been all-state. All of them were actually chosen at the end of these seasons. These do not include any divisional all-state choices or those named to all-state underclass. We hadn’t had our teams from the 1980-1989 seasons on this site before today, but we pulled those teams from our archives and put them on our all-state landing page. The first year of all-state teams for baseball by Cal-Hi Sports was for the 1979-80 school year (41 years ago).
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Rancho Bernardo’s Sam Blalock worked with nine No. 1 MLB draft picks during his legendary career as a head coach. Photo: PomeradoNews.com.
RANCHO BERNARDO (SAN DIEGO)
Jason Berni (1997)
Brandon Berry (2012)
Hank Blalock (1999)
Jake Blalock (2002)
Tom Caple (1998, 1999)
John Drennen (2004, 2005)
Drew Finley (2015)
Cole Hamels (2002)
Scott Heard (2000)
Alex Jackson (2013, 2014)
Jaime Jones (1994, 1995)
Gosuke Katoh (2013)
Calvin Mitchell (2016, 2017)
Danny Putnam (2001)
Matt Wheatland (2000)
Brian Wilson (2005)
Notes: That’s 21 first team all-state picks from 16 players since the school opened in 1990. The other schools with almost similar totals to the Broncos (although 21 is the most) had players chosen all-state in the 1980s. Longtime head coach Sam Blalock, the second winningest in state history who retired after the 2017 season, is obviously the reason for all of those players getting selected. Before coming to RB, Blalock was at Mt. Carmel of San Diego where he had a number of other all-state players, including Billy Beane in 1980 (our first all-state team) and two-time Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year Eric Chavez.
One of the state’s all-time best coaches, Tom Muesborn, directed the dominant teams at Chatsworth. Photo: chatsworthhs.org/baseball/
CHATSWORTH
Rick Aude (1989)
Willie Cabrera (2004)
Justin Cassell (2003)
Jason Dominguez (2004)
Matt Dominguez (2006, 2007)
Matt Fisher (2000)
Joe Guntz (2001)
Mike Kunes (1998, 1999)
Bryan LaCour (1994)
Reed McMackin (1990)
Rex McMackin (1988)
Mike Moustakas (2006, 2007)
Mike Renner (2009)
Mitch Root (1991)
Trevor Takeyama (2008)
Greg Wallis (2001)
Joel Wolfe (1988)
Notes: There has been one more player from Chatsworth (along with Mater Dei of Santa Ana) chosen all-state first team than Rancho Bernardo, but we listed RB first since it has had more players who were selected twice. The Chancellors haven’t had a first team all-state pick since 2009, but they were so dominant in the L.A. City Section in the 1990s and 2000s that they piled up a bunch of all-state honors.
Cory Hahn is greeted after the Monarchs won 2010 CIF Southern Section Division I title. Photo: Twitter.com.
MATER DEI (SANTA ANA)
Jim Austin (1988)
Cole Carter (1992)
Cory Hahn (2010)
Lionel Hastings (1990)
Mike Hessman (1995, 1996)
Blake Hunt (2017)
Mike Kolbach (1997)
Pat Manning (1999)
Jeremy Martinez (2012, 2013)
Ryan McMahon (2013)
Ty Moore (2011, 2012)
Aaron Northcraft (2009)
Tony Pena (1989)
Daniel Perales (2003)
Tyler Rahmatulla (2008)
Sergio Santos (2002)
Mike Torres (2005)
Notes: We counted the Monarchs with the exact same total as Chatsworth, which is 17 players representing 20 all-state picks. One of them, Ryan McMahon, is a current player for the Colorado Rockies. The one player many may think about first, however, is 2010 Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year Cory Hahn, who was paralyzed from a baseball-related injury in 2011 as a freshman playing for Arizona State. Cory continues to inspire baseball players and others throughout California for his deeds and actions since suffering that injury.
Barry Bonds is shown as a Serra High Padre. Photo: @SerraSanMateo / Twitter.com..
