By Mark Tennis
Perhaps the biggest name for Bay Area football on the national recruiting circuit this spring would be quarterback Jay Butterfield from Liberty-Brentwood.
In his second year starting for the Lions last fall, Butterfield threw for nearly 3,300 yards and 43 touchdowns in helping the team win the CIF Division 1-A state title. He’s also got the size, at nearly 6-foot-6, that college coaches love.
In early May, Butterfield announced a verbal commitment to the University of Oregon. He became the latest top Bay Area recruit to head out of California, following in the path of other recent blue-chippers like linebacker Henry To’oto’o of De La Salle (Tennessee) and running back Najee Harris of Antioch (Alabama).
At least Butterfield didn’t jump ship completely out of the Pac-12 Conference, however, which is what happened two days before he committed to Oregon. That’s when California’s No. 1 quarterback recruit and perhaps the top Class of 2020 recruit in the nation, St. John Bosco-Bellflower’s D.J. Uiagalelei, announced for Clemson.
So what would someone say if on the ensuing weekend following both major commitments it was possible to see Butterfield and Uiagalelei unloading passes almost side-by-side to some of the best wide receiver prospects in the nation? They were doing just that at El Cerrito High’s field on May 11 at the Northern California regional camp of a national tour known as The Opening.
Presented by Nike, The Opening at El Cerrito also was a place where many top players from well-known programs from outside of Northern California such as St. John Bosco, Mater Dei-Santa Ana, Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas and St. Louis-Honolulu all gathered for a chance to earn an invited trip to Dallas to be part of Nike’s The Opening, a national football camp. The quarterbacks also need to go to at least one regional camp so they can get an invite to the Elite 11 camp, which really is where a lot of top quarterbacks from each graduating class begin to develop lifelong friendships that they will carry for what they hope are long NFL careers.
Since yours truly was part of the planning for the very early Nike camps and has known many of the camp directors and coaches for many years, going to this event has become a must-stop on the yearly high school sports calendar. The 2018 camp had to be missed since it was held earlier in the year in March in the middle of the CIF basketball state playoffs, but it was moved back to May this year.
Both Butterfield and Uiagalelei were ripping balls effectively throughout all of the drills and one-on-ones. The MVP of the quarterbacks, however, was Ethan Garbers of Corona del Mar-Newport Beach (who has committed to Washington).
The running backs were an elite group as well, but the MVP nod went to Class of 2022 Raleek Brown from Edison-Stockton. Brown displayed phenomenal quickness, moves and feet, but he may not have the size to be a running back in college and may eventually become a slot receiver.
“No, I didn’t expect to be MVP, but I expected to be one of them,” said Brown, who gets some coaching at Edison from former NFL receiver Lavelle Hawkins, who also was an MVP at an earlier NorCal Nike camp along with Lincoln-Stockton’s Brandin Cooks. “I feel I am representing the city out here and am glad at keeping it going (MVPs).”
Going to one of these camps, however, is more about putting marks next to names on a roster of players who may not be such well-known prospects.
Even with a change in format that allows evaluators much more time to look at players from different positions, it’s still impossible to see everyone. Regardless, here’s some players from SportStars’ coverage area who were definitely noticed at the El Cerrito gathering:
DB Kavir Bains (Valley Christian-San Jose); TE Brock Bowers (Napa); DL Evan Branch-Haynes (Sacred Heart-SF); WR Grant Daley (De La Salle-Concord); OL Andres Dewerk (Los Gatos); RB/WR Shamar Garrett (De La Salle-Concord); DB Jalen Henderson (De Anza-El Sobrante); OL Mark Hutchison (Pittsburg); OL Gerad Lichtenhan (Davis); DE Mason Mastrov (Campolindo-Moraga); RB Isaiah McElvane (Valley Christian-San Jose); DB Trey Paster (Buhach Colony-Atwater); WR Savon Ponce (Rio Americano-Sacramento); OL Frank Poso (Branham-San Jose); DL Jamar Sekona (Marin Catholic-Kentfield); QB Daniel Susac (Jesuit-Carmichael) and OL Isaiah Tupou (Grant-Sacramento).
Sure, camps like these in which the players are running around in shorts is not even in the same ballpark as being in pads and helmets and being in a real game. But they do have value when you can check out the next quarterback coming up the pipeline at a school like Folsom (Jake Reithmeier was there for the Bulldogs), and when one school has several players that look good at different positions it can be a preview of what might happen for the ensuing season.
If we had to pick one team that falls into that category, it would be Valley Christian-San Jose. The Warriors should be plenty motivated to have a big season, too, after the heart-breaking manner in which they lost to St. Francis-Mountain View in last year’s CCS finals.
See what we mean about how an event like the The Opening gets the juices flowing for the next football season? Happens to me every year.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder of Cal-Hi Sports and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He publishes an exclusive monthly column for SportStars Magazine. Read more of his columns at SportStarsMag.com
Photo Credits:
Jay Butterfield (Liberty) image — David Gershon
Shamar Garrett (DLS) image – Dennis Lee
