John Paye drops back to pass his senior year vs. UCLA in 1986. Our 1982 Mr. Football had the impossible task of replacing John Elway as Stanford’s QB & the 4-year starter went on to play for the 49ers, backing up Joe Montana & Steve Young. Photo: Bernstein Associates/Getty Images
All-State Football Medium and Small teams from Cal-Hi Sports have now been extended back to the 1950 season with new honor squads added from the 1984 season going backward based on research. Unlike the retroactive overall all-state teams, not as many of these players are well-known figures and figuring out what classification each belong to made picking these teams a tedious process. A deeper look reveals plenty of selections that went on to the NFL, as well as a handful of future MLB standouts and even a few television personalities. Our next project will be choosing retroactive all-state boys basketball teams by CIF Division.
RELATED: Retroactive Football All-State Primer | Retroactive Boys Basketball All-State Primer
Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. To view all our entire all-state football package of teams from 1950 through 2024, including overall, medium schools, small schools and underclass, plus retroactive and all-decade, you’ll need to sign up for a Gold Club membership. We’re adding plenty to the value of a Gold Club membership with more to come in the future. Our preseason 2025-26 boys basketball state rankings package will be published in November. To check out the extensive archive with all of our all-state teams, including the retroactive overall all-state basketball teams from 1954-55 through 1978-79, sign up for just pennies per day. CLICK HERE.
More All-State Football Teams: Overall All-State Teams (Quick Reference) | Overall All-State Teams (Retroactive 1950-1979) | All-State Medium & Small Schools (Quick Reference) | All-State Medium & Small Schools (Retroactive 1950-1983) | All-State Underclass (Quick Reference) | All-Decade (1950s) | All-Decade (1960s) | All-Decade (1970s)
To View The Retroactive All-State Medium and Small Schools All-State Teams, CLICK HERE
The Selection Process
For our annual all-state football package, we pick overall elite all-state teams (i.e. Best of the Best in California), teams designated for Medium Schools and separate ones designated Small Schools. Any player at any CIF school in California is eligible for the overall all-state team, but choosing who is eligible for the Medium Schools and Small Schools package can be tricky, especially when picking teams retroactively, meaning not in real time.
Luckily, long-time Northern Section correspondent Kevin Askeland, who celebrated his 60th birthday as these Medium and Small School teams were being finalized, started working on the retroactive Medium and Small Schools All-State football teams (with help from Cal-Hi Sports co-founder Nelson Tennis) while he was still in college in the mid-1980s. The key to this process was Askeland saving notes and files of what leagues and conferences Tennis assigned to each level (going back to the 1950s) when he and his nephew Mark Tennis started choosing all-state teams at the Medium and Schools level in the mid-1980s. Without those guidelines, choosing the teams would have been nearly impossible and it truly has been a 40-year process to get this project completed.
Askeland spearheaded the selections based on the divisions assigned by Nelson Tennis, the Medium and Small Schools Players of the Year choices made by both Nelson and Mark and from the picks Cal-Hi Sports Managing Editor Ronnie Flores made more recently for the retroactive overall all-state teams. All of our All-State football Medium Schools teams prior to the 1985 season and for Small Schools prior to the 1984 season were done retroactively. To check out our Player of the Year picks for each season and other categories by class and region, click on the “All-State” tab on the top blue navigation bar or CLICK HERE.
Great Medium, Small Schools Quarterbacks
One player that stands out on our retractive Medium and Small Schools all-state teams is quarterback John Paye of Menlo School of Atherton. In our selection process since we started the Cal-Hi Sports Newsletter for 1979-80, the talented quarterback is the only Mr. Football State Player of the Year selection from a program designated small school back in 1982. It was evident Paye had big-time talent and he was named state small schools player of the year three times between 1980-1982 and is on the all-state team for each season in the Small Schools classification. As a senior, he completed 65 percent of his passes for 3,391 yards and 41 touchdowns and broke Pat Haden’s career state record by finishing with 7,641 yards passing. He was chosen Mr. Football over Large School standouts Steve Beuerlien of Anaheim Servite (QB), Tim McDonald of Fresno Edison (QB-DB) and Large Schools Player of the Year Marshall Dillard of Bakersfield (FB).
