More Football State Players of the Year

To go along with Mr. Football State Player of the Year Trent Mosley, check inside this post for the honorees who have been chosen among juniors, sophomores, freshmen, medium schools and small schools. It’s more clear-cut this year with these additional honors since the overall winner is a senior and from a large/Open Division school.

To see who has been named Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Football State Player of the Year, CLICK HERE.

To see who has been named Cal-Hi Sports Defensive State Player of the Year, CLICK HERE.

For a list of our all-time players of the year for juniors, sophomores, medium schools and small schools, CLICK HERE.

We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. Please check out joining our Gold Club today so you can see those lists and many others that don’t exist anywhere else plus all of our upcoming all-state teams. For details, CLICK HERE.

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Congratulations to the following additional Cal-Hi Sports State Players of the Year for the 2025 football season (joining overall honoree Trent Mosley of Santa Margarita).

STATE JUNIOR OF THE YEAR:
HONOR FA’ALAVE-JOHNSON
(CATHEDRAL CATHOLIC, SAN DIEGO)

There is a freakishness about Fa’alave-Johnson that’s easy to explain. The hard-hitting No. 1 safety prospect in the nation for the Class of 2027 has clocked 10.48 seconds in the 100-meter dash, has measured 41 inches with a vertical leap and weighs close to 200 pounds.

Now, for the season that he had on both offense and defense, the Dons’ standout has been named as the Cal-Hi Sports State Junior Player of the Year. He’s just the sixth winner among juniors since 1928 (the first year the selections go back to) from the CIF San Diego Section. The last one was dual-threat QB Tyler Buchner from Bishop’s of La Jolla for 2019. The previous one before that was RB Gary Taylor of Morse for 1990. The only others are shown as C.R. Roberts of Oceanside (1952), Charley Powell of San Diego High (1949) and Amby Schindler of San Diego High (1933).

Fa’alave-Johnson already has picked up some major honors, including CIF San Diego Section Offensive Player of the Year and KUSI PPR Silver Pigskin Player of the Year.

The offensive part of the equation for Honor was highlighted by Cathedral Catholic’s first CIF San Diego Section Open Division playoff game when he rushed for 250 yards and five touchdowns on 17 carries in a win vs top seed Mission Hills by the No. 4 seed Dons. In the comeback 20-16 win over Carlsbad in the SD Open final, Fa’alave-Johnson rushed for 114 yards on 18 carries with two TDs and he caught six passes for 56 yards. He had 28 carries for 135 yards and two TDs plus six catches for 68 yards in the win against Los Alamitos for the CIF D1-AA SoCal title. Although Folsom had its way for most of the foggy night in the D1-AA state final in a 42-28 win over the Dons, Honor provided some hope with TD runs of 74 and 15 yards. He ended the game with 22 carries for 267 yards rushing and two TDs.

In leading Cathedral Catholic to an 11-3 record and No. 11 final state ranking, Fa’alave-Johnson had 1,532 yards rushing on just 150 carries with 23 TDs. He also had eight 100-yard games and that’s even though he missed a game vs Point Loma after having to leave the game with injury in a loss to De La Salle of Concord.

As a freshman, Honor went to St. Augustine of San Diego and was regarded as one of the top freshmen to watch in the state. He rushed for 702 yards and 11 TDs that season with 62 tackles on defense. He had to miss five games as a sophomore last season at Cathedral Catholic due to transfer/eligibility rules.

This season on defense, which still seems to be the focus of Fa’alave-Johnson as one of the nation’s top prospects in the junior class, he had 40 tackles, three interceptions and one forced fumble.

Several weeks ago, Honor announced his top 10 schools to gain a commitment. They are Alabama, USC, Miami, Penn State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Texas and Oregon.

STATE SOPHOMORE OF THE YEAR:
KOA MALAU’ULU
(ST. JOHN BOSCO, BELLFLOWER)

It was not a great last two games for Malau’ulu and the Braves, who were 9-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation until they lost to Mater Dei, 36-31, and then were shockingly upset in the CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs, 20-19, to an Orange Lutheran team that Bosco beat 48-0 in the regular season.

Until the last two games, however, the Braves’ QB was considered in the mix for overall State Player of the Year. He also still did plenty in all of those first nine games to be the top sophomore in the state, which matches his showing from a year ago in being the State Freshman Player of the Year.

St. John Bosco didn’t have a State Sophomore of the Year until 2013 when running back Sean McGrew captured the honor. The Braves now have four as Malau’ulu joins McGrew, QB D.J. Uiagalelei for 2017 and his younger brother Matayo Uiagalelei (who played tight end and defensive end) for 2020.

Before those last two games, Koa had 30 touchdown passes and just one interception playing a national/Trinity League schedule. In a 21-14 win vs nationally ranked St. Frances Academy of Baltimore, Malau’ulu completed 14 of 27 passes for 279 yards and three TDs. One of his best outings was going 17 of 21 for 289 yards and four TDs in a 27-14 win over eventual CIF Open Division state champ Santa Margarita. He also went 16 of 22 for 258 yards and three TDs in the 48-0 win vs OLu in the regular season.

For the season, Malau’ulu had 2,361 yards passing and 33 TDs in 11 games. He also rushed for 102 yards and four scores. In the loss to Mater Dei, he suffered three interceptions but passed for 288 yards and two TDs and rushed for 43 yards on 10 carries.

As a college prospect, Koa is shown with nine current D1 offers, including those from Texas Tech, Utah, Washington, Arizona and Arizona State. His father, George, played QB at Arizona in the early 1990s. Older sister Thessa just graduated from Duke after playing softball there last spring. Another older sister, Chloe, was a four-year starter in softball at Mississippi State.

STATE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR:
MARCUS WASHINGTON (CAJON, SAN BERNARDINO)

Head coach Nick Rogers of Cajon has another freshman in his career who has had a great season so that obviously means a comparison with the first one back in 2015. That was dual-threat quarterback Jayden Daniels, who went on to break the CIF Southern Section career passing record, went on to win the Heisman Trophy at LSU and last year was the top rookie QB in the NFL before an injury-filled season this year.

Back in 2015, we didn’t have a State Freshman of the Year honor, but it would not have gone to Jayden since that same season Mater Dei of Santa Ana had freshman J.T. Daniels, who passed for 3,042 yards and 33 TDs. Jayden had 2,694 yards and 35 TD passes.

This year’s freshman at Cajon, Marcus Washington, didn’t have a comparative QB from a school like Mater Dei or St. John Bosco (which had a freshman QB one year ago for most of the season) to deal with. In fact, we didn’t find a freshman QB or a freshman player at any other position that could beat what Marcus did this season for the Cowboys against the competition that they faced and now he’s been selected as State Freshman Player of the Year.

Washington did not break Jayden Daniels’ total of 2,694 passing yards and 35 TDs at Cajon in 11 games from 2015. Combining the passing and rushing totals, however, Marcus had 2,235 yards passing and 681 yards rushing for a total of 2,916 yards that just beats Jayden’s combined mark of 2,910 yards.

The top honor for Washington so far after the season has been being named Offensive MVP in the Citrus Belt League, which is a league race that the Cowboys won mainly for their 25-23 triumph over Beaumont (which was in the State TOP 50 rankings at the time). Marcus had 154 yards passing and two TDs plus 81 yards rushing on 11 carries in that game. He had a season high of 300 yards passing in a win vs Yucaipa and a season high of 117 yards rushing in a win vs Etiwanda. Cajon’s 7-4 season ended with a loss to Great Oak of Temecula in the first round of the CIF Southern Section D4 playoffs.

In a recent first look at top possible national recruiting targets for the class of 2029, Washington also was mentioned by Rivals.com as one of four quarterbacks. Another QB on that list, Thaddeus Breaux III of Los Angeles Hamilton, also was considered for the top state freshman honor.

STATE MEDIUM SCHOOLS PLAYER OF YEAR:
WES BURFORD (OAKDALE)

This is not the first major honor that we have awarded to Wes within the past year. Late in the summer, he was named as the Cal-Hi Sports Medium Schools State Boys Athlete of the Year for what he did in football, wrestling and track. Despite being a junior, it was an honor that could have been earned by a senior. It’s now time for the medium schools selection after Wes’ senior season in football and that one is headed toward the Stanislaus County town as well.

As one would expect with an athlete of the year type of player, Burford was a standout on both sides of the ball for an Oakdale squad that went 11-3 and went to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D3 championship game. The Mustangs lost in that game, 58-52, to Woodcreek of Roseville, but Burford did all he could to keep them in it. He carried 41 times as a running back for 176 yards and five touchdowns.

For the season, Wes ranked second in the state for rushing yards with 2,867 yards, according to MaxPreps. He didn’t lead the state in touchdowns scored, but his scoring total of 42 touchdowns, 20 2-point conversions and three kicking PATs for 295 points ranked first, just five points more than Balboa of San Francisco’s Mekai Smith.

Posting a whopping 30.0 tackles for loss was the highlight of Burford’s defensive totals for this season. He also had 77 tackles with one interception, one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles.

It’s been awhile since there’s been a medium schools state player of the year from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section. The last one was QB Randy Fasani from Del Oro of Loomis for 1995, which was one year after RB/LB Josh Parry of Sonora was the pick. In those days, Sonora was playing in medium schools division playoffs in the SJS, which has not been the case in recent seasons. The Wildcats have been small schools and of course this year had to the top small schools team in California and (see below) also have the small schools state player of the year.

Oakdale itself has a previous two-time medium schools state player of the year and it’s a good one. Based on research from each season back to before 1900, the Cal-Hi Sports player of the year lists show that Oakdale had the medium schools winner for 1944 and 1945 and it’s the legendary Eddie LeBaron. Eddie was NFL Rookie of the Year in 1952 and he was the first starting QB in 1960 with the Dallas Cowboys. The four-time all-pro QB also was later a general manager with the Atlanta Falcons for six years from 1977 to 1982.

Seeing Burford make big plays on both sides of the ball in the Valley Oak League also was quite similar to what Blake Nichelson was doing just two years ago at Manteca. The twist about Nichelson is that Manteca has been moved to the SJS D2 playoffs the past few seasons and therefore he couldn’t be medium schools like Burford could be be for this year.

One of Nichelson’s great accomplishments was scoring 92 career touchdowns. Burford eclipsed that with 106 career touchdowns. That is 20th best in state history and third best in section history. Burford’s career rushing totals generated even more attention, however. He wound up with 7,364 yards, which blew away the previous section record of 6,192 set in 2019 by Cam Skattebo of Rio Linda, the NFL rookie sensation with the New York Giants who had his season cut short this season with a dislocated ankle. Wes will likely enter the next state record updates with the 11th best rushing total for a career.

Burford is currently on the Oakdale wrestling team, looking to return to the CIF state wrestling championships where he placed third as a junior in the 215-pound weight class. He was a section finalist in the high hurdles last spring in track.

Up next after high school for the 4.17 GPA student-athlete will be fulfilling an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. Flying high also sure would be a good way to describe Wes’ high school career.

STATE SMALL SCHOOLS PLAYER OF YEAR:
CASH BYINGTON (SONORA)

One year after Hughson’s Robert McDaniel gained this honor, it has been earned again by a player from the same Trans Valley League that Hughson plays in, but for different reasons.

McDaniel was a highly-regarded quarterback with D1 offers (which doesn’t happen that often for very many quarterbacks from small schools) who had led Hughson to a 12-1 record and ended his career with 7,860 passing yards and 96 career TD passes.

Byington was the top all-around player (offense, defense, special teams) for a Sonora squad that won the CIF D2-A state title, went 15-0 and was No. 1 in our final State TOP 10 for small schools. The Wildcats, who also won their second straight state title and will take a 22-game win streakm (longest in the state) into next season, also were named as the country’s No. 1 small school, small town team by MaxPreps. One of the teams that Sonora beat during the regular season that helped it achieve all of those things at the end was Oakdale, which was led by our State Medium Schools Player of the Year.

As a junior in much the same role as this season, Byington was one of the team’s top players, but some of his teammates, especially fullback Tommy Sutton and running back/defensive back Brody Speer, did just as much and there wasn’t an attempt to necessarily choose one over the others. This year, Cash emerged as the team’s leading honors candidate and that has now continued all the way to this state honor.

Byington already has been named as the Trans Valley League MVP plus other honors, including one from Black Hat Football from the 209 area code that was gained by transcribing notes left behind by founder Richard T. Estrada after he had died of a heart attack on Sunday morning, Dec. 29. We knew Rich for many years going back to his days with the Modesto Bee and were thinking about him while writing up the player of the year bios for Byington along with Wes Burford (above).

In Sonora’s highly anticipated CIF D2-A state final against 15-0 Rio Hondo Prep of Arcadia, Byington made his presence known quickly on defense with a couple of hard-hitting tackles for loss that helped get the offense of the Kares off the field. He also scored the first touchdown of the game for the Wildcats on a 8-yard run. They went on to win, 35-10. Speer had a 67-yard TD and rushed for 121 yards and Sutton plowed into the end zone for three scores, but Byington had 93 yards rushing on eight carries and he was second on the team in tackles with eight and had had a 34-yard kickoff return.

That’s the kind of two-way playmaking skills that Cash showed throughout the season. He led the team in rushing with 1,225 yards and he had 12 catches for 364 yards for a team-leading seven TDs. For overall scoring, he had 27 TDs and 162 points. That included one TD on a kickoff return and one on a punt return plus one on defense. For defense overall, Byington was third on the team in tackles with 93.

Byington, who does go by cashmoney on his Instagram account, doesn’t have college plans that are reported, but once he settles into a specific position, which could be anything really on both sides of the ball depending on how much he grows from his 5-foot-11, 185-pound frame, it will be interesting to follow. He also carries a 3.9 GPA.

Sonora has had a state player of the year before, but it was in 1995 for medium schools. That was linebacker/running back Josh Parry, who later played in the NFL and is currently the head coach at Del Oro of Loomis. The Stanislaus District also has had previous state small school players of the year besides McDaniel from last year in 2022 with Ryker Peters of Escalon and in 2005 with Nathan Costa of Hilmar. There aren’t any others going back to 1940 on our all-time lists.

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