QB Grant Foster leading Orland football team to state championship game | Prep Athlete of the Week

ORLAND — The Orland High School football team is chasing history, as the Trojans are aiming for their first CIF state title in school history and their first undefeated season since 1961.

The Trojans are led on offense by quarterback Grant Foster, the Butte View League MVP. In Foster’s most recent game against Clear Lake on Saturday in the NorCal Division 5-A final, when he ran for 210 yards and three touchdowns, he became the all-time leading rusher in OHS football history with 2,680 career rushing yards in 25 games across the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Foster surpassed Dave Bryant’s mark of 2,560 yards from 1986-1988.

“It’s a team game. That offensive line got me that record,” Foster said when asked about the record following the win Saturday. “We got one more left, that’s the goal. That’s stuff you think about after the game. That’s a secondary thought we go to win the last game first.”

Due to Foster’s recent success and success throughout the 2022 season, the QB has been named this week’s Chico Enterprise-Record Prep Athlete of the Week.

“The kid is incredible. I don’t know if there’s a better player in the Northern Section than Grant Foster. I’ll put him up against anybody,” said Orland head coach Nick Velazquez when asked about Foster. “He’s an unbelievable player and he’s an unbelievable leader.”

Several of Foster’s teammates spoke about his leadership skills.

Running back Jaime Albarran, a junior who is the Trojans’ second leading rusher and looks to make a run at Foster’s rushing record next season, said Foster is a great leader and is encouraging. He constantly tells his peers to keep going whether they make a 2-yard run, a key block or long run for a touchdown.

“It’s a mindset,” said senior running back, wide receiver and defensive back Alex Martinez. “He gets everyone going before the game. If people are quiet and doing their own thing he gets us in check and says to focus up. ‘This is a huge game so let’s get ready to roll.'”

Albarran, Martinez and Foster have known each other since early days of youth football when they began playing together at age 5.

“He was a leader from the start. Everyone knew that he was going to be that guy in high school,” Albarran said.

Albarran’s first memories of seeing Foster be “that guy,” were his peewee year at age 12.

“We were losing and he just breaks out for a big run and says, ‘I’m going to keep scoring,'” Albarran remembered. “I was like all right this is our guy and he led us to victory.”

Orland offensive coordinator Larenzo Garth also had high praise for his quarterback Foster, who he first noticed Foster’s freshman year when Garth was the varsity team’s running backs coach.

“We knew he was going to be good coming through. He just has a knack for gaining yards and falling forward,” Garth said.

Garth mentioned three instances that show what Foster is all about.

Starting with last season, Foster and former running back Brayden Schumann would lead optional film sessions on Wednesdays each week, separate from the mandatory team film sessions. Foster and Schumann would point things out as Foster, then a junior, looked to develop into a leader.

Over the offseason Foster was out early wanting to throw footballs and never once missed a workout, despite holding a grade point average above a 4.0.

“There’s a group of them — him, Alex Martinez, Jaime Albarran and a couple others — they’re in the weight room, they’re doing their speed work in the offseason and the biggest thing is he keeps is GPA above 4.0. That’s the biggest leadership quality right there,” Garth said.

One of the most memorable things for both Garth and other members of the Orland coaching staff came in Saturday’s game against Clear Lake. With the Cardinals looking as if they may rally as they had done against St. Vincent de Paul, Foster approached Velazquez and said, “Coach just feed me the ball. Just let me run the ball.”

Velazquez relayed that message to Garth and said, “let him win this.”

“It’s a coach’s dream to hear that and sincerely mean it because a lot of times players want the rock but it’s mainly for selfish reasons,” Garth said. “Not Grant, Grant wants to win. It doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as we get the W.”

Foster and the Orland football team will kick off the CIF Division 5-A state championship at 6 p.m. Saturday at Trojan Stadium in Orland. Tickets for the game are available by visiting https://gofan.co/p/F4240E79632DAB8E5041C62B7F252A3DBD0C78B3D2EC420C?fbclid=IwAR3EPbL3z5sow7I2C1dlWR8qWbgFdoeNSuCCCERfGTVGWvDCLWbmg6stuKQ. The game will be available to be streamed on NFHSnetwork.com, or follow @JCouchot_Sports on Twitter.