Football | 11/13/2025 9:37:00 AM

The following is from the San Diego Union-Tribune article, "Learn his name: Cathedral Catholic's Honor Fa'alave-Johnson might be San Diego's best player."


First, let's get the name correct.

The Cathedral Catholic High School football player drawing scholarship offers from college powers, along with Name, Image and Likeness incentives deep into six figures, is named Honor Fa'alave-Johnson.

Get the apostrophe in the right place, the hyphen and the distinct first name.

He has a brother named Humble and sisters named Honesty and Harmony.

Sitting in the Cathedral Catholic home football stands after a morning Veterans Day practice, still in football cleats and pants with helmet and shoulder pads resting on the field's artificial turf, Fa'alave-Johnson said of the family first names: "I love 'em. They're definitely unique. Everywhere I go, no one has a name like mine. It's unique."

Fourth-seeded Cathedral Catholic begins the four-team Open Division playoffs tonight at No. 1-seeded Mission Hills, and anyone who has watched Fa'alave-Johnson in person, on TV or in video highlights agrees.

He's unique.

"He's the best player in the county," Granite Hills coach Kellan Cobbs said of the junior running back/slot receiver/safety. "There are some other good players, but he's the only kid in the county who can go out and flat out win with nothing around him."

At a fraction over 6 feet tall and 187 pounds, Fa'alave-Johnson brings a rare blend of speed, athleticism and brute strength to the field. At running back, he has carried 65 times for 766 yards, an 11.8 yards-per-carry average. He has caught 24 passes for 440 yards, an 18.3 yards-per-catch average.

He has scored 18 touchdowns — 12 on the ground and six by air.

Because Cathedral Catholic has destroyed five teams by 45, 28, 49, 41 and 49 points, Fa'alave-Johnson's overall stats aren't stunning, having spent many second halves sitting on the sideline, cheering on teammates. He also missed one game with a concussion.

In seven of nine games, he carried the ball seven times or fewer. Some 33 San Diego Section players have rushed for more yards this season.

A better indicator of his game-breaking ability is to look at the frequency of his scores — he is scoring touchdowns every fifth time he touches the ball  —  and the distance of his touchdowns. He has scored on runs of 80, 36, 72, 32, 55, 37, 33 and 57 yards. He has taken it to the house on touchdown catches of 44, 54, 50 and 20 yards.

"He has incredible speed and explosiveness and strength," said Cathedral Catholic coach Sean Doyle. "And he has this ability to slide between people. Against Lincoln, he had four, five guys hanging on him and all of a sudden he broke loose."

Said Cobbs: "He's a stud."

When Cathedral Catholic visited Lincoln last month, the Hornets were the No. 1-ranked team in the county, as they had been all season. The Dons were ranked fifth and were missing Cal-bound quarterback Sean Palmer, out with a shoulder injury.

Six days before the showdown, Fa'alave-Johnson texted Doyle, asking him to put him at quarterback in the Wildcat formation and let him take direct snaps.

"Run me this game!!," he texted his coach. "They can't hang with our O-line. Show them physical football."

The result: Fa'alave-Johnson carried 24 times for 186 yards and scored five touchdowns on runs of 33, 57, 16, 4 and 3 yards.

Fa'alave-Johnson didn't demand the ball against Lincoln for personal gain, but because he thought it was the Dons' best chance to win.

"One of the things college recruiters love so much about him is he's so humble and mild," said Doyle. "But he definitely has a confidence about him."

Fa'alave-Johnson began his high school career in 2023 at St. Augustine. As a freshman, he rushed for 702 yards, averaged more than 10 yards per carry and scored 12 touchdowns on a team that won the section Division 1 title.

"Every 5 millionth kid, God says, 'This is the one,'" said former St. Augustine coach Ron Gladnick. "And that's Honor. He's gifted in ways 99.99% of all athletes out there are not gifted."

That one-in-5-millionth talent? At Doyle's suggestion — "He kind of forced me to run track. I'm not going to lie," said Fa'alave-Johnson — he ran track for the first time last spring as a sophomore. He ran a school-record 10.46 in the 100 meters and the opening leg in the 4×100 relay that ran 41.53, another school record.

When Gladnick was fired after the 2023 season, Fa'alave-Johnson, who lives in Paradise Hills, transferred to Cathedral Catholic. A broken rib limited his offensive playing time last year to 12 carries for 154 yards.

As talented as Fa'alave-Johnson is with a football in his hands, many think he'll play free safety in college. He switched to the position last month from cornerback, the thinking being that he can impact a game on both sides of the field at safety.

As for what position he'll play in college, he said: "I'd like to keep my options open for what I think is best for me in the future."

Fa'alave-Johnson is proud of his Samoan heritage. Tattooed on his right forearm in cursive is "Faalave." His left forearm is tattooed with "Johnson." He likes to hang with his Samoan family;  shortly after Halloween, he and about 20 siblings and cousins painted pumpkins. He decorated his with the character Stitch from the movie "Lilo & Stitch."

It's common for Polynesian teenage boys to not cut their hair for years, the locks tumbling out of the back of their helmets, sometimes hiding the number on the back of their jersey. Fa'alave-Johnson keeps his thick dark hair relatively short, save for two thin braids that hang down to his shoulder blades.

He said it's rare to see a "skinny Samoan person," as if a ripped 6 feet, 187 pounds is skinny. He played rugby one season, but after being drilled by hefty Pacific Islanders, he said: "I'll never play rugby again. I scored some tries, but half the time being tackled by those big guys, I'll stick to football."

One drawer in his bedroom is filled with correspondence from more than 100 colleges. Asked to rank his top five schools, he said, "That'll be a hard list," then he rattled off USC, Texas, Alabama, Oregon and Texas A&M.

When told that a coach said Fa'alave-Johnson's NIL offers are rumored to be around $200,000, plus travel expenses for his parents, he said, "The numbers are getting a little high, higher than 200 (thousand)."

Of NIL money, he said, "It's a blessing, but also can be a huge distraction."

He said Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's parents are counseling his family.

Just as Fa'alave-Johnson is team first on the football field, he's team first when it comes to being paid to play.

"What do I want? What do I need?" he said. "A reliable car. Not too nice. Not too bad. And you've got to make sure you're sending some money to family to make sure they're good."