A Defensive Player of the Year for the state from the East Bay portion of the CIF North Coast Section is nothing new, but all of those who’ve gained this honor in the past were all from De La Salle. We’re pretty sure that even many Spartan fans would agree about the talent, skill and play-making of San Ramon Valley’s Marco Jones.
To see who has been named Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Football State Player of the Year for the 2024 season, CLICK HERE.
To see who has been named Cal-Hi Sports State Player of the Year for seniors, sophomores, freshmen, large schools and small schools since Mr. Football is a junior and from a medium school, CLICK HERE.
To join our Gold Club so you can see those all-time state record lists and many others that don’t exist anywhere else plus every one of our upcoming all-state teams CLICK HERE.
When Marco Jones from San Ramon Valley of Danville captured the State Junior Player of the Year honor for the 2023 season, he also had seven touchdown catches and three touchdown runs on offense to go with all of the tackles he had on defense.
For 2024, playing for a Wolves’ team that only lost to De La Salle of Concord and Pittsburg and had a win over CIF Central Coast Section Open Division champion St. Ignatius (San Francisco), it was all about the defense for Jones. He’s thus been named State Defensive Player of the Year to go along with last year’s top junior selection.

San Ramon Valley’s All-American linebacker is getting bigger and stronger and looks headed toward development as a rush end. Photo: X.com.
While Jones didn’t have as many tackles this season (125) as he did as a junior (166), he was perhaps even more disruptive. That is shown by the 10.5 sacks and 32.0 tackles for loss. The tackles for loss is similar to the totals that two-time State Defensive Player of the Year and 1999 Mr. Football State Player of the Year D.J. Williams had at De La Salle. He had 2.5 sacks and 15.0 tackles for loss as a junior.
Several others from DLS, including current Houston Texans’ starting linebacker Henry To’oto’o in 2018, also have been State Defensive Player of the Year. Jones is the first one ever from the East Bay portion of the CIF North Coast Section not from DLS and our list goes back to 1960.
Speaking of Texans, Marco is in a way going to be one himself he hopes for the next few seasons. He signed with Texas A&M in early December and has already reported to College Station after graduating early from San Ramon Valley. He’s listed as a 6-foot-5, 240-pound defensive lineman (not linebacker) and is growing into a dominant edge rusher. Jones also was a baseball standout as a junior last spring at San Ramon Valley and is going to continue to play baseball in college.
Jones also was just in Texas in San Antonio for the Navy All-American Bowl. Two days before last Saturday’s game, in an awards program held in conjunction with the game, Marco was selected as the Navy All-American Bowl Defensive Player of the Year. A national honor.
When writing up Jones a year ago, we mentioned that we once saw his dad, Anwawn, play basketball in a CIF state final for Montclair Prep of Van Nuys. Anwawn also was the 1995-96 State Small Schools Athlete of the Year. He was more of a football player for the Mounties and played at Northwestern and Colorado. We did not know that Marco as a child suffered from epilepsy and was on medication for it until he was 10 or 11 years old, according to a feature story on the 49ers Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area TV show.
We can’t wait to see how Marco does in college. Last year’s winner, St. John Bosco’s Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, should be playing a lot for Notre Dame in next Monday’s national championship game against Ohio State.
CAL-HI SPORTS DEFENSIVE
STATE PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
ALL-TIME HONOR ROLL
2024 — Marco Jones (San Ramon Valley, Danville) LB/DE
2023 — Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (St. John Bosco, Bellflower) LB
2022 — Deven Bryant (St. John Bosco, Bellflower) LB
2021 — David Bailey (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) LB
2020 — Raesjon Davis (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) LB*
2019 — Justin Flowe (Upland) LB
2018 — Henry To’oto’o (De La Salle, Concord) LB
2017 — Kayvon Thibodeaux (Oaks Christian, Westlake Village) DL (Jr.)
2016 — Jaelen Phillips (Redlands East Valley, Redlands) DL
2015 — Oluwole Betiku (Serra, Gardena) DL
2014 — Iman Marshall (Long Beach Poly) DB
2013 — Adoree Jackson (Serra, Gardena) DB
2012 — Michael Hutchings (De La Salle, Concord) LB
2011 — Michael Barton (De La Salle, Concord) LB
2010 — Viliami Moala (Grant, Sacramento) NG
2009 — Viliami Moala (Grant, Sacramento) NG (Jr.)
2008 — Vontaze Burfict (Centennial, Corona) LB
2007 — Jurrell Casey (Long Beach Poly, Long Beach) DL
2006 — Chris Galippo (Servite, Anaheim) LB
2005 — Darian Hagan Jr. (Crenshaw, Los Angeles) CB
2004 — Luthur Brown (Lakewood) LB
2003 — Brigham Harwell (Los Altos, Hacienda Heights) DT
2002 — Lawrence Jackson (Inglewood) DE
2001 — Derek Landri (De La Salle, Concord) DT
2000 — Kevin Simon (De La Salle, Concord) LB
1999 — D.J. Williams (De La Salle, Concord) LB
1998 — D.J. Williams (De La Salle, Concord) LB (Jr.)
1997 — Robert Thomas (Imperial) LB
1996 — Andre Carter (Oak Grove, San Jose) DE
1995 — Chris Claiborne (J.W. North, Riverside) LB
1994 — Clyde Sanders (Grant, Sacramento) DE
1993 — Darrell Russell (St. Augustine, San Diego) DT
1992 — Travis Kirschke (Esperanza, Anaheim) DT
1991 — LeRoi Glover (Point Loma, San Diego) DT
1990 — Jamir Miller (El Cerrito) LB
1989 — Willie McGinest (Long Beach Poly, Long Beach) DE
1988 — Tommie Smith (Antelope Valley, Lancaster) DB
1987 — Arnold Ale (Carson) LB
1986 — Scott Ross (El Toro) LB
1985 — Randy Austin (Canyon, Canyon Country) LB
1984 — Mark Green (Poly, Riverside) DB
1983 — Chance Johnson (Compton) DB
1982 — Tim McDonald (Edison, Fresno) DB
1981 — George Ebertin (Bellarmine, San Jose) LB
1980 — Jack Del Rio (Hayward) LB
1979 — Darrell Hooper (Carson) DB
1978 — Michael Richardson (Compton) DB
1977 — Chuck Willig (St. Paul, Santa Fe Springs) DB
1976 — Dennis Smith (Santa Monica) DB
1975 — John Van Buren (South Hills, Covina) DB
1974 — Jerry Robinson (Cardinal Newman, Santa Rosa) NG
1973 — Frank Manumaluena (Banning, Wilmington) LB
1972 — Lonnie Shelton (Foothill, Bakersfield) DL
1971 — Paul Kinne (Paso Robles) DB
1970 — Fred McNeill (Baldwin Park) LB
1969 — Artimus Parker (Sacramento) LB
1968 — Willie Buchanon (Oceanside) DB
1967 — Jeff Siemon (Bakersfield) LB
1966 — Mel Gray (Montgomery, Santa Rosa) DB
1965 — John Albanese (Bellarmine, San Jose) LB
1964 — George Buehler (Whittier) LB
1963 — Tim Rossovich (St. Francis, Mountain View) LB
1962 — George Wilfert (Bellarmine, San Jose) DL
1961 — Ted Norlund (Lowell, San Francisco) DL
1960 — Rich Koeper (Sequoia, Redwood City) DL
*Spring of 2021 season due to COVID.
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