Two of this week’s honorees are quarterback A.J. Banks Jr. of Atwater (left) and linebacker Koa Rapolla of Palm Springs. Photos: X.com & Instagram.com.
With the CIF North Coast Section and CIF Central Coast Section not beginning action until this week, the NorCal choices were a little lighter, but for the first week of this feature this season we still have some very deserving winners from north of the Grapevine. We had one winner who will etch his name into the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book, which along with uncovering hiden talent is the goal of this feature, and the same winner has a teammate that will make the mark. This first week we honor winners from Atwater, Clovis and Lathrop in the north plus Covina, Palm Springs and Riverside in the south.
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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
A.J. Banks Jr. (Atwater) Sr.
To find the Northern California Offensive Player of the Week we head to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section and land south of Modesto and just north of Merced and not far from Highway 99 in Atwater and it’s at Atwater High where we find this week’s honoree who now gets statewide recognition to local with local honors.
We don’t do co-winners at Cal-Hi Sports but his week there could be an argument for doing it because both Atwater quarterback Banks and his favorite target will go into the online state record book.
Last week, in a 65-64 scoreboard lighter-upper overtime victory over Vacaville, Banks was 22-of-33 passing for 437 yards and seven touchdowns. He also rushed for 120 yards and an eighth score.
While Banks’ yards or TD passes is not high enough for the all-time state lists, his total offense of 557 yards will be high enough. It’s not a Sac-Joaquin Section record and it’s not a local record, either, but the only total from Merced or Stanislaus County we see higher is 573 yards for a QB from Golden Valley of Merced, Ridge Bertuccio, although his yards were all passing in a 90-48 win over Buhach Colony of Atwater (Atwater High’s rival) back in 2011.
The Cal-Hi Sports state records also have totals for most points for a losing team in one game. Vacaville had a two-point conversion stopped in the first overtime, otherwise Banks’ totals would have come in a 66-65 loss instead of a 65-64 win. For a game that extended to overtimes, 64 points for Vacaville ranks as a tie for fourth in state history. The 64 points without overtimes is tied for third and it’s tied for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section record of 64 set in 2017 by Bear Creek of Stockton when it lost 74-64 to Chavez of Stockton.
Banks’ favorite target was 6-foot-5, 215-pound senior wide receiver Sylas Austin. He didn’t catch the game-winning TD from Banks but he hauled in 10 of AJ’s passes for 284 yards and five touchdowns. The five TD receptions also will put Austin’s name on the Most Touchdowns (Game) list in the Football Individual Records: Single-Game Receiving section.
Pablo Pena of Lathrop was on cruise control on both sides of the ball in team’s win last week vs Mountain House. Photo: Jonamar Jacinto / Manteca Bulletin.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams
Player of the Week
Pablo Pena (Lathrop) Sr.
We venture back to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section to find the Northern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week, and it’s at Lathrop High, a little less than 10 miles south of Stockton where we land and find this week’s honoree, an offensive and defensive star who played a big part in helping the Spartans to a 10-2 record last season, and it’s Pena that gets a statewide award to go with local kudos.
Last week, in a season-opening 43-16 victory over host Mountain House, Pena picked up right where he left off from last season.
As a running back, the Lathrop fullback rushed for 131 yards on 21 carries with two touchdowns. Playing middle linebacker, the 6-foot, 230-pound Pena had 15 tackles, including a sack.
Pena has a good start to matching or bettering last season’s numbers when he had 1,043 yards rushing and 23 TDs on offense, plus 100 tackles on defense.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Carlos Young (Clovis) Sr.
The CIF Central Section is our destination in the search for the Northern California Defensive Player of the Week, and as we have mentioned many times over the years but will again since there are always first-time readers is that the Central Section is considered Northern California for this feature.
There were no earth shattering NorCal defensive performances in week one, but the 5-foot-10, 150-pound Young is one of the best defensive backs in the Central Section, and last year he had three interceptions and 37 total tackles.
