In star-studded padded 'all-star' game, small-town high school standouts found ways to shine (highlights, interviews)
PUYALLUP, Wash. — Davin Beason hadn’t trained at Ford Sports Performance for long before the training center’s firebrand leader, Tracy Ford, asked him to be a part of something sold as a first-of-its-kind event.
The Mount Baker junior linebacker leapt at the chance to compete in a padded 11-on-11 all-star game against the other shop in town, Heir Academy. Both train a roster of high school football players that include some of the state’s top recruits, year over year.
Coming off of a stellar junior season for the Mounties (5-1), Beason wanted to prove a top-tier player from the Northwest Conference (1A) could hang with some of the top high school football prospects in the state.
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Or possibly even stand out.
Beason delivered the game-sealing interception return for touchdown to secure FSP’s 35-14 win over Heir Academy on Sunday night in front of a Chief Leschi Stadium packed to the brim, and a livestream audience billed to college coaches as a recruiting field day. Almost 50 participants hold a Division I offer.
“It shows it doesn’t matter where you came from,” Beason, who was named the game’s defensive MVP, said,“if you can play football, you can play. That’ll get you anywhere.”
Graham-Kapowsin junior receiver Julian “Juice” Mason hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass to help Heir go into halftime up 14-13.
But FSP jumped out in the third quarter with a field goal and a safety, then a 18-yard quarterback runs by G-K junior quarterback Josh Wood 4th and 4 to put FSP up 25-14.
Heir’s offense sputtered, and it began its last-ditch drive down two touchdowns with 1:30 left in the game. That set up Beason’s 30-yard interception, the final insurance nail in the proverbial coffin.
“We were in cover three, there was trips left, I needed to get to my spot, got to my spot,” Beason said. “It was a quick seam, got through on the seam, put my hands up, got to the ball, then I saw the end zone and was like ‘I’m getting there.’”
Beason, an uncommitted 6-foot-1, 220-pound linebacker, is readying for a summer filled with camps and showcases in hopes to impress college coaches.
Sunday wasn’t a half-bad way to start his extra short offseason.
“Energy was crazy,” Beason said. “It felt so good getting back out here and doing that. Oh my god, I loved it. Football like this, you can’t beat it.”
Kelso sophomore running back a bright spot for Heir
Jayden Limary. Jason Brown. Isaiah Carlson.
The list of running backs who competed on Sunday are names you will likely see wearing Power Five college football jerseys in a couple of years.
But it was Kelso sophomore Conner Noah who was perhaps the game’s big spark on the ground. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound back broke off a 70-yard run on the opening drive to set up Heir’s first touchdown, and had around 115 yards on roughly 10 carries.
Heir’s strength was in the trenches, where a hulking offensive line with Todd Beamer’s Malik Agbo, G-K’s Vega Ioane and Puyallup’s Dave Iuli — all four-star recruits, per 247 Sports — paved the way for the run game.
What’s it like running behind that? Noah couldn’t help but crack a smile explaining.
“It’s just crazy,” he said. “Everybody going D-I, I’m not going to really get a line like that ever again, probably, so I took advantage of it.”
It’s hard to quantify exactly what breaking off a couple of runs in a padded scrimmage will do for Noah’s recruitment, but it certainly can’t hurt.
He’s hopeful he turned heads.
“It’s big for me,” Noah said. “I’ve just got to keep working every day. It pushes me more. I’ve got to work harder now.”
