SAN PABLO – There was no shortage of talent at just about every position as 55 of Northern California’s top offensive players and 43 top defensive players showed their stuff at the Thursday night Contra Costa College/USC camp hosted by colorful and well-respected current Contra Costa College and former East Bay high school Coach Alonzo Carter.
Most of the players were from the CIF North Coast Section, but the Sac-Joaquin Section was well represented and there was a smattering of players from other NorCal sections and a couple from the Central Section.
The high-intensity, three-hour camp started with Coach Carter putting the campers through a series of warm-ups that had just about all the boys sweating, and if they weren’t Carter called them out for not working hard enough.
“I want to hear yes coach, yes coach, and yes sir. Don’t quit on any of this. Don’t walk, keep running and going all out,” Carter told the boys.
From warm-ups the boys went to what was called an “agility circuit” of five drills, step over, slide bag drill, L drill, ladders and hurdles. Carter and his assistants put the boys through the drills before turning them over to the USC staff of its position coaches for individual primary position and individual secondary position drills, and then routes on air and 1 versus 1 drills.
“Coach Carter is as good as it gets in Northern California when it comes to putting on camps,” said one of the USC assistants.
Several players shined very bright but no one was more outstanding than Inderkum-Sacramento safety TraJon Cotton. The 6-1, 185-pounder from the class of 2017 was the top player in all aspects of the drills and showed tremendous agility and athleticism, and very good speed. Cotton has over 20 offers including Cal, Oregon and UCLA from the Pac-12, plus others, and also some noted national schools like Brigham Young, Illinois and Nebraska.
Cotton is being looked at mostly as a defensive back in college but at Inderkum he was also the starting quarterback least season on a team that went 13-1 after he passed for 1,177 yards and rushed for 388 more with 16 total touchdowns.
The other player that stood out with his confidence, solid attitude and a skill set he has been improving on at each camp he attends was Jake Haener of Monte Vista-Danville.
The 6-0.5 incoming senior that has multi mid-major offers was head and shoulders above the 10 primary quarterbacks at the camp. In one of the 1 versus 1 drill he threaded the needle on more than one occasion and got resounding approval from analysts and college coaches queried. The big question going into the summer is will Haener’s stock go up higher than it has since he was one of 24 QBs nationwide to earn an invite to The Opening Elite 11 tryouts, and one of only four that are not committed. The confidence, attitude and leadership Haener exudes on the field can only help. Right now his top offer is Washington.
“I had a lot of fun today,” said an almost always smiling Haener.
There were only four players from the Central Coast Section but one of them was St. Francis-Mountain View incoming senior Cyrus Habibi-Likio. The 6-0, 202-pound running back and slot back was extremely impressive in the drills and got big kudos from the coaches in attendance. He has good speed and size and is long for 6-0 which makes him an effective pass receiver which he showed in the routes portion.
After the way he looked at the camp and after what he did on the field last season Habibi-Likio left little doubt he is one of if not the top incoming player in the West Catholic Athletic League and the entire Central Coast Section.
“I think I did pretty well tonight but I’m never satisfied,” the Washington State-committed Habibi-Likio said. “I have a lot more work to do so I came here to learn and do something to benefit St. Francis.”
Addison Gumbs of Stellar Prep was another player that showed why he is so highly regarded and the reason he was one of 166 players nationwide to earn an invite to The Opening in July at Nike Headquarters in Oregon. Since we last saw him he has gotten bigger and stronger and his speed off the ball is just as good if not better. The fact the 6-3, 211-pound Gumbs has almost 30 offers from nine Pac-12 schools to Mississippi, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt, et al, is a testament to just how good he is – and he showed his stuff at the camp.
After missing all but two minutes of last season with a knee injury he suffered in the first game against Folsom, Jalen McKenzie is starting to round into shape and that’s bad news for defensive lineman that will be trying to stop the Ugly Eagles run or get past the 6-5, 305-pound offensive lineman from Clayton Valley-Concord. The big fella performed very well in the drills that were witnessed by his father and Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie, and mother June McKenzie who was in the stands. The Raiders GM was on the field with his twin brother and Oakland Raider college scout Raleigh McKenzie.
McKenzie still has a ways to go but in the initial OL drills led by Carter he was impressive and in the primary position drills has was hard to handle. Despite missing last season he has several offers with more to come for sure. Arizona State, Hawaii, Miami (FL), Oregon State and Washington State have already offered.
“I like this completion. Everything is good. I’m a hundred percent,” said McKenzie, who still wears braces on both knees as a precautionary measure.
Several other players made good impressions including 2017 running back Ronnie Rivers of Freedom-Oakley, and 6-2, 195-pound incoming senior safety Vaughn Johnson of American Canyon. They will be included along with players already named in this feature in a football prospects/recruiting feature this summer on Prep2Prep.
“It was a lot of good competition here and it’s good to compete,” Rivers said.
Aaron Banks was in attendance as a spectator, but although he didn’t compete he still drew a lot of attention. The 6-7, 344-pound offensive lineman has almost 30 major offers but the buzz on the field at Contra Costa College is he’s leaning toward the school that put on the camp, and it’s not Contra Costa College.
Besides Southern California and Contra Costa College, other colleges that had coaches at the camp were Nevada-Reno, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State, San Diego State, Utah State and Weber State, and after Carter addressed the boys at the end of the camp each of the coaches representing those schools spoke to the boys as well.
“This is the first time USC has been in the Bay Area, and Oregon is next Friday and they’ve never been here,” said Carter as he was flanked by Reggie and Raleigh McKenzie. “We’ve got to do this for the kids.”
The Caravan is scheduled to spend Father’s Day at Contra Costa College for the Golden State Showcase camp and then will be back there next Friday for the Oregon Camp.
