After another exciting year of high school football around the Rockford area, we gave you, the reader, the past two weeks to vote on who you believe deserved the honor of being named the Rockford Register Star’s Football Player of the Year. The NIC-10 offensive MVP is the league’s all-time leading rusher with 4,333 yards, […]
After another exciting year of high school football around the Rockford area, we gave you, the reader, the past two weeks to vote on who you believe deserved the honor of being named the Rockford Register Star’s Football Player of the Year.
The NIC-10 offensive MVP is the league’s all-time leading rusher with 4,333 yards, 700 more than anyone else.See the poll at the bottom of the page for the complete results.
And after all the votes were counted, the winner was Lutheran running back Gavin Sanders. Sanders was a Lutheran junior who missed some time late in the year, but still rushed for 952 yards and 10 TDs, second in the Big Northern Conference. Sanders is one of the conference’s most electrifying runners (if not the most), helping Lutheran to a 7-4 record and a playoff victory.Gathright is a two-time first-team all-conference defensive lineman and also tied for the NIC-10 rushing lead with 1,454 yards on a 2-7 team.
For his senior year, Hoffman threw for 1,945 yards and 27 touchdowns, and rushed for another 865 yards and 18 TDs. He turned into a field general and a great leader as well.The junior linebacker was named NIC-10 defensive MVP and also ran for 686 yards, averaging 11.6 yards per carry, as a part-time running back.
Ben Bucher, Belvidere North DB, RB
Sanders also earned the Preseason Football Player of the Year in our poll in August.
Mark Detwiler, Stockton RB, LB
Detwiler was one-third of Stockton’s three-headed running back monster, but he led the way with 1,114 yards on the ground with 21 TDs. He was also a beast on the defensive side of the ball, and Stockton went 7-4, winning a playoff game for the first time since 2019.
LaShawn Gathright, Jefferson DL, RB
Knoll led the Tigers with 81 carries and 829 yards and 20 TDs, in receiving (eight catches for 197 yards and four TDs), and with three interceptions at his defensive back spot.
Cooper Hoffman, Durand/Pecatonica QB
Morris was the Interstate 8 Conference Lineman of the Year last year (his teammate Jack Carmichael earned it this year), and he was just as good this season, leading Rochelle to the Class 5A quarterfinals. Morris finished with 20 tackles and two sacks on defense, and he was a leader on the O-line from his right guard position.
Brayden Knoll, Byron RB, CB
Now he is the Rockford Register Star Football Player of the Year.
Kaiden Morris, Rochelle OL, DL
More Rockford-area football:Find out who is our MVP, and who makes up Rockford’s All-Area Offensive Football Team
Jahmani Muhammad, Harlem RB
Bucher, only a junior, is a two-year starting defensive back who also led Class 6A quarterfinalist Belvidere North in rushing with 972 yards, averaging a league-record 18.4 yards per carry.
Erick Roman, Belvidere North LB
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.
Alec Schlichting, Lena-Winslow RB, DB
Here are the rest of the nominees:
Schlichting rushed for 1,972 yards and 27 TDs, tops across the Rockford area. Even in their lone loss in the state championship game, Schlichting, who also had five grabs for 193 yards and a couple of TDs, had a 45-yard touchdown run and he went for 117 yards on 22 carries.
