To find the best high school football player in every state, all you have to do is think of it like a draft. Every state gives you the first pick in building your all-time team. Who do you pick? That is the easy way.
There is a more difficult way that is more like a math problem or giving grades for a class. How can you tell the difference between the best high school football player in every state and the best football player in every state? We’ve done it like a grade: 75% of our choice is based on the player’s time in high school, and 25% is based on everything else, like their time in college and the NFL.
Awards for each person help. Stats about each person help. A state title is a great thing. The top high school football players from all 50 states are shown below. For California, we chose one player from the northern part of the state and one player from the southern part of the state. There is also one player from the District of Columbia included.
Colson Coon, an athlete from Wyoming
Sheridan High School ’23 (Sheridan, Wyoming)
College is Montana State
High School star who does everything It was Colson Coon’s senior year that made him Wyoming’s first two-time Gatorade Player of the Year. He had one of the best seasons in state history.
Coon, who was 5 feet 10 inches tall and 180 pounds, led Sheridan to a 12-0 record and their second straight Class 4A state title in 2022. He did this by running for 2,195 yards and 34 touchdowns, making 93 tackles, and kicking and punting for the team. In the state quarterfinals, Coon ran for 517 yards in a 63–42 win over Cheyenne Central. It was a state record. Coon ran for 248 yards and three scores in the 34–23 win over Cheyenne East in the 4A state championship game. He also had 13 tackles, returned an interception for a touchdown, and kicked two field goals and four PATs.
Wisconsin: Derek Watt, Running Back/Linebacker
High School: Derek Watt went to Pewaukee High School in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and played running back and linebacker.
Older brother J.J. Watt and younger brother T.J. Watt may have been more famous in college and the NFL, but middle brother Derek Watt was the best in high school and the only one to be named a USA Today High School Football All-American.
Last year, Derek Watt ran for 1,506 yards and 25 touchdowns and caught passes for 277 yards and two more scores. He had 80 stops, 15 tackles for loss, two sacks, and two forced fumbles on defense. He made 32 extra-point attempts and returned a punt for a score on special teams.
Watt is an NFL player who plays college football for Wisconsin. He has been in the league since 2016.
West Virginia: Randy Moss, Wide Receiver
Ranger Randy Moss is from West Virginia. He went to Dupont High School in Belle, West Virginia, and graduated in 1995.
Randy Moss was not only the best high school football player in West Virginia, but also the best player of all time.
Moss won the West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year award twice, once in football and once in basketball. He also led Dupont to back-to-back state football titles in 1992 and 1993. But Moss set NCAA records at Marshall, where he scored 54 touchdowns in two seasons and won a Division I-AA national title in 1997. He never played in a big college football game, though, because of problems off the field.
Moss played in the NFL for 15 years and was named to the NFL All-Pro Team five times. He also led the NFL in receiving yards five times. He was made a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
