Cali Super Bowl Alums 2026

We have one of the highest totals in recent years with 13 players on the roster of either the Seattle Seahawks or New England Patriots. It doesn’t quite lead the nation, however, as Texas checked in with 14. We did beat Florida this time, which has eight, and we have one of the two starting quarterbacks. Our research on California players in the Super Bowl goes back to the first one in 1967.

RELATED for Gold Club Members:
State’s All-Time List of Super Bowl Players

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We have a game we do every year in compiling a list of players heading into the Super Bowl in which we’re counting the totals from each state as we go through each team. We did the Seattle Seahawks roster alphabetically first (the official one shown a few days before each game) and then did the New England Patriots.

It’s kind of a fun way to do it instead of cheating and just looking perhaps at some other lists from other media groups that might already be out. When we were with Student Sports Magazine in the early 1990s and went to a Super Bowl more than 30 years ago with a media credential, we were the first ones to compile a high school alumni list for the game among any other national outlets and have continued to do it ever since. Googling makes it now easier than ever in looking up the players so these national guys acting like they’re experts is kind of hilarious. In the old days, one had to have access to college media guides or the old Sporting News player registers that listed high schools. In the years since leaving ESPN in 2012, we don’t list all of the other non-California players, but are counting them for each particular state.

As we were getting down toward the end of the alphabetical order for the Patriots, things were looking great for California with 13 alums on the list. Three of the last four names checked out, though, Milton Williams, Charles Woods and Craig Woodson are all from Texas high schools. It therefore was a come-from-behind win in our game for the Lone Star State since those three players pushed the Texas total to 14.

It’s hard to know for sure, but there’s a chance that California would have had the most players with 15 were it not for some recent injuries for the Seahawks, including RB Zach Charbonnet (Oak Christian) suffering a torn ACL in the NFC divisional round vs the 49ers. The team’s No. 3 RB, George Holani (St. John Bosco), already would have been on the roster and the injury to Charbonnet came after WR Tory Horton (Washington, Easton) already was ruled out for the season in November with a shin injury.

California had 10 players in last year’s Super Bowl, which also was third-most, but Florida had the most with 14 while Texas had 12. California had the most with 14 four years ago in the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams defeating the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Seahawks went into this year’s game as the favorites, so there’s a chance that starting QB Sam Darnold (San Clemente High grad) could be MVP. The last starting QB from the state in the game was Tom Brady (San Mateo Serra) in 2021 for the Tampa Bay Bucs. He also was the state’s last MVP, which was the fifth time he’d done that in his legendary career.

CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL
SUPER BOWL ALUMS (2026)

Alex Austin (Long Beach Poly) DB Patriots
It’s another year with a Jackrabbit alum in the biggest football game of the year. Alex, who is a 2019 grad of the school with the most NFL alums of any high school in the nation by a wide margin, has made it this year with the Patriots. He went to Oregon State after a standout high school career at Poly. Austin’s appearance comes one year after JuJu Smith-Schuster played in the Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs. Willie McGinest of Poly was a member of three Super Bowl winning teams with the Patriots. We now count eight from Poly to be on active rosters for a Super Bowl team (not counting those who were injured). That’s not as many as 13 that our friends at the562.org counted, but it’s still now first among all schools in California.

Sam Darnold (San Clemente) QB Seahawks
When the NFL playoffs began, six of the 14 teams (almost half) had QBs from California. Sam is the only one left and has certainly proven to be a success for the Seahawks, who signed him after he had a breakout season in 2024 for the Minnesota Vikings. We still think of Darnold most as a player who had a broken leg during his sophomore season in high school, but came back from the serious injury to become a major college prospect. Any other kid who suffers a serious injury should remember that. It can be overcome and not only that but overcome to the utmost of achievement. Darnold, who was second team overall all-state QB as a senior in high school, really came onto the scene in the summer after his junior season with the Tritons. Not playing as a sophomore and still getting back up to full strength probably had a lot to do with that. He became one of the state’s most heavily recruited QBs and eventually signed with USC. Surprisingly, he’s the first USC QB who will start in the Super Bowl. Carson Palmer (Santa Margarita) got to an NFC final with Cardinals and there’s a good chance that Rob Johnson (El Toro) could have made one with the Buffalo Bills were it not for that crazy Music City Miracle play in January of 2000.

Jaylinn Hawkins (Buena Park) DB Patriots
Known for making athletic — at some points one-handed — interceptions, Jaylinn will be playing in his first Super Bowl. He was part of a period at Buena Park in the mid-2010s in which the school was getting a few D1 recruit tup players. Hawkins was a standout for the Coyotes in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, then went to college at Cal. He played for the Atlanta Falcons to start his NFL career, which began in the 2020 season.

