Two Canyons District football players earn All-American honors

Corner Canyon High quarterback Devin Brown has already been named the Utah Player of the Year by MaxPreps. And Brighton High standout Lander Barton was recognized as a semifinalist for The Butkus Award, an honor for the nation’s top linebacker.

Now, they can both add All-American to their impressive resumes.

Brown, an Ohio State commit, will officially be honored as a 2022 All-American on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m. on the NBC Sports YouTube channel. His virtual jersey presentation will take place during the 13th episode of “The Road to the Dome Tour.”

Brown and Barton are two of 100 high school senior standouts — and the only from Utah — who have been selected to play in the annual East-West matchup in the 22nd All-American Bowl. The bowl will be nationally televised on NBC from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday, Jan. 8.

The two join an elite group of Canyons School District student-athletes to have been selected to play in the All-American Bowl. Previous All-Americans include Corner Canyon’s Van Fillinger (2019-20), and Brighton’s Ricky Heimuli (2009-10), Osa Masina (2014-15), and Simi Fehoko (2015-16).

Barton’s official announcement will take place in next Wednesday’s episode of “The Road to the Dome Tour.” The two Utahns are listed on the West team roster on NBCSports.com.

Barton is continuing a family legacy at the University of Utah. His sister, Dani Drews, is a standout volleyball player for the Utes, and his older brothers both excelled at Utah and are now in the NFL. Cody plays for the Seattle Seahawks and Jackson is with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Barton made a name for himself at Brighton. As a senior, he totaled 122 tackles, eight sacks, two interceptions, and two touchdowns. He also played receiver on offense, hauling in 37 catches for eight TDs.

A four-star recruit, Barton’s final college choices came down to Utah, Michigan, Texas, and Oregon. After helping Brighton go 8-3 and make the playoffs, Barton announced last month that he was going to follow his siblings and his parents, also former U. athletes, and become a Ute.

Brown exploded onto the football scene in Utah this fall after moving from Arizona, where he played his sophomore and junior seasons at Queen Creek High School. After an impressive performance at the Elite 11 Pro Day in July, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Brown proved capable of carrying the torch from the likes of stellar CCHS quarterbacks USC’s Jaxson Dart, Yale’s Cole Hagen and New York