Since we just ran a photo of our NorCal Offensive Player of Week with new State TOP 50 rankings, the defenders get the top spots this week with Jesse Wilhite of Granite Hills (El Cajon) & John McClellan from Rancho Cotate of Rohnert Park. Photos: X.com.
All of this week’s honorees are from CIF section playoff games and since we only pick players for these honors from winning teams, it gets more difficult to find those with record book type performances. We have six more very good ones, however, and two of them played in games that ended with scores of 64-55 and 52-49. Our travels take us to Stockton, Rancho Cotate and San Mateo in Northern California while for Southern California we hit Thermal, El Cajon and San Diego.
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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
Defensive Player of the Week
John McClellan (Rancho Cotate, Rohnert Park) Sr.
There’s been a player in the Redwood Empire region of the CIF North Coast Section who’s been racking up big totals for tackling over the past three seasons and it’s where we start handing out this week’s honors.
McClellan was at his best and then some in a 24-8 victory for the Cougars last Friday over James Logan of Union City in the NCS D3 playoffs. He wound up with 21 tackles, four tackles for loss, and he had a 60-yard interception return for a score. He is averaging 13.9 tackles per game, which is close to the 15.7 he had last season as a junior. He has missed one game this season, but had 25 tackles in a loss to Vintage of Napa and 22 tackles in a loss to St. Vincent de Paul of Petaluma. On offense, John has contributed as well for the 6-5 team with 181 yards rushing and four TDs plus 184 yards receiving and one score.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior has been getting some D1 college offers and earlier this month committed to Utah State. He plays with the speed to get out to the edges and has been almost like a free safety out there. The Cougars are playing El Cerrito on Friday in the NCS D3 semifinals.
If Saul Marks of San Mateo Serra were to have a chance to drill a 60-yard field goal in this week’s game vs Riordan, he’d have a good chance to make it. Photo: padreathletics.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern Cal
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of Week
Saul Marks (Serra, San Mateo) Sr.
We head to the middle of the San Francisco Peninsula just off the famous El Camino Real in San Mateo to honor one of the top kickers in the nation as this week’s NorCal Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week.
Marks’ leg strength and potential to kick field goals well beyond 50 yards was obvious from the first game of the season and he’s gone on to have a big senior season. In a 29-13 triumph last Saturday against Archbishop Mitty of San Jose at Serra in the opening round of the CIF Central Coast Section Open/D1 playoffs, Saul was called on to kick a 53-yard field goal and he nailed it. It was his third 50-yard field goal of the season and tied the school record of 53 that he had set earlier this season.
For the season, Marks also has made 11-of-15 field goals in all. In the 10-game regular season, he also was 33-of-36 on PATs and 49 of 55 on booting the ball into the end zone for touchbacks. Saul also averaged 42 yards on gross punting.
Kohl’s Kicking has Marks at No. 1 in California and No. 9 in the nation. Chris Sailer Kicking has him ranked No. 1 in California and No. 10 in the nation.
Serra, which moved to 7-4 after the win vs Mitty, was No. 25 in this week’s State TOP 50 Rankings and is playing No. 11 Archbishop Riordan on Friday at San Jose City College for the CCS Open Division title. If the Padres need a big field goal at the end, they have the perfect kicker to be jogging out on to the field.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Jaden Galvan (St. Mary’s, Stockton) Sr.
Our destination for the NorCal Offensive Player of the Week selection takes us to the northern part of Stockton just about a mile up the road from where our Stockton office was located from 1993 to 2019 on El Dorado Street. St. Mary’s also was home last Friday to one of the wildest games in Sac-Joaquin Section playoff history. Visiting Jesuit of Carmichael played its heart out in trying to upset the state No. 35 and fourth-seed Rams in the first round of the D2 playoffs, but Galvan and his teammates made too many big plays and came from behind to beat the Marauders, 64-55.
Jesuit’s total of 55 points in a loss is not a section record, but it may be for a playoff game. Our all-time records include all of the ones reported at 53 points or more, but do not indicate which ones are playoff games. At one point in the contest, Jesuit had a kickoff return TD, followed by a Rams’ kickoff return TD, and then another Jesuit kickoff return TD. We don’t have a record book category for that, but believe there has been at least one other game in the entire history of the state in which that has happened before.
Galvan first came to attention as a junior last season when he passed for 325 yards and two TDs for the Rams in a 38-35 loss to De La Salle of Concord. If you know much about De La Salle, giving up 325 yards passing doesn’t happen very often.
In the game vs Jesuit, Galvan posted a season-high of 358 yards passing and five TDs. He completed 25 of 43 passes and lifted St. Mary’s from a 45-35 deficit entering the fourth quarter. His top targets included Ivan Huerta with seven catches for 127 yards and three TDs and UCLA-bound Kenny Moore III with four grabs for 101 yards. Jaden also rushed for a team-best 55 yards on seven carries.
For the season entering this week’s huge showdown game vs unbeaten Manteca for San Joaquin County bragging rights with a trip to the section finals on the line, Galvan has passed 2,123 yards and 25 touchdowns. He had 1,700 yards and 18 TDs in 11 games last season.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Jesse Wilhite (Granite Hills, El Cajon) Jr.
The East County region of the CIF San Diego Section is where we head for this week’s SoCal Defensive Player of the Week honoree. It’s at Granite Hills, which has seemed to have a ball hawking defensive back on all four of its teams the last four seasons that have all won section titles in different divisions.
Wilhite isn’t the only DB on the team who gets turnovers, but in last Friday’s 49-15 victory over Del Norte of San Diego in the D1 section playoffs he was the one who picked off a pass and ran it back for an 82-yard touchdown and then later on he was the same one who picked up a fumble and ran it back for a 28-yard score. Jesse now has three interceptions and one forced fumble with two fumble recoveries on the season.
Last season, Wilhite was a sophomore starter at Murrieta Mesa of Murrieta. He had five interceptions and 42 tackles for the Rams. Jesse also has caught passes during his high school career and is currently shown with four D1 offers (Georgia State, Idaho, Kentucky and UNLV). Granite Hills will now play Mt. Miguel of Spring Valley on Friday in the D1 section semifinals.
Running back Ivan Camargo was recently honored for things he does off the field by the Coachella Valley Unified School District. Photo: coachellavalleyusd / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Ivan Camargo (Coachella Valley, Thermal) Sr.
If the Mighty Arabs can keep going in the CIF Southern Section D12 playoffs, the one carrying the cargo at running back is going to be their senior running back. Representing a school in Riverside County that is south of Indio and north of the Salton Sea, Camargo led the way in last Friday’s 49-14 triumph over Perris.
With 32 carries, Ivan twisted, turned and bolted for 321 yards rushing and scored six touchdowns. After only rushing for 648 yards and 10 TDs last season, Camargo has been a force this season. The big outing vs Perris put his season totals at 2,066 yards in 11 games. He also has caught 31 passes for 552 yards. The six TDs last week were all by rushing, but for combined TDs Camargo pushed his season total for scoring to 30 TDs and 180 points.
Camargo began to ramp up his senior season in a win against Yucca Valley with 272 yards rushing and two TDs and then the following week he 282 yards and two TDs in a victory vs Twentynine Palms.
Coachella Valley will take a 7-5 record into this week’s CIFSS D12 semifinal matchup vs 9-3 Grace of Simi Valley.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Hez Manuel (Hoover, San Diego) Soph.
For our final search this week, we head to a school in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego northeast of Balboa Park that is mostly known by high school historians as the home of baseball legend Ted Williams. It’s at Hoover where we find a dual-threat quarterback who was involved in another of the state’s epic high-scoring playoff showdowns last week.
Manuel did it all to lead the Cardinals from a 42-27 deficit entering the fourth quarter to a 52-49 victory over Sweetwater of National City in the CIF San Diego Section D5 playoffs. The shifty sophomore completed 22 of 40 passes for 345 yards and five touchdowns. As a rusher, Hez added 130 yards on 14 carries with two more scores.
While this was not Manuel’s top passing game of the season — he had 373 yards in a loss to San Ysidro — for combined totals it was his best. For the season heading into a section semifinal matchup vs 7-4 Canyon Hills of San Diego for the 6-6 Cardinals, Hez has 2,518 yards passing and 23 TDs plus 925 yards rushing and 14 scores.
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
