Shelter in place may have robbed 2020 Wilcox graduate Paul Rosa of his final high school baseball season, but the triple-threat student athlete still managed to bring home some spring hardware. Rosa was selected among 13 other winners of the CCS Scholar-Athlete scholarship for the 2019-20 school year. Announced back in May, Rosa joined six other boys and seven girls representing the seven conferences which make up the CCS.
Widely known in the area for his football prowess, Rosa was far more than just a star tailback for Wilcox. In addition to playing four years of varsity football, he was a four-year varsity baseball player and a straight-A student.
“I feel like a lot of times people look at football players as just a bunch of airheads banging against each other,” responded Rosa when asked about taking pride in the classroom. “It’s nice to know there are other athletes out there who take pride in their grades as well. Particularly for Wilcox football, I feel like we get looked at as having that stigma for not being good students so I’m glad I was able to help us look good.”
Rosa will next set his sights on making Chapman University look good. An aptitude for the sciences, Rosa will be majoring in biochemistry while continuing to play football at the next level. Despite being undersized for a traditional tailback, Rosa showed a knack for coming up large with an unparalleled work ethic and non-stop motor. Not only did he carry the bulk of the load for the team’s rushing attack, but Rosa made an extremely high impression on Wilcox Wide Receivers Coach Conor Dunn as a receiver out of the backfield.
“Outside of [Ryan] Cooper, [Rosa] was our biggest target in the passing game the last couple years,” said Dunn. “As a receiver he has the natural ability to find the open space on the field and his hands are as consistent as any receiver I’ve seen at the high school level.”
Those hands were also a reason that Rosa was a four-year varsity shortstop for the Chargers. Bobbles were few and far between for one of the most dynamic athletes to come through Wilcox athletics. Rosa helped lead the Chargers to a CIF State Championship for football in 2019 and the baseball team was a fixture in the CCS playoffs in each of his three seasons on the baseball diamond. He performed at an elite level his entire high school career in two sports while eventually graduating with a 4.3 GPA.
Even with all his various awards and accolades, Rosa expressed that it’s the little things that he will miss most about his high school career.
“Hanging out with my friends after practice, in the locker room, talking with friends from class,” said the rising college freshman. “Being in quarantine really exposes the things you take for granted, just seeing your friends. I never realized how much I do love just talking with friends at school and how just being at school is a blessing.”