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Year-round athlete focuses on football 'family' at Marquez
Los Angeles Times
|September 25, 2025
Outside linebacker with straight A's and Stanford offer credits support from campus.
ELYJAH STAPLES and the Gladiators face quarterback Liam Pasten and Eagle Rock on Friday night.
It's a tradition for the Marquez High football team to raise a black Gladiators flag up the stadium pole after each victory.
Imagine how often that flag could be raised each time Elyjah Staples, the school’s star outside linebacker, earned an A on his report card? That’s the only grade he’s gotten in three years of classes, no matter taking Chemistry, Algebra 2 or advanced placement U.S. History.
He seems to be in a personal competition to keep getting A’s along with sacks at the Huntington Park school.
"He's one of a kind," coach Rudy Fortiz said. "Just his leadership. 'Hey, you're doing this wrong.' Everyone follows. Whatever he wants to do, he's going to put his mind to it."
This story is from the September 25, 2025 edition of Los Angeles Times.
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