Freshman Ace Leutele grabs an interception for Mater Dei of Santa Ana (left) during 2024 CIF Open Division state final. At right, freshman Tyson Griffin goes on a run for Grant of Sacramento during 2024 CIF D2-AA state final. Photos: Scott Kurtz.
It’s been almost two weeks after the Super Bowl, but we are still not completely done with football. Here is a watch list of leading freshmen football players in the state from the 2024 season and so far this spring who are on track to be all-state sophomores next season. The State Freshman Player of the Year was quarterback Koa Malauu’lu of St. John Bosco. This isn’t an all-state team since the same format as the others can’t be duplicated, but it’s as close as we can get. These also are not recruiting lists. This post was amended from an initial list of freshmen to watch that was posted before the end of the regular season.
This is a post for our Gold Club members only on CalHiSports.com. To join our Gold Club to get this feature, all new state rankings in five sports, state record updates and all of the all-state team announcements,
CLICK HERE.
For this year’s First Team Offense plus three more multi-purpose players,
CLICK HERE.
For this year’s First Team Defense plus three more multi-purpose players,
CLICK HERE.
For this year’s Second & Third Team (Gold Club post), CLICK HERE.
MORE OF OUR 47TH ANNUAL ALL-STATE FOOTBALL TEAMS:
Medium Schools | Small Schools | Juniors (Gold Club) | Sophomores (Gold Club) | Players of Year by region | Players of Year by positions QB, RB, WR/TE, Line, LB, DB| FINAL All-State Nominations for CIFSS plus LA, SD & Central plus NorCal
Notes: As mentioned in the other posts about all-state sophomores and all-state juniors, this is not a Class of 2028 recruiting list. We did not watch film of the Mater Dei-St. John Bosco freshman game to look for top players, either. These are all players listed below who “did something” in varsity games during the season. Other players will emerge down the road as they get varsity playing time.