For this season, Young got out to a good start to bettering the three picks from last season after snagging two interceptions in a 48-0 whitewashing on the road in Visalia at Central Valley Christian.
Young, who was named to our preseason All-CIF Central Section squad, also is a three-year starter at Clovis. He is currently listed with D1 offers as a DB from San Jose State, Portland State, Montana, Hawaii, and Montana State. If Carlos can keep making plays like he did in the first game, more offers should be coming.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Koa Rapolla (Palm Springs) Sr.
The Coachella Valley and the City of Palm Springs is where we find this week’s Southern California Defensive Player of the Week and it’s at Palm Springs High close to the resort town’s downtown and not far from the airport where we find this week’s award winner, who now snags a statewide honor right out of the box to go with local recognition.
After suffering a season-ending injury last year in game seven, the Indians’ 5-foot-11, 215-pound senior linebacker came up big to start this season and served notice that his being ranked No. 2 in the Palm Springs’ Desert Sun Elite 11 preseason package was no fluke and a sign of things to come.
In a 38-32 double-overtime victory over visiting Santa Ana Segerstrom last week, all that Rapolla did was rap out 24 big tackles with 17 of them solo, including a sack and a forced fumble.
Koa got into the act on offense as well with a team-leading 42 yards rushing on his only carry, plus Koa had five receptions as a receiver for 42 yards and one touchdown.
RB Gatsbee Gumban of Covina gained notice throughout Southern California last week for the game he had to go with the unusual name. Photo: 210prepsports.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Gatsbee Gumban (Covina) Jr.
The San Gabriel Valley is a little less than 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and it’s where we find this week’s Southern California Offensive Player of the Week. Covina High itself sits just north of the I-10 and Colts have already shown this season they may have a “Great” running back.
The spelling is a little different, and it’s a play on names, but San Gabriel Valley Tribune sports scribe Fred Robledo was calling Covina’s running back “the Great Gatsbee Gumban” as his totals from the first game began to come in. It’s a reference, of course, to the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is required reading for a lot of high school English classes.
The reason for Robledo’s comparison is pretty obvious.
In a season-opening 49-35 victory over La Puente last week, the 5-foot-10, 179-pound running back rushed for 342 yards and four TDs in the win. He also returned a punt 34 yards for good measure.
The 343 yards and four TDs gives him over half of the 539 yards and six TDs that Gumban had all of last season. When he was a freshman, Gatsbee also played on the varsity level and he rushed for 662 yards.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week
Matthew Ramos (Hillcrest, Riverside) Sr.
This week’s Southern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week comes to us via a nomination by Riverside Press-Enterprise veteran prep sports writer Eric-Paul Johnson, and in fact he gave us two worthy candidates from the Inland Empire, and both were from Hillcrest.
It was a tough choice but we finally settled on Ramos.
In a game played last Friday at SoFi Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, it was the special teams of the Trojans that did most of the damage in a 61-15 victory over Corona High.
Ramos, also the Hillcrest starting quarterback, didn’t do much as a signal-caller, but as a kick returner he had two returns of 95 and 91 yards that he took all the way to pay dirt.
On almost any other week the other nominee of Johnson, junior Nicholas Bernal, might have been a hands down winner, but for this week he’s a runner-up to Ramos after he took two punts of 52 and 40 yards to the house for TDs to give the Trojans’ special teams four touchdowns in the win. If an NFL team were to do that in a game at SoFi, the special teams coach would probably be fired the next day.
Ramos played QB for the Trojans last season as a junior and passed for 1,261 yards and 18 TDs in seven games. He also had 492 yards rushing and seven scores. All of that is nice, but two kickoff returns of more than 90 yards in the NFL stadium? That’s the stuff of lifelong memories that Matthew and his family will never forget.
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
One Comment
Always appreciate your work.
You mentioned Atwater/Merced and then mentioned Stanislaus County, As I am sure you are aware, Atwater / Merced are within Merced County.
Quite an accomplishment for those young men and there team!