SERRA (SAN MATEO)
Cameron Barstad (2018)
Matt Bazzani (1991)
Hunter Bishop (2016)
Barry Bonds (1981, 1982)
Geoff Comfort (1998)
J.J. Cortes (1983)
Scott DeLucchi (1985)
Gregg Jefferies (1984, 1985)
Jon Karcich (2006)
Chuck Lofgren (2003, 2004)
Ryan Palmero (2008)
Jordan Paroubeck (2013)
Tony Renda (2009)
Dan Serafini (1992)
Mike Wolger (1991)
Notes: The Padres edge their West Catholic Athletic League rivals from St. Francis of Mountain View (and Elk Grove) for the most all-state picks among Northern California schools (and that’s also including the Central Section in the north). Their great baseball tradition goes back further than when we started doing all-state teams in 1980, but since then they have 15 players representing 18 all-state picks. Barry Bonds was considered the NorCal junior of the year in 1981 and in 1982 was outstanding as well. At the time, he wasn’t State Player of the Year since even then those honors tended to go to players who led their teams to CIF section championships.
Dylan Carlson was one of six from Elk Grove who were on MLB teams in 2020. Photo: Mark Tennis.
ELK GROVE
Paul Blandford (1992)
Dylan Carlson (2016)
J.D. Davis (2011)
David Freitas (2007)
Mike Gallegos (1993)
Derek Hill (2014)
Mickey Kammeyer (1997)
Riley Lamb (2017)
Nick Madrigal (2015)
Jason McDonald (1990)
Jake Rodriguez (2009, 2010)
Ryan “Rowdy” Tellez (2012, 2013)
Mike Tonis (1997)
Todd Trafton (1982)
Notes: All six of the Thundering Herd players who were on MLB rosters during the 2020 season (most of any school in the state and one of highest totals for one season we know of) also were all-state first teamers for us when they played at the school. When the season began, J.D. Davis and Rowdy Tellez were both starting for the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays. It didn’t take long for the Chicago White Sox to call up Nick Madrigal, which was followed by call-ups for Dylan Carlson (St. Louis Cardinals) and Derek Hill (Detroit Tigers). Right at the end of the season, catcher David Freitas was added to the roster of the Milwaukee Brewers. For Elk Grove’s total, we have 14 players representing 16 all-state picks.
ST. FRANCIS (MOUNTAIN VIEW)
Alex Blandino (2012)
Eric Byrnes (1994)
Garrett Cook (1999)
Daniel Descalso (2004)
John Gall (1996)
John Gavin (2014)
Joe Hensley (1999)
Jared Lansford (2005)
Josh Lansford (2003)
Matt McCormick (1983)
Dirk Skillicorn (2008)
Michael Strem (2013)
Jeremy Ydens (2015, 2016)
Mike Zirelli (1995)
Notes: The Lancers also have 14 players who have gained first team all-state status, but they have one less selection than Elk Grove (with 15). One of their claims to fame is being the only high school in the nation with two alums in the 2013 World Series. Daniel Descalso (an all-state pick for us in 2004) was with the St. Louis Cardinals. Daniel Nava (who was more of a late bloomer and was not on the all-state team) was playing for the Boston Red Sox.
POLY (RIVERSIDE)
Kiel Fisher (2002)
John Gorp (1989)
Randy Graves (1988)
Ben Leach (2000)
Jerome Leal (1996)
Jake Marisnick (2009)
Lacurtis Mayes (2006)
John Meaney (1989)
Donnie Murphy (2001)
Greg Myers (1984)
Kyle Ocampo (2007)
JoJo Reyes (2003)
Darvin Traylor (1990)
R.J. Ybarra (2012)
Notes: This school being so high was the most surprising. The two most significant all-staters for the Bears have been MLB players Jake Marisnick and Greg Myers, but they don’t have many other more household names. They’ve just been quite consistent since the late 1980s and they’ve had a lot of multi-purpose (pitching-hitting) type of top players. We counted them with 14 all-state players, but with none that were chosen more than once.
Jacob Gatewood was the leading all-state player for Clovis after Cougars won the 2012 CIF Central Section D1 title. Photo: Mark Tennis.