Paye was also a four-year standout in basketball and after earning Mr. Football and USA Today Offensive Player of the Year honors (back when that newspaper was just getting started), he led Menlo School to the Div. II state title as a senior in 1982-1983. Naturally, Paye is on our first all-state team by CIF Division done in real time back when the CIF state championships had three divisions (before going to five and later to six with the open division in 2013). He is also our Grid-Hoop Player of the Year for 1982-83 and is still the answer to a great trivia question. Who is the only true freshman to start his first Pac 10/12 game in both football and basketball?
The Small Schools Player of the Year in 1979 before Paye came on the scene was senior Ron Robinson of Woodlake. Robinson was a quarterback and a baseball player. He was the No. 19 overall pick of the legendary 1980 MLB amateur draft and eventually became a MLB pitcher. Two years earlier in 1977, the Small Schools Player of the Year was another quarterback, Tony Eason of Delta of Clarksburg, who earned only one scholarship offer out of high school to University of Pacific, He had to go the junior college route, but eventually became one of six quarterbacks taken in the first round of the historic 1983 NFL Draft at No. 15. Paye replaced John Elway, the No. 1 pick of that draft, as Stanford’s QB.
In the medium schools ranks (which has produced five Mr. Football selections between 1950 and 2024), one quarterback that stands out is John Huarte of Mater Dei of Santa Ana. The Monarchs were a young program then, but Huarte was chosen Player of the Year twice in 1959 and 1960 and is well known for going on to capture the 1964 Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame. Huarte, who passed for 1,439 yards and 16 TDs as a senior at Mater Dei (which were excellent numbers back then), went on to play for five AFL and NFL teams.
Dave Henderson at Dos Palos (Photo Cal-Hi Sports archives)
Wow, Dos Palos
One school that stands out for having excellent players chosen to the retroactive all-state teams at both the medium and small school levels, especially among the skill position players, is Dos Palos. The town of less than 10,00 people in Merced County southwest of the county seat has produced a host of terrific small school players over the years. Looking back at the retroactive all-state teams from 1983 back, we count an amazing 35 all-state selections (at both levels and some individuals chosen twice) with many fine running backs. The Broncos had seven all-state backs chosen between 1983 and 1950, beginning with Dean Collins in 1982 and 1981 and going back to David Henderson in 1976, Ronald Austin in 1975 (when Henderson played mostly tight end and DB), Willie Lewis in 1971, and Earl Austin in 1968 and 1967. Thats not even counting Dos Palos’ fine backs of the 1990s and 2000s who were Small Schools State Players of the Year: Dalevon Smith in 1994, Marque Davis in 1998, Rodney Davis in 1999 and Kenny James in 2001.
Henderson, who passed in 2015, was good enough to make the overall all-state team as a defensive back and went on to play Major League Baseball. California Angels fans especially remember Henderson for his crushing two-out, two-strike ninth inning home run off the late Donnie Moore in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS that essentially robbed the Halos of a World Series appearance, which they never appeared in under the ownership of Gene Autry. Henderson’s selection is important because it highlights how players can be shuffled around if they fit into another position on the overall all-state team that might be different than their selection on the Medium or Small Schools teams. The more versatile a player is, the better chance he has to make the higher level team if he can slot into another position.
Earl Austin just missed making the 1968 overall team as the Medium Schools Player of the Year. The running back position was just so loaded that year in what was one of the state’s best overall seasons for producing backs. Along with State Running Back of the Year Sam Cunningham (Santa Barbara), the 1968 retroactive all-state football team also includes Manfred Moore (San Fernando), Isaac Curtis (Santa Ana), Rod McNeill (Baldwin Park), Calvin Jones (Balboa, San Francisco) and Brent McClanahan (South, Bakersfield), all of whom went on to play in the NFL. There was just no room for Austin on that team in the format in which it was done with one extra utility player compared to how the all-state teams are done today with a max of 30 players, including six multi-purpose selections.