George Holani (St. John Bosco, Bellflower) RB Seahawks
Earlier this season in November, George scored the first-ever TD by a Bosco alum in the NFL and his usage picked up in the NFC championship game with Zach Charbonnet (Oaks Christian) going down at RB for the Seahawks with a knee injury. Holani starred at Bosco from 2016 to 2018 with the Braves and then went to Boise State. It’s the third straight year that a former Brave has been in the Super Bowl after Kansas City Chiefs DB Trent McDuffie played in the last two Super Bowls.

Austin Hooper (De La Salle, Concord) TE Patriots
Here’s a player for the Pats who’s already had a Super Bowl touchdown. He did it on a catch from QB Matt Ryan for the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 Super Bowl that helped the Falcons get out to a 28-3 lead before they famously lost it all in the fourth quarter and overtime in a loss to the Patriots. Hooper is one of the top NFL alums from DLS, but his biggest game for the Spartans came as a defensive end when he pressured then-Folsom sophomore QB Jake Browning into some mistakes and collected three sacks in a win that decided the CIF NorCal Open Division title in 2012.

Marte Mapu (Hawthorne) LB Patriots
He was one of those guys in high school who played all types of positions, including quarterback, receiver, linebacker, safety and cornerback. He became a linebacker at Sac State and eventually was named Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

Jason Myers (Mater Dei Catholic, Chula Vista) PK Seahawks
Since we never had a reason to look up the longtime NFL kicker before, to be honest we didn’t know until just last week that Myers is from Mater Dei Catholic. He’s actually one of the Seahawks’ team captains, which makes sense because he’s been with Seattle since the 2019 season. Jason, who was more of a soccer star in high school and went to Marist College in New York where he played both sports, broke into the NFL as a kicker in 2015 with the Jacksonville Jaguars after kicking in the Arena League with San Jose and Arizona. This past 2025 season, Myers set the NFL record for most points scored without scoring a touchdown.

Uchenna Nwosu (Narbonne, Harbor City) LB Seahawks
He was the Co-MVP of the team at USC in the 2015 along with QB Sam Darnold, who he will be his teammate in this year’s Super Bowl. Nwosu was a second round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Chargers. At Narbonne, Uchenna had a big showing as a senior in the 2013 season with 121 tackles and three interceptions. All of the team’s wins for the season, however, were later forfeited.

Elijah Ponder
(Bishop Amat, La Puente) LB Patriots
Here’s a rookie for the Patriots who was undrafted last April, but earned a spot on the team and is now getting an appearance in the Super Bowl. Ponder was the most valuable lineman in the Mission League as a senior at Amat in the 2019 season. He played and starred at the college level at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Brendan Schooler (Mission Viejo) DB Patriots
Known for his borderline crazy play on special teams, Schooler was one of the top players on Mission Viejo’s 2015 team that went 16-0 and won the CIF D1 state title. His younger brother, Colin, was a junior RB-LB on that team. That also was the Diablos’ team that featured Brock Johnson at quarterback, grandson of legendary head coach Bob Johnson (it was Bob’s only CIF state title) and son of offensive coordinator Bret Johnson. Brendan went to college at Oregon and Texas and also has gained an NFL roster spot after being undrafted before entering the league.

Rasheed Shaheed (Mt. Carmel, San Diego) KR/WR Seahawks
Speaking of special teams with Schooler, Shaheed has shown he can turn games around in an instant with a punt return or kickoff return. He had a punt return TD that in fact did turn around the Seahawks in their regular season overtime win over the Rams and he returned the opening kickoff of the NFC Divisional playoff win vs the 49ers. Shaheed came to the Seattle just a few days this season before the trade deadline in a transaction with the New Orleans Saints.

Jahlani Tavai (Mira Costa, Manhattan Beach) LB Patriots
Hailing from Hawaii as much as SoCal, Jahlani went back to Hawaii for college after his years at Mira Costa ended. He was a second round pick in 2019 by the Detroit Lions, got waived by the Lions just after the start of 2021 season, but was then picked up by the Patriots. He’s been on their roster ever since and signed a three-year contract extension for the 24-25 season. Younger brother J.R. is playing in NFL Europe while older brother Justus had some NFL time but is now trying pro rugby.

Kyle Williams (St. Monica, Santa Monica) WR Patriots
After a circuitous route to St. Monica in high school with previous stops at Hawthorne and Narbonne (Harbor City), Kyle did the same in college as he switched from UNLV where he started to Washington State. The rookie receiver had a good enough season in 2019 at St. Monica with 31 catches for 763 yards and nine TDs that he became a three-star recruit and eventually signed with UNLV.

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