California high school football is a caliber unto itself. It's every bit as good as the factories found in Texas and Florida, and hundreds of players matriculate annually into the top college football programs. The best of the best carry their own elite expectations to one day play in the National Football League, and they compete every year against one another at programs recognized among the national championship contenders at both the high school and college levels.
Several of those programs are in the conversation for the state championship every year, and their names are easily recognizable in every corner of the country.