Retroactive All-State Basketball (By CIF Division)
One player we wanted to look up for the retroactive all-state team in 1982 for Medium Schools was running back Boris King of Palm Springs. Flores just wasn’t sure if King, one of the state’s best athletes for that season and all of the 1980s, was considered medium schools or large schools. Remember, medium and small school players are eligible for the overall all-state team, but Large Schools players are not eligible for the lower levels. Askeland admitted for some selections it’s tricky because certain leagues in the same division within a particular section can be in different classifications. Those were the hardest choices to make and in some instances, Askeland had to move players down from Medium to Small or vice versa.
Incredibly, despite being one of the most highly-recruited players in the state and a Best of the West selection by the Long Beach Press-Telegram, King was not chosen on the 1982 all-CIF Southern Section D3 team, so he wasn’t chosen for the Medium Schools team. We decided not to go against that but it’s easily one of the oddest ever all-section omissions we’ve ever seen in our time. King rushed for 1,382 yards with approximately 20 TDs, was an excellent punter with a 41-yard average, and is listed in the Cal-Hi Sports state record book with a 84-yard punt vs. Corona. If there was an overall second team (those began in 1983), King would have been a strong candidate at RB or multi-purpose.
The 6-foot-2 King was an excellent soccer player, was first team all-state in baseball (he had 37 stolen bases as a junior) and if the basketball all-state teams in 1982-83 were done in the manner they are today, he would have made the D1 team after averaging 20.6 ppg for a Palm Springs team that lost, 76-53, to Riverside Poly in the CIFSS 3-A title game. In that first season of all-state teams by CIF division, each divisional all-state team only had five players, so King didn’t make the cut behind names such as Poly’s Reggie Miller and Crenshaw’s John Williams, who was Mr. Basketball as a junior at L.A. Crenshaw.
Our next project is to do retractive all-state boys basketball teams by CIF Division, which should be much easier than doing football because there are more statistics available for hoops than football and because we are only going to chose five players per division. Many of those players are already on the retroactive overall boys basketball all-state teams Flores completed in 2023, so it will just be a matter of plugging in the holes, especially in the lowest divisions where not many made the overall team. The only big question that has to be answered is if were going to select honor squads in five divisions or the traditional three divisions that existed when the CIF state championships were implemented for the 1981-82 season.
As for King, his football coach Gary Skinner called him the best athlete ever out of the Desert (Coachella Valley) in his time (since 1970) and nearly 50 years later he still probably is. USC had the inside track over UCLA to sign him in football, but he ultimately chose a pro baseball contract after the Pittsburgh Pirates chose him in the sixth round of the 1983 MLB Draft. After a stint in pro baseball, he was a two-time all-Big Sky selection at the University of Nevada in basketball.
What About Retroactive All-State Baseball?
Picking the all-state boys hoops teams (by CIF Division) will ultimately be the last retroactive all-state project we do. Girls hoops and softball has barely been around as CIF sports longer than Cal-Hi Sports itself and there is simply not enough years or data to chose teams in those sports. We are proud of our girls coverage over the years as we approach 50 years since our first newsletter and all-state teams.
As far as baseball goes, it would be too tedious and difficult to decipher which athletes were truly the best as high school baseball players, and not let what happened after high school influence our choices. There are not as many available statistics in our archives or in old newspapers to make those retroactive choices accurately. Askeland agrees it would be too influenced by choices in the MLB Draft (which is based on plenty of factors such as signability and potential instead of high school production) and which players did well in semi-pro ball or after high school.
Baseball is the one sport where Nelson Tennis had a soft heart or loved to honor those that excelled in non-traditional scholastic settings because they were the best players of their class. Retroactive all-state baseball teams would be chosen in a manner not consistent with the choices were made for the retroactive all-state Medium and Small School football teams and the others we did for the gridiron and boys basketball.
To View The Retroactive All-State Medium and Small Schools All-State Teams Teams, CLICK HERE
More All-State Football Teams: Overall All-State Teams (Quick Reference) | Overall All-State Teams (Retroactive 1950-1979) | All-State Medium & Small Schools (Quick Reference) | All-State Medium & Small Schools (Retroactive 1950-1983) | All-State Underclass (Quick Reference) | All-Decade (1950s) | All-Decade (1960s) | All-Decade (1970s)
Ronnie Flores is the managing editor of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at ronlocc1977@yahoo.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores
