All-State first team football lineman and CIFSS D2 volleyball player of year Sam Utu of Orange Lutheran (left) is D1 State Athlete of Year. At right, is State Junior Athlete of the Year and swimming star Luka Mijatovic from Foothill of Pleasanton. Photos: orangelutheranathletics / Instagram.com & Chuck Deckert / Pleasanton Weekly.
To go with overall honoree Wes Burford of Oakdale, others have been honored this week as the best among boys athletes for juniors, sophomores, freshmen and those from divisions (D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5) for the 2025-26 school year.
For the full story on our 2025-26 Boys State Athlete of the Year,
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Congratulations to the following additional boys for being selected as a 2025-26 Cal-Hi Sports State Athlete of the Year:
SENIOR OF THE YEAR (Class of 2026)
Wes Burford (Oakdale)
This is usually an automatic honor as the same person named as the overall State Athlete of the Year. It has happened a handful of times over the years when a non-senior gets the top spot, but that clearly wasn’t the case this time. Burford was the State D3 Athlete of the Year previously as a junior. He also would be considered the D3 winner once again for the second straight year, so that created an opening for there to be a separate D1 Athlete of the Year. Additional seniors to get a mention are shown below in the various CIF divisions.
JUNIOR OF THE YEAR (Class of 2027)
Luca Mijatovic (Foothill, Pleasanton)
Although Luca skipped CIF high school competition this spring, his ascent in the swimming world continued and he stayed on track to graduate from Foothill. Over the years, we have honored elite athletes of the year who went to California high schools but didn’t compete at the CIF level. They wouldn’t be eligible if they were just doing online courses or were home schooled.
Mijatovic, who was the State Sophomore Athlete of the Year after he was the Swimmer of the Meet at the CIF state finals, had one of his biggest accomplishments in the pool just last month. Competing at the Toyota National Swimming Championships held July 25-Aug. 1 in Irvine, the 17-year-old grabbed the gold in the men’s 400 freestyle final and broke the national under 17-18 age group record at 3:43.5. The previous record holder was from many years by someone named Michael Phelps, 28-time Olympic gold medal champion.
But that wasn’t all that Luca did. He had a win in the 18-under 200 free and he was third in the men’s 1,500 free plus he was the third in the 800 free.
Next week, Mijatovic will head to the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The comparisons to Phelps are not crazy. Swimswam.com recently called Luca “the best young American men’s distance swimming prospect in decades.” He already has set 10 national age group records in long course with seven in short course.
Another twist to the Mijatovic story is that many in the swim world are expecting him to graduate from Foothill early (just like many of the football players with D1 scholarships already do) and then be ready for the spring next year at the University of Texas. That move also makes sense as Luca may only be 17 but the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 are not some outlandish goal. He’ll need all the extra training he can get with college-level competition as early as possible to increase his odds.
Luca also is the second straight Junior Athlete of the Year from an East Bay high school. He follows Concord De La Salle football-track star Jaden Jefferson from last season. Jefferson doesn’t appear on this year’s state athlete lists as he graduated early and only played football last fall for the Spartans before heading to North Carolina for college.
More Junior Athletes of Honor (Class of 2027)
Jordan Ayala (Norco) Baseball
NaVorro Bowman (Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks) Basketball
Malachi Davis (McFarland) Football, Basketball, Track
Eli Dukes (Palma, Salinas) Football, Lacrosse, Soccer
Godschoice Eboigbodin (JSerra, SJ Capistrano) Football, Basketball
Sharif Elaydi (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose) Swimming
Honor Fa’alave-Johnson (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego) Football
Mateo Fuerbringer (Mira Costa, Manhattan Beach) Volleyball
Ben Harris (Servite, Anaheim) Football, Track
Matteo Huarte (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) Tennis
Caden Jones (Crean Lutheran, Irvine) Football, Basketball
Malachi McFarland (Damien, La Verne) Football, Track
Pasios Polamalu (St. Augustine, San Diego) Football, Basketball
Gene Roebuck (La Mirada) Basketball
Drew Sanchez (De La Salle, Concord) Golf
Jaxson Silverstrom (San Joaquin Memorial, Fresno) Basketball, Track
Jaden Soong from St. Francis of La Canada holds Junior PGA championship trophy he recently won in Frisco, Texas. Photo: Instagram.com.
