Senior Jared Martin from Central of El Centro (left) is a top national recruit as a rush end headed to TCU. At right, junior quarterback Max Medina of Patterson throws a pass from game last season. Photos: Hudl.com & Andy Alfaro / Modesto Bee.
Yes, it the same six players as before — Offense, Defense & Special Teams/Multi-Purpose from Northern & Southern California — but we’re just calling those six our state players of the week instead of NorCal/SoCal. We kick off the first week of the 2024 season with six very deserving honorees, but as is always the case in the first week of football the choices in Northern California are somewhat limited. The reason is that schools in the CIF North Coast and Central Coast Sections, and just about all the schools in the Northern Section, will not be in action until starting this weekend. Be as it may, this week we visit Patterson, Tulare and Stockton in Northern California, and Oxnard, El Centro and Wilmington in Southern California,
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Notes: We will continue to have flexibility to one of the honorees by calling it Multi-Purpose/Special Teams. Multi-Purpose is already a category for All State honors. For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Max Medina (Patterson) Jr.
The search for the first Northern California Offensive Player of the Week honoree takes us southwest of Modesto on the I-5 to a town known as the “Apricot Capital of the World,” and besides apricots Patterson has recently had a very solid football program at Patterson High, and one of the biggest stars the past two season since taking the starting quarterback job as a freshman is Medina, who is 22-4 including his most recent performance.
Talk about coming out of the box with a bang.
Last week, in a season opening 39-21 victory over large-school Merced, Medina was a pinpoint 22-of-24 passing for 324 yards and three TDs with no interceptions. That translates to an astronomical 170.1 quarterback rating to kick off the season. For good measure, Medina rushed for 19 yards.
Last year, in an 11-2 season that saw third-seeded Patterson advance to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 title game before losing 36-35 in a heartbreaker to Escalon, Medina passed for 2,624 yards and 34 TDs with only four interceptions, and he rushed 226 yards and three more scores.
So far in his varsity career and with basically two years still left, Medina has passed for 4,849 yards and 62 TDs with only 12 interceptions, and he’s rushed for 425 yards and five additional touchdowns. At the pace he’s going, Max has a very good chance of making the Most Yards (Career) list in the Football Individual Records: Career Passing Section of the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book where the threshold is currently 7,507 yards passing.
If that isn’t enough, Max is also a star in baseball as a left-handed pitcher and outfielder. This past season on a Tigers’ team that went 16-8-1, Medina was 8-1 with with a 0.83 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 59.1 innings pitched. He also hit .311 and scored 24 runs. He’ll be a four-year varsity standout in that sport as well.
Tulare Western’s Aubrey Taylor obviously hopes his first game this season is just the start of interceptions all over the place. Photo: Hudl.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Aubrey Taylor (Tulare Western, Tulare) Sr.
To find the Northern California Defensive Player of the Week we head to the southern portion of “The Valley” as the locals like to call the CIF Central Section, and whenever we visit the Central Section, and particularly in week one, we remind readers that for all player of the week honors in all sports, The Valley is considered to be part of Northern California.
For week one, we head around 50 miles south of Fresno on Highway 99 to Tulare where we land just around a mile west of the highway at Tulare Union. In this age of spread offenses and scores that can blow the lights out on scoreboards, we honor Taylor for a season-opening performance that came in a game in which the final score was more likely to come from a game played on the baseball diamond than on the gridiron.
Tulare Union won the season opener last Friday night against host El Diamante of neighboring Visalia, 8-6, but without the heroics of Taylor and his three interceptions, the Mustangs may not have been able to capture the defensive slugfest.
With the game scoreless in the third quarter with Taylor recording two of his three picks to help keep El Diamante off the scoreboard, Tulare Western scored a TD with under a minute left in the third and with a 2-point conversion the guests took an 8-0 lead.
El Diamante then scored with around six minutes left to play but a 2-point conversion failed. The hosts had a chance to win but Taylor came up with his third interception in the waning moments to seal the deal.
While three interceptions in a game is a lofty accomplishment it doesn’t make the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book where it takes five picks in a game to qualify for the Most Pass Interceptions (Game) list. Still, it’s a great start for Taylor this season and equals his interceptions total for all of last season.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week
Jeremiah Williams (McNair, Stockton) Jr.
The Port City of Stockton is our destination in search of the Northern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week, and we find this week’s award winner in the northeastern portion of the city just about halfway between the I-5 and Highway 99.
On his Hudl page, our honoree uses the moniker Jeremiah “Ugly” Williams but what he did in his season opening performance was anything but ugly, in fact as far as the Eagles’ faithful are concerned it was gorgeous.
When all was said and done, Williams, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound junior free safety and wide receiver, had 281 of the 455 yards of all purpose offensive yardage for McNair. His biggest impact came on Special Teams and that is what has earned him statewide honors to go with any local kudos.
With McNair already leading 12-0 after two quarters, Williams took the second half opening kickoff 89-yards to the house to give McNair a 20-0 lead. Williams wasn’t done. Mountain House would cut it to 20-6 with around a minute left in the third but Williams made sure there would be no comeback when he took the ensuing kickoff after that TD by the hosts 88 yards to pay dirt to make it 26-6 and pretty much seal the deal in a 42-20 win.
The two kickoff returns for TDs falls one short of making the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book on the Most Kickoff Return Touchdowns (Game) list but it’s still a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
McNair head coach Chris Hall has had his program in the spotlight before. He and his wife won a contest after last season through the Jennifer Hudson TV show and got to go to the Super Bowl.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Jared Martin (Central, El Centro) Sr.
We head east out of San Diego on I-8 over the mountains and drop down into the Imperial Valley and it’s in El Centro at Central High that we find our initial Southern California Defensive Player of the Week honoree.
This three-sport star (football, basketball and baseball) and two-time All State Grid Hoops honoree to go with other all state honors as a sophomore missed some time near the end of last season due to injury but still was able secure a Third Team Grid Hoops spot after making the First Team as a sophomore.
Whenever a player returns from an injury there is always a question as to whether there has been a full recovery. Even before he played a single down this season the 6-foot-3 220-pound edge committed to TCU in mid-June after receiving offers from Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado State, Nevada, Oregon State, Penn State, San Diego State, UNLV, USC, Washington and UCLA.
Martin sure made TCU head coach Sonny Dykes glad he committed to becoming a Horned Frog because Jared showed exactly what he can do in his first game as a senior and thus earned a statewide award in the process.
Last week, in a 38-6 victory over host Jurupa Hills of Fontana, Martin did it all on defense and offense, but it’s his defense that earns him the SoCal defensive honors after he recorded three sacks, forced a fumble and had six total tackles. As a tight end on offense, Jared had two TD receptions.
To be an All State Grid-Hoops honoree, you have to put up some numbers both on the gridiron and the hardwood. Even though he only played seven games last year Martin still had 33 tackles and seven sacks after recording 15 sacks as a sophomore and four as a freshman. In basketball last season Jared averaged 20.3 points and 5.0 rebounds and according to Cal-Hi Sports Managing Editor and boys basketball guru Ronnie Flores he’s been one of the two best basketball players in the Imperial Valley the past two years.
Savion Taylor’s first game this season for Pacifica of Oxnard should serve as an inspiration for any player coming back from a serious injury. Photo: Hudl.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Savion Taylor (Pacifica, Oxnard) Sr.
Ventura County and its largest city Oxnard is our destination in search of the Southern California Offensive Player of the Week and we find our award winner about a half mile south of Highway 101 at Pacifica High.
At Cal-Hi Sports, we don’t do “co” anything with respect to any of our awards but in this case the reality is we had a choice of two Pacifica players that had performances worthy of statewide recognition, but since we had to choose only one we went with Taylor because simply put the story behind what he did was too hard to overlook.
Last year, the 247Sports.com 3-Star Athlete recruit had a solid start in a season-opening 28-11 victory over Simi Valley with five receptions for 63 yards and a TD, but that was his only game because he blew out his knee and missed the rest of the 10-1 season for Pacifica.
Coming into this season, the expectations were high since it was reported that he had made a pretty full recovery. However, whether or not Taylor was going to make the kind of noise that had already garnered him offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Cal, Colorado, Hawaii, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State and Washington State was a still a bit of a question mark.
So what did the 6-foot, 186-pound Taylor do in his first start back from the injury? He hauled in 19 passes for 319 yards and three TDs and Pacifica rolled to a 42-6 victory over host West Ranch of Visalia. The 19 receptions and 319 yards receiving both will earn spots in the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book on the Most Receptions (Game) and Most Yards (Game) lists, respectively.
The reason Taylor had those offers is he was a solid wide receiver as a freshman and sophomore, and even with missing all but one game last season he currently has 2,006 yards and 21 TDs receiving so far in his varsity career.
As for the other Pacifica player we considered for the SoCal offensive honors, if you haven’t already figured out who it is you should have, because it’s someone Taylor certainly would want to give a shout out to, and that’s Pacific quarterback Dominic Duran.
A big chunk of the passing yardage Duran had against West Ranch went to Taylor, but after all was said and done the 5-foot-10, 170-pound senior was 29-of-41 for 501 yards and six touchdowns. The six TDs is a formidable number but doesn’t make the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book, but the twist in this saga is the 501 yards is the third entry by Pacifica in the record book because it gets Duran a
spot on the Most Yards (Game) list in the Football Individual Records: Single Game Passing Section.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week
Steven Perez (Banning, Wilmington) Sr.
The Los Angeles City Section is where this week’s Southern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week plies his trade and he does it just off the Pacific Coast Highway about halfway between Carson and the Los Angeles Harbor at Banning in Wilmington.
We got a preview of what the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Perez could do in an article last week by award-winning Los Angeles Times veteran prep sports scribe Eric Sondheimer in a series of stories profiling the top high school football players in the Los Angeles City Section by position and Perez was at the top of the list for defensive backs.
Last week Perez made a prophet of Sondheimer and it’s for his performance in a season-opening 49-22 victory over visiting Los Angeles Dorsey that he earns a statewide honor.
Banning likes to run the ball, so in his quarterback debut the 16-year old senior who’s been playing football since he was 5-years old and is a fifth generation Banning Pilot, only threw one pass but you guessed it, Perez completed it for a 22- yard TD pass. Steven was the Pilots’ leading rusher after running for 125 yards on nine carries with two TDs, including a 60-yard rumble to the house.
Playing his favorite position as a safety because as he told Sondheimer “I like to hit” he had four tackles and a pass interception he took 96 yards for a pick six. That’s the kind of multi-purpose plays we’re looking for in this category.
Last season, the “trick of all trades” as he was called by Banning head coach Raymond Rajeda rushed for 335 yards and five TDs, he caught 50 passes for 907 yards and five TDs, and he had 159 tackles with 83 solo plus five pass interceptions.
On a side note Perez, who has also wrestled for Banning and is the Co-Chief of the school’s Firefighter/EMS magnet program, is starting to get some college looks. Hopefully, getting some statewide recognition to go with the kudos of Sondheimer will increase his college visibility and land Perez a scholarship.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
