California's No. 1 2028 Football Prospect Transfers to Orange Lutheran High

California's No. 1-rated prospect in the 2028 class is headed to the country's most competitive high school football league.

Cajon's Austin Attalah — listed at 6-foot-8, 270 pounds — has completed a transfer to Orange Lutheran High School, which competes in the Trinity League with the likes of St. John Bosco, Santa Margarita, Mater Dei, Servite and JSerra.

Orange Lutheran's new head coach Ray Fenton confirmed Attalah's enrollment to High School On SI Friday afternoon.

Attalah is a Top 25 recruit nationally and the No. 1-ranked prospect (regardless of position) in California for the 2028 recruiting class, according to Rivals/On3. The 5-star prospect holds offers to power college programs like Alabama, Texas, Oregon, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Florida.

Locals USC and UCLA are in the mix for the highly regarded lineman, too.

FENTON RAMPING UP O-LU

Orange Lutheran finished with a 3-9 record last year (including two forfeits) under longtime coach Rod Sherman. Fenton, who won a CIF Southern Section Division 2 title with Los Alamitos in 2025, got hired to take over at Orange Lutheran in March.

Since then, Fenton lost the services of top 2026 recruit DE Marcus Fakatou, who reclassified and transferred this offseason to play his senior season at Sierra Canyon.

Reports out of Orange Lutheran are very positive since Fenton took over, including a well-oiled Lancers team that turned heads during this summer's 7-on-7 passing tournaments. Fenton now welcomes a top recruit in Attalah, along with an impact transfer in junior linebacker Jamaal Fay (from Leuzinger).

Fenton's top returners include Arizona State-commit WR Nico Bland, WR Chris Flores Jr., OL Lucas Rhoa (Texas commit) and two competing QBs in senior Reagan Toki and junior Ezrah Brown.

Orange Lutheran opens its season against at home against Miami Central on August 21.

2025 CIF-SS FOOTBALL RECAP

PALMER LEADS SANTA MARGARITA TO GLORY

When looking back at the 2025 high school football season in the CIF Southern Section, the lede is undoubtedly Santa Margarita — for a multitude of reasons.

Former NFL Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Palmer came back to his old stomping grounds and won all the big prizes in year one.

Santa Margarita shared the Trinity League title with St. John Bosco and Mater Dei before going on to win the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship and CIF State Open Division titles. The Eagles thumped Corona Centennial at the Rose Bowl 42-7 thanks to 10 catches for 292 yards and four touchdowns (two rushing) from Player of the Year Trent Mosley (who is now at USC).

Palmer would guide Santa Margarita to a rout of De La Salle two weeks later, 47-13, at Saddleback College in December to lift the CIF State crown and finish the season 11-3.

When Palmer lifted the CIF-SS Division 1 plaque at the championship podium in the Rose Bowl, it was the first time a program not named St. John Bosco or Mater Dei lifted the Southern Section's top division trophy since Corona Centennial did it in 2015.

THE ‘MONEY MAN’

One of the biggest stories in recent prep sports history broke last fall when the emergence of Brett Steigh, also known as the ‘Money Man’, who made an appearance on FATTAL FACTOR, a weekly live sports show via Youtube with hosts Tarek Fattal and Aram Tolegian.

Steigh admitted to years of CIF violations at programs like Narbonne (his alma mater), St. Bernard, and most recently, Bishop Montgomery. The biggest confession came when he admitted to paying families up to $50,000 (plus expenses) to get their sons to play high school football at a program of his choice.

The fallout from the story resulted in Bishop Montgomery cancelling its varsity football season. The head football coach Ed Hodgkiss was fired and the President of the school Pat Lee was forced to resign. More than 20 players were deemed ineligible and hit with Bylaw 202 for falsifying documents, which means the student-athletes can’t participate in varsity athletics for up to 24 months.

The school ended up hiring Oscar McBride this past spring in efforts to start over. McBride is a former college and NFL standout who built Murrieta Mesa High into a CIF championship-level program. Murrieta Mesa was 0-9 before McBride was hired and led the program to a Division 6 title in 2024.

2025 CIF-SS CHAMPIONS

Click HERE for a quick recap of all the CIF Southern Section football champions from 2025 from Divisions 1 through 14.

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