SOPHOMORE OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2028)
Jaden Soong (St. Francis, La Canada)
Similar to our junior athlete of the year, Jaden isn’t collecting this honor for what he did during CIF competitions. He was listed as a member of the St. Francis varsity golf team by the school, but skipped defending the CIF individual state title that he won as a freshman to concentrate on more significant junior golf tournaments.
Soong just won one of the those big events as well. He went to the Junior PGA Championships in Frisco, Texas just last week and came home as one of the youngest boys winners ever. Jaden fell off of the lead by four shots with nine holes left to play in the final round, but charged down the stretch, including a birdie at the 17th hole. He took the title with seven shots under par.
Soong has been a SoCal golf prodigy since he was seven years old. He became the youngest ever Southern California Golf Asssociation amateur champion in its 125-year history two years ago with rounds of 75-68-69-66. Jaden then won the CIF individual state crown last year as a freshman with a remarkable round of 62.
Since the start of our state sophomore athletes of the year list for 1949-50, there have only been a handful of winners from the San Gabriel Valley. The last one before Soong was Rio Ruiz of Bishop Amat for 2009-10. The previous winner before that was Michael Granville of Bell Gardens for 1993-94. Like a lot of tennis players and golfers that go on to major glory, Soong probably isn’t going to be eligible for anything regarding high school competition or being on a high school team or maybe even attending a regular high school as he keeps going. This may be the last chance to get him on one of our athlete of the year lists.
More Sophomore Athletes of Honor
James Curoso (Clovis) Football, Wrestling
Ryan Doane (JSerra, SJ Capistrano) Basketball
Jasir Fontenot (Mater Dei Catholic, Chula Vista) Track
Koa Malau’ulu (St. John Bosco, Bellflower) Football
Clovis freshman wrestler Michael Bernabe has kept on winning after he won CIF state title in March. Photo: flowrestling.com.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2028)
Michael Bernabe (Clovis)
Clovis wrestlers have been frequent getting athlete of the year recognition. Some do other sports. Some don’t but here comes another one.
Bernabe was the only freshman to claim a CIF state title at this year’s CIF state championships that were held once again in Bakersfield. He faced another freshman in the 113-pound final, Thales Silva, from team champion Buchanan of Clovis and defeated the other frosh phenom by a 12-1 major decision.
Michael has continued to shine in national competitions this summer. Last month, he went to the US Marine Corps freestyle nationals and took first-place in the 113-pound division in the 16-under age class. He went to Las Vegas earlier in the summer and placed third in the U17 51 kg freestyle division at the US Open event. Bernabe’s early high school success at Clovis also isn’t a surprise as he was a two-time youth national champion.
Seth Nevills, who also played football, was the last Clovis wrestler to gain a state athlete of the year honor. That was for his senior year for D1 in 2018. Seth also was junior athlete of the year in 2017, soph of the year in 2016 and was the last Clovis freshman of the year in 2015. His brother, Nick, was a CIF state champ in wrestling as a freshman in 2011 and also was state freshman athlete of the year.
More Frosh Athletes of Honor
Pierce Buckey (Liberty, Bakersfield) Football, Baseball
Will Conroy (Village Christian, Sun Valley) Basketball
Matti Di Maggio (Dos Pueblos, Goleta) Baseball
Thomas Jiang (Jesuit, Carmichael) Swimming
Marcus Washington (Cajon, San Bernardino) Football
DIVISION I
Sam Utu (Lutheran, Orange) Sr.
Technically, Foothill of Pleasanton for swimming also would be D1 so this could have been another category in which phenom Luca Mijatovic could have won, but he’s still tecnically a junior so we wanted to look for a senior in D1 that could be featured and decided that Utu would be good to do.
Sam was named the Orange County Register Boys Athlete of the Year in June and did so for his unique combination of being an elite offensive lineman in football and a punishing outside hitter in volleyball.
