It’s been a little over a month since the Wilcox Chargers football team defeated the Kaiser Cats 42-27 to capture the school’s first ever CIF State Championship. The question had to be asked: for Chargers’ two-way star Paul M. Rosa and his father, Wilcox Head Coach Paul Rosa, has it finally sunk in yet?
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely sunk in now, it’s been fun with all the events going on,” remarked the younger Rosa. “We got recognized at a Santa Clara University game, we are getting our ring sizes and all that. It has just been a great experience.”
“We’re going to the district meeting, then the City Council meeting, and in February we get to go the state capital,” added coach Rosa. “So those things are pretty cool.”
In addition to the various celebrations in the aftermath of the State Championship is the fact that the younger Rosa has been receiving attention from numerous media outlets. The junior tailback, safety and place kicker was named the CCS junior of the year by high school sports website Prep2Prep, and is currently in the running for SportStars Magazine’s “Nor-Cal Football: People’s Player of the Year” award. Anyone can go to the SportStars website and vote for Rosa until voting ends at 11:59 p.m. on Friday night Jan. 25. You can vote every 6 hours on their website: sportstarsmag.com/norcal-football-poy-vote/.
“It’s an honor,” remarked the junior. “To be thought of as the same caliber as those other players, it’s definitely an honor.”
“It has been a big thrill for him,” said coach Rosa. “It’s been a great year personally for him and obviously the team being good helps with that. It’s cool to see for sure. The SportStars vote, he is in the mix with some really good players. One of those guys is from Capital Christian, who we played. I bet most of those guys are scholarship guys. So it’s really cool to see him in the mix with that kind of company.”
For the season, Rosa finished with 1,588 yards rushing on 212 carries for a 7.5 yards-per-carry average and 20 rushing touchdowns. He also added 573 yards receiving on 26 receptions for a 22.0 yards-per-reception average and eight receiving touchdowns. In total, that is 2,161 yards from scrimmage and 28 touchdowns on offense. Add in his two pick-six touchdowns as a safety, and you get a nice round 30 trips to paydirt.
Pretty impressive numbers for any high school player. Even more impressive when you consider that Rosa is listed at only 5’6, 165 pounds and is just a junior. With one more season to go, Rosa will have the extremely rare opportunity for any star high school athlete — a chance to help defend a State Title.