Jackson Rhode is a terrific 3-sport athelte at Rancho Cotate who also excels at hoops and lacrosse. Last weekend he passed for 508 yards and 4 TDs while adding another rushing. Photo: @JacksonRhode5
For the second-straight week we’re subbing for executive editor Mark Tennis who is frolicking in Scandinavia by publishing the Cal-Hi Sports State Football Players of the Week. We didn’t get as many nominations this week with a lot of top teams with byes, and that means we didn’t have a big number of performances that knocked our socks off. However, we still had an entry for the Cal-Hi Sports State Record Book and we uncovered some local talent that can sometimes fly under the radar, both goals of this long standing feature. This week’s winners are from Rohnert Park, Sacramento and Danville in Northern California. In Southern California we honor players from Ventura, Bell and Corona.
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Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Tristan Savage (Ventura) Jr.
After scouring the media postings for offensive standouts we ended up going with a nomination of Savage by Ventura County Star prep sports scrive Joe Curley for the SoCal Offensive Player of the Week for a couple of reasons. First, he was actually nominated, second, we had only one previous honoree from Ventura County, and third and in a bit of a twist, when the text came in with his nomination from Curley, my fiancé and I were actually in Ventura walking around at the Ventura Harbor Village Shopping Center.
Talk about coincidence. Maybe, but the bottom line is Savage is very deserving of statewide honors.
Last week, in a 48-17 win over Calabasas, Savage, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound wide receiver and running back, did a lot of each after scoring a combined five touchdowns.
Tristan caught eight passes for 205 yards and three TDs, with a longest coming on an 80-yard romp to the house. All three of the TD passes came from senior quarterback Gavin Scarlett who three for 322 yards and four TDs. As a runner, Savage had only four carries but scored twice, including a 15-yard run.
So far this season for the 4-1 Cougars, Savage has 31 receptions for 680 yards and nine TDs, and he’s rushed for 214 yards with six more scores.
His numbers aren’t quite as noteworthy as Savage but we want to give a shout out to one of Curley’s other nominees. Landon Murray, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior had four TDs combined, three by rushing and two with pass receptions for 167 total yards. However, his performance in a 49-12 victory by Royal of Simi Valley helped propel the Highlanders to their fist 5-0 start in 35 years.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Charles Pittman (Bell) Sr.
To find the SoCal Defensive Player of the Week we found Pittman after he showed up in the top performers in the Southland by Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times, and in the Stat Stuffers done by SI High School columnist turned television personality Tarek Fattal.
The performance last week by Pittman doesn’t quite make the Cal-Hi Sports State Record Book but it was still exceptional and earns Charles statewide recognition to go along with the kudos from Sondheimer and Fattal.
In a 36-6 victory last week by Bell over Huntington Park, Pittman, a senior cornerback, had two interceptions including a pick six he took 100-yards to the house. Their other pick wasn’t too shabby as he returned that one 80-yards but didn’t score. Charles was also one of the Eagles leading tacklers with six tackles.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Max Eldridge (Santiago, Corona) Sr.
We head to the Inland Empire in search of the SoCal Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week and we land in Corona at Santiago High, featuring another player we found in SI High School Stat Stuffers by Fattal.
A lot of performances have substantial numbers but a lot of times they come in blowouts, but in this contest the Sharks faithful got the max from Max in a 33-26 victory over the Elsinore Tigers of Wildomar.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound defensive lineman had a solid eight tackles in the win, but more importantly he had a pick six he rambled home to the house from 56-yards out, and he batted down a pass and got through to block a punt.
Quite a day’s work for the Sharks’ edge.
Check out Jackson Rhode’s Highlights on @Hudl https://t.co/KBmV7fr2If #hudl
Big win Friday night!
26/34 for 519 yards, 4TDs with a Rushing TD@JustGusPD @BrandonHuffman @PGregorian @ttherzog @westcoastpreps_ @pdpreps @thecvieyra @GHoward_Scout @247Sports— Jackson Rhode (@JacksonRhode5) September 27, 2026
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Jackson Rhode (Rancho Cotate, Rohnert Park) Sr.