In football, Utu was named first team all-state for his versatility to play multiple positions in the offensive line at 6-foot-4 and 320 pounds. He was a four-year varsity member of the OLu football team. Sam was an early commit to Alabama but not long after the Lancers upset St. John Bosco in the CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs and then lost to Santa Margarita in the semifinals he switched to SMU and signed with the Mustangs.
Speaking of the CIF Southern Section, Utu was recently chosen as the CIFSS D2 player of the year in volleyball. The Lancers won the CIFSS D2 title and then went to the final in the CIF SoCal D2 regional playoffs. There’s a photo that Register ran with Sam’s writeup that shows him to be far off the ground going for a kill. Guys that are 320 pounds just don’t jump that high.
More D1 Senior Athletes of Honor
Jason Crowe Jr. (Inglewood) Basketball
Jared Grindlinger (Huntington Beach) Baseball
Luke Jorgenson (Poway) Football, Volleyball
Conor Lott (Clovis North, Fresno) Cross Country, Track
Trent Mosley (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Football
James Obleda (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) Soccer
Connor Ohl (Newport Harbor, Newport Beach) Water Polo, Swimming
Carlton Perrilliat (Salesian, Richmond) Football, Basketball
Tyree Wilson (Rancho Cucamonga) Football, Track
Rocklin Zinkin (Buchanan, Clovis) Wrestling
Mateo Fuhrbringer of famed Mira Costa program is the 2025-26 boys volleyball national player of the year as a junior. Photo: miracostaathletics / Instagram.com.
DIVISION II
Mateo Fuerbringer
(Mira Costa, Manhattan Beach) Jr.
Since we would have Foothill of Pleasanton as D1 for boys swimming and for state junior of year Luca Mijatovic, the D2 spot opens up and it went to another junior. And it has gone to another Fuerbringer since Mateo is the younger brother of 2023-24 Girls Senior Athlete of the Year Charlie Fuerbringer. She wasn’t the overall state athlete of the year for that year, however, as junior track-cross country phenom Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura was the winner.
Mateo has been named the AVCA Boys Volleyball National Player of the Year and is a key member of the USA U21 national team. He also has been selected as the South Bay Daily Breeze All-Area Player of the Year.
Mira Costa won the first-ever CIF D1 state title with a 25-15, 25-17, 26-24 sweep in the championship match against Northgate of Walnut Creek. Fuerbringer had 26 kills on 46 attempts. The school is often in D2 or D3 in most CIF Southern Section sports so that also made it possible for Fuerbringer to get a divisional state athlete honor for D2.
In the CIF SoCal D1 regional final, Mateo led the way in a five-set victory over Loyola of Los Angeles with 28 kills, five blocks and five aces. He also had 37 kills in a five-set match earlier in the season vs Loyola.
As mentioned when his sister was a state athlete of the year, we once saw Mateo’s dad, Matt, win a CIF state title in boys basketball while playing for Estancia of Costa Mesa. Matt is currently the USA Volleyball Men’s Beach Head Coach.
Fuerbringer has committed to UCLA.
More D2 Senior Athletes of Honor
Bo Ausmus (Redondo, Redondo Beach) Football, Track
Riley Gash (Arroyo Grande) Track
Jordan Ragland (West Park, Roseville) Swimming
Mateo Zavaleta (M.L. King, Riverside) Cross Country, Track
DIVISION III
Wes Burford (Oakdale) Jr.
This is the division in which our overall boys athlete of the year would be in. Wes also was the D3 boys athlete of the year as a junior.
The last time there was a back-to-back D3 athlete of the year was track sprinter-football running back Khalfani Muhammad from Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks for 2012 and 2013. There have been a few others from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section who’ve been the pick for D3 as well in recent years, including Manteca’s Gino Campiotti in 2018.
More D3 Senior Athletes of Honor
Jackson Fay (East Union, Manteca) Football, Baseball, Track
Deonte Littlejohn (Acalanes, Lafayette) Football, Basketball, Track
Brayden Stevenson (Tulare) Football, Basketball
Jensen Hirschkorn (Kingsburg) Football, Basketball
Camren Hughes (Palos Verdes, PV Estates) Football, Track
State D4 Athlete of the Year Matt Maxon of Carmel will play next at Stanford. Photo: carmelhighbaseball / Instagram.com.
DIVISION IV
Matt Maxon (Carmel) Sr.
We don’t do a grid-base all-state team like we do for grid-hoop, but if we did perhaps the top athlete for those two sports this year was Carmel’s Maxon.
In football, he was a key member of the team as a junior that won the CIF D5-AA state title and finished with a 15-0 record. The Padres were only 6-5 last season, but Maxon was an individual standout. He played receiver-defensive back and made plays on both sides of the ball. He had 49 catches for 629 yards and seven TDs, rushed for 13 touchdowns and on defense he averaged more than five tackles per game and came up with three interceptions.
Baseball is Matt’s top sport. He’s been a leading player on the Carmel varsity since his freshman season. He pitches and plays in the outfield and committed to Stanford early in his high school career.
This past season, Maxon was among the state leaders in home runs with 14. He also had a .473 batting average, 35 RBI and 47 runs scored. As a pitcher, Matt went 7-1 with a 2.26 ERA.
Maxon’s career totals in baseball are impressive as well. He ended with 31 homers, 130 runs scored and 113 RBI to go with a .409 career average. Matt also had 328 strikeouts as a pitcher in 245 1/3 innings.
Maxon is the first-ever state athlete of the year from Carmel High in any category. The Monterey County region had the D4 winner just four years ago with Evan Johnson from Stevenson of Pebble Beach.
More D4 Senior Athletes of Honor
Reggie Bell (Stevenson, Pebble Beach) Baseball, Basketball, Football
Brad Blankenheim (Amador, Sutter Creek) Football, Baseball
Jack Freehill (Menlo School, Atherton) Football, Baseball
Luke Lemke (Arcata) Football, Basketball
Brady Tse (Harker, San Jose) Track
Tanner Pidgeon of Ferndale wasn’t done competing for the Wildcats by a long shot after his record-breaking football season. Photo: X.com.
DIVISION V
Tanner Pidgeon (Ferndale) Sr.
As one of the state’s top three-sport athletes during the year (regardless of school size), Pidgeon has won out in this division and has become the first-ever state athlete of the year for small schools or D5 from the Humboldt-Del Norte region of the CIF North Coast Section.
Football would have to go down as Tanner’s top sport. He pretty much did it all for a Wildcats’ squad that began the season with eight straight shutouts and finished with one of the top scoring margins of any team in California history at 769-74. Ferndale stepped up to beat a defending state champion (St. Vincent de Paul of Petaluma) to win an NCS title, then lost to Sutter in the NorCal D5-AA regional final with a 13-1 final record.
Pidgeon played QB on offense and had 1,020 yards passing with 13 TDs and he rushed for 1,149 yards and scored 29 TDS. On defense, he led the team in interceptions with seven plus he had 57 tackles. For his career, which included scoring three TDs for the Wildcats as a sophomore in a win vs Fairfax of Los Angeles for the CIF D7-AA state title, Tanner had 81 career touchdowns scored (including punt return TDs) and he had 25 more passing for 106 total TDs accounted for.
Tanner’s other two sports were basketball. In basketball, he gained all-league honors. In baseball, he was a league co-MVP and led Ferndale in hits, runs, steals and batting average. The all-state small schools pick only struck out twice all season and he scored 80 percent of the time that he reached first base.
Although Pidgeon shared the school athlete of the year honor with classmate Prescott Langer (a running back, linebacker) and locally Tyler Hinrichs of Eureka St. Bernard’s was also a co-athlete of the year, we don’t have co-anythings in our history of honors and for all he did it was Tanner that just had to get the top spot. We haven’t done the girls part of these honors yet, but Tanner’s twin sister, Tinnley, has been named the area’s athlete of the year.
The last NCS D5 athlete of the year was volleyball/soccer player Theo Snoey from Head-Royce of Oakland in 2022.
More D5 Senior Athletes of Honor
Tyler Hinrichs (St. Bernard, Eureka) Football, Baseball
Prescott Langer (Ferndale) Football, Basketball, Baseball
Olly O’Connor (Viewpoint, Calabasas) Cross Country, Track
Noah Penunuri (Rio Hondo Prep, Arcadia) Football, Soccer
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