CLOVIS
Mike Bumatay (1998)
Jacob Gatewood (2014)
Shawn Hannah (1995)
Lee Lambert (1997)
Brandon Miller (2003)
Darrien Miller (2019)
Tevin Mitchell (2016)
Cody Nowlin (1998)
Chris Patrick (2000)
Mike Pierce (2002)
Blake Sodersten (2018)
Darby Tatum (2017)
McCarthy Tatum (2014)
Notes: Clovis and Buchanan of Clovis came up with almost the same totals of all-state players — 13 players representing 13 selections for the Cougars but 12 players for 13 picks for the Bears. One of the Cougars who made first team all-state, Chris Patrick, became their head coach last season, succeeding his father, James, who coached all of the others during a long career. Chris previously was a head coach at Clovis North where he had some all-state players there, but the Broncos have not yet hit double figures.
BUCHANAN (CLOVIS)
Zach Ashford (2015)
Jeff Brown (2011)
Jason Donald (2003)
Grant Gambrell (2016)
Brady Hormel (2019)
Trenton Kemp (2013, 2014)
Tony Mansolino (2001)
Seth Moranda (2011)
Jamal O’Guinn (2017)
Carson Olson (2017)
Kyle Smith (2006)
Justin Wilson (2005)
Notes: This school is similar to Rancho Bernardo in that it is much newer than these other programs on this list. In fact, Buchanan is five years younger than even the San Diego powerhouse (1995). The Bears definitely piled up the all-state picks in the 2010s when they had two of the best teams of the decade in 2011 and 2017. Both of those teams were No. 1 in the state and nation.
De La Salle pitcher Justin Hooper is the younger brother of NFL tight end Austin Hooper. Photo: SportStarsMag.com.
DE LA SALLE (CONCORD)
Chris Carter (2001)
Nathan Carter (2007)
Ryan Costeiu (2018)
Jason Dennis (1996, 1997)
Parker Hanks (2004)
Kyle Harrison (2019)
Justin Hooper (2015)
Reed Johnson (2000)
Cullen Kafka (2017)
Eric Massingham (2005)
Connor Redmond (2016)
Clayton Tanner (2006)
Notes: The Spartans are tied on this list with Buchanan with 12 all-state players representing 13 picks. They’ve been a little different than a lot of these schools in that they’ve had multiple head coaches. In recent years, David Jeans has added stability and has been able to maintain dominant teams over several seasons, including the 2019 Spartans that were our State Team of the Year. The top all-state player off of that squad, junior pitcher Kyle Harrison, no doubt would have been all-state first team again in 2020 but those teams couldn’t be done due to the very small number of games played by most players prior to the season being cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
EL CAPITAN (LAKESIDE)
Jared Abruzzo (2000)
Jordan Abruzzo (2003)
Troy Conyers (2011, 2012)
Brett Caradonna (1997)
Bobby Joe Curo (1996)
Matt LaChappa (1993)
Kevin Nulton (2000)
Jason Phillips (1994)
Travis Taijerson (2007)
Chris Walston (2002)
Tyrone Wiggins (2011)
Notes: This was the only other school we counted with 12 or more all-state selections. For the Vaqueros, it came to 11 players representing 12 picks. Jason Phillips is the only of the group who made it to the major leagues. He was a catcher-first baseman for seven seasons between 2001 and 2007 and played for the New York Mets, L.A. Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.
More Notes:
If there had been a 2020 all-state team, we’re pretty sure Harvard-Westlake would have had two on first team and that would have gotten the Wolverines to 11 selections. They didn’t have their first one until 2010. All three of their big-time MLB pitchers — Jack Flaherty, Max Fried and Lucas Giolito were all first-team all-state but for different seasons. Giolito made it as a junior in 2011, but was injured in 2012. Fried was still at Montclair Prep (Van Nuys) in 2011, but was all-state at Harvard-Westlake in 2012. Flaherty was all-state first team for both 2013 and 2014.
Other schools that we counted with 10 all-state selections and just behind El Capitan (Lakeside) were Simi Valley and Esperanza of Anaheim.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