We head back to the Redwood Empire once again for the NorCal Offensive Player of the Week and this time we land just south of Santa Rosa in Rohnert Park at Rancho Cotate. It’s here that we honor the Cougars senior signal-caller who came to us via a nomination from Gus Morris of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
In honoring Rhode we have an anomaly. In our years of experience we often times run into situations where stats have been padded or embellished, however in the case of Jackson and head coach Gehrig Hotaling we have just the opposite.
When the nomination came in from Morris we checked his accounting on the stats with what Rancho Cotate reported on Maxpreps, and indeed his totals yardage qualified for a spot in the Cal-Hi Sports State Record Book in the Football Individual Records: Single-Game Passing section on the Most Yards (Game) list.
We could have taken all that at face value as we often do, but since we helped as a speaker/mentor at a class at Rancho Cotate several years ago that Hotaling was teaching, we decided to call the coach to tell him we were choosing his player. He thanked us but said the numbers for Rhode were not correct as posted. I assumed he would tell me they were higher, but the my surprise he told me they were lower. He told me that on a couple of plays there were penalties that were not factored in, and after confirming with him exactly what the player gets credit for from the spot and before the penalty is assessed, guess what, he produced a new number. In the end, and after all the arithmetic was done, Rohde still secures a spot in the record book, albeit with a little lower number than was originally reported.
Hotaling will be reposting the correct passing numbers in Rhode’s performance last week in a 56-26 victory over visiting Santa Rosa Maria Carrillo. Jackson finished 26 of 34 for 508 yards and four touchdowns, and he had two short runs for five yards that produced a fifth score.
The original numbers posted and the Morris reported were 519 yards with the four passing and one TD rushing.
The morale of this story is honesty can still pay off. Years from now the difference will be a moot point since all Rhode will really member is his named etched in the Cal-Hi Sports State Record Book.
One thing Jackson didn’t get was the school record. That came in a 2016 game that ironically we witnessed in person when Jake Simmons passed for 562 yards, but he did it in a 63-46 loss to Sebastopol Analy.
Not only did Rohde help his team get a win, but it was the Cougars’ first win of the season after a 0-3 start.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Julian “JuJu” Bruno (Grant, Sacramento) Jr.
The search for the NorCal Defensive Player of the Week takes us to the state capital and around eight miles northeast of downtown Sacramento at Grant Union High School, home of the storied Pacers football program.
Grant started its season with a loss to Cal-Hi Sports No. 9 Central East of Fresno, but since then the Pacers have run off four straight wins and the leader on the defensive side of the ball has been a 6-foot-1, 220-pound junior linebacker they call “JuJu.”
Last week, in a 35-28 victory by No. 27 Grant over visiting Nevada No. 4 ranked Mater Academy of East Las Vegas, Bruno, who has garnered recognition on more than one All State squad, came up with 15 tackles with two for losses including a sack, two quarterback hurries and two passes defended, plus a forced fumble.
So far this season, and heading a Metropolitan League opener against cross-town McClatchy in two weeks after a bye, JuJu has registered double-digit tackles in all five games and has 66 total tackles with eight for losses including two sacks, six quarterback hurries, four passes defended, four forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. The 66 tackles is the No. 3 reported mark in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Not surprisingly JuJu has over 25 Division I college offers already as a junior and a sizable portion are big-time schools, and with a 3.8 GPA, it makes him even more sought after.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Justin Grisham (Monta Vista, Danville) Sr.
We first saw this week’s NorCal Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week looking over the San Jose Mercury News/BANG Roundup, but we kept looking for another NorCal defender that could top his achievement last week.
When the Merc came out with its list of nominees for the Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week and he was on it, and we hadn’t found someone that could top the accomplishment of Grisham in a 37-14 victory over Dublin, but we could not. The result, whether he wins the BANG overall boys athlete of the week or not, the Mustangs senior star has garnered a statewide honor.
Talk about taking it out on your old team and that’s just what the 5-foot-11, 203-pound running back and linebacker did. The Dublin transfer was the second leading Monte Vista rusher with 68 yards on 13 carries, but he scored three of the Mustang’s TDs rushing. On defense he had 10 total tackles with three for losses including a sack.
With the win Grisham and his Mustangs mates are 5-0 to start the season for the first time since the 2021 season.
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
