If there’s an eye test to determine what a middle linebacker should look like, someone needs to take clay or plaster of Paris and make a statue of JSerra’s 18-year-old senior, Madden Faraimo.
Don’t let the ranking system fool you. There is no better player at this position in high school football in the state of California, and probably in the entire nation. Size, build, strength, agility, intelligence — he’s a guy that plays with the boys. He earns respect the way he’s been taught and he earns respect by playing.
A lot of it is genetic: Both her paternal grandfather and grandmother were from Samoa. Her parents, Bill and Marcy, have one son who played volleyball at USC, one daughter who was a star softball pitcher at UCLA, and now a majestic 6-foot-3, 230-pound “little brother.” The whole family is trading card-worthy: her brother Matt is a firefighter in Pasadena, her sister Megan is a professional softball player in Japan, and she has a cousin who was a star football player.
His mother didn’t allow Madden to play tackle football until the eighth grade, fearing injury. Growing up in San Diego, Madden played flag football and baseball and learned valuable knowledge from his older siblings about how to recruit for college and break into elite sports.
Faraimo is one of the few teenagers who can honestly and sincerely say he embraces the sport as a business. It’s what he wants to do, and his size and talent will allow him to make his own decisions, from choosing which college to attend to continuing to play football for as long as his body will allow.
He doesn’t need scouts to tell him if he’s good. He doesn’t need sportswriters to put him on a list. He knows that what happens next is up to him, because of his physical attributes.
“This is the life I’ve chosen,” he said, “and I want to do what I can to make the most of my talents.”
“He’s in the top 1 percent of players I’ve ever coached,” said JSerra coach Victor Santa Cruz, a former coach at Azusa Pacific University and assistant at the University of Hawaii. “From his physical attributes to his personality, the possibilities are endless. He’s going to go somewhere, whether he plays football or not.”
On the second play of a game against San Diego Lincoln last week, Faraimo made an indelible impression of greatness: He put his arms around a Lincoln ball carrier running up the middle, pushed him back 10 yards, and then treated him like a tackling dummy and took him to the ground.
“He’s an immediate asset,” Santa Cruz said. “He could be a starter on a lot of college teams right now.”
He is considering USC, Texas, Notre Dame and Washington and is in no rush to make a decision.
“We want to wait until the situation is clear and the school decides it’s right,” he said.
His passion and performance on defense helped JSerra improve to 4-0 heading into Friday’s game against Damien.
Adding to his aura is the character and work ethic that came from the family culture inherited from his parents.
“Our parents instilled in us respect, discipline and the mindset it takes to compete and persevere through sports because it has a lot of ups and downs and it’s not easy to be good or do great,” he said. “You need the right traits.”
Faraimo finished with seven solo tackles and 11 total tackles in a 28-19 win over Lincoln.
“Madden is a great player,” Santa Cruz said.
Few would disagree with that assessment.
