Meet The Fresno Bee’s Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Super 75 All-Stars
Brandon Ramirez was already a football star for San Joaquin Memorial High before his senior season.
But he wanted more.
“Every game, I wanted to prove I was the best player out there,” Ramirez said. “I just wanted to get everyone’s respect and I feel like I played with a chip on my shoulder this year just because I felt like I was getting overlooked by some colleges, but that’s what my mindset was proving that I’m the best out there.”
Ramirez finished the season with 31 rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown and 83 tackles in leading Memorial to a County/Metro Athletic Conference title and a 10-3 record.
Ramirez is The Fresno Bee’s Player of the Year.
Panthers coach Anthony Goston said he’s “blessed” to have coached Ramirez.
“He put us on his back,” Goston said.
Ramirez said he found “explosiveness” from running track and lifting weights.
“I’m a big weight room guy and that’s one of my favorite things to do outside of football is work out,” Ramirez said. “I work out with my uncle doing Olympic lifts. ... I’ve been doing it for a while, but this my senior year I had to push myself and work really hard to do what I’ve been doing.”
Ramirez is headed off to Fresno State where he’s expected to play as a defensive back.
“I feel like I’ve improved and this is sort of a new position for me,” he said. “I was trying to improve to get better and be coachable.”
Coach of the Year: Eric Brown, Clovis West
Eric Brown’s second season at Clovis West was full of success borne from the summer after going 4-8.
“We felt we were going to surprise a lot of people,” Brown said.
The Golden Eagles went 10-2 with an outright Tri-River Athletic Conference title.
For that, Brown is The Bee’s Coach of the Year.
“It’s a testament to these players and coaches for the work that they put in,” he said. “We started really after we lost to Bullard in the D-II playoffs (last season). We had a good senior group and a ton of talent in our junior group. All these kids they just bought in and they went to work right away and they were hungry.
“We had a great offseason in the weight room with Adam DeCosta as our strength coach.”
The son of the late Fresno State assistant and defensive coordinator Dan Brown, Eric went on to play for Fresno State and was a graduate assistant coach for the Bulldogs. He came to Clovis West after two seasons coaching outside linebackers at UNLV.
Brown was hired in late May 2021 and said having a full offseason was a big factor in the Golden Eagles’ success. “They understood the system better and spent real time in the weight room to get developed: bigger and stronger.”
Brown said beating Turlock 48-0 in Week 2 signaled that the Golden Eagles’ were on the right track Turlock finished the season 8-5 including a win over powerhouse St. Mary’s-Stockton.
“I think within that game I could tell we had the pieces,” he said. “Just to see we were developing a toughness on the defensive side of the ball. That’s what it takes to be a championship team is to be tough on defense.
“We went from being the hunters to being the hunted really quickly. All I heard was our preseason schedule is not as tough as everyone else’s. It showed we had a good schedule. It was a schedule that helped get us developed and get ready for the TRAC. We had to bring the battle every week. Our kids are ready to roll.”
Large School Player of the Year: Jayden Mandal, Buchanan
Mandal passed for 2,844 yards and 23 touchdowns and was a threat in the running game, too, with five touchdowns.
The Bears finished the season 9-3 and 3-2 in the TRAC.
He was named the TRAC Player of the Year.
Medium School Player of the Year: Ty Chambers, Lemoore
Chambers led Lemoore to the Central Section Division II title, completing 155 of 237 passes for 3,006 yards and 39 touchdowns.
He also had 13 rushing touchdowns in leading Lemoore to a 12-2 overall record and 5-0 in the West Yosemite League.
Chambers was also voted The Bee’s Fans’ Player of the Year.
Small School Player of the Year: Vincent Oberti, Liberty-Madera Ranchos
Oberti was named the Northwest Sequoia League most valuable player.
He finished with 20 rushing touchdowns and also had 67 tackles and two interceptions, in helping Liberty to a 10-1 record and 7-0 in the NSL.
Super 75 All-Stars
London Alexander, Jr., Athlete, Garza
Rocky Arguijo, Jr., QB, Porterville
Gage Armbruster, Sr., QB/WR/CB, Corcoran
Jaime Arredondo, Sr., WR/S, Strathmore
Jayden Ayala, Sr., DL, Caruthers
Hunter Babb, Jr., RB, Caruthers
Maxx Baker, Sr., QB, Central Valley Christian
Bryson Baker, Soph., WR/DB, Sanger
Nick Ball, Jr., DE/LB, Edison
Malachi Barnes, Soph., WR, Sunnyside
Joe Bass, Jr., RB, Torres
Davit Boyajian, Jr., OL/DL, Clovis North
Andrew Camarillo, Jr., RB/LB, Orosi
Ty Chambers, Sr., QB, Lemoore
Imari Conley, Sr., DB, Central
Vincent Cordoba, Jr., WR/S, Clovis North
Bryson Donelson, Jr., RB, Central Valley Christian
Ricky Elias, Sr., RB/S, Golden West
Jayden Enriquez, Sr., WR/LB, San Joaquin Memorial
Johnny Enriquez, Sr., K, Clovis West
Roman Fries, Sr., DL, Buchanan
Kado Felder, Jr., LB, Washington Union
Kourdey Glass, Soph., RB, Hanford
Jacob Gonzalez, Sr., RB/LB, Sanger
Noah Gonzalez, Jr., LB, Sunnyside
Kobe Green, Jr., WR/FS, Lemoore
Bryan Gutierrez, Sr., FB/LB, Clovis West
Braylen Hall, Jr., WR, Central
Brayden Hall, Sr., OL/DL, San Joaquin Memorial
Will Henderson, Sr., FB/LB, Immanuel
Houston Hirschkorn, Jr., TE/LB, Kingsburg
Caleb Irigoyen, Sr., RB/DB, Kingsburg
Trace Jackson, Sr., RB/LB, Kingsburg
Marquise Jones, Sr., OL/DT, San Joaquin Memorial
CJ Jones, Soph, WR, Sunnyside
Tytus Khajavi, Jr., LB, Clovis West
McKay Madsen, Soph, Clovis North
James Mahoney, Sr., LB, San Joaquin Memorial
Dezjour Malone, Soph, WR, Edison
Rashid Mansour, Sr., CB, Clovis North
Ryan Markarian, Sr., QB, Clovis West
D’artagnion Martin, Sr., LB, Hanford
Jayden Mandal, Sr. QB, Buchanan
Connor McFall, Sr., Kingsburg
Matt Miller, Sr., OL/DT, Clovis
Andrew Moench, Sr., RB/WR, Lemoore
Jaeden Moore, Sr., TE/DL, Central Valley Christian
Isiah Morales, Sr., NG/T, Lemoore
Logan Moreno, Sr., RB/LB, Reedley
Angelo Moreno, RB, Madera South
Cayden Muir, Sr., QB, Hanford
Caleb Noeske, Jr., G/NT, Central Valley Christian
Jared Nolte, Sr., G/DE, Liberty-Madera Ranchos
Vincent Oberti, Sr., RB/LB, Liberty-Madera Ranchos
Colton O’Toole, Sr., WR, Buchanan
Jacob Perch, Sr., RB, Redwood
Brandon Ramirez, Sr., RB, San Joaquin Memorial
Ramon Ruiz, Sr., WR/CB, San Joaquin Memorial
Michael Runnels, Sr., RB, Buchanan
Devin Sanchez, Sr., DB, Coalinga
Marshel Sanders, Jr., WR, Clovis West
Caleb Sisco, Jr., RB/LB, Liberty-Madera Ranchos
Jose Soriano, QB, Torres
Logan Studt, Jr., LB, Buchanan
Dayton Tafoya, Sr., QB, Central
Demel Turner, WR., WR/FS, Lemoore
Lamaj Travis, Sr., RB/CB, Clovis East
Vian Vang, Jr., DB, Sunnyside
Ya’j Vance, Sr., QB, Edison
Desean Watts, Sr., C/DT, Clovis West
Mitchell Whaley, Sr., FB/LB, Liberty-Madera Ranchos
Tanner Wilson, Soph, QB, Sunnyside
Chase Womack, Sr., OL, Central Valley Christian
Landon Wright, Jr., WR, Clovis West
Zach Zwart, Sr., TE/LB, Central Valley Christian
This story was originally published December 25, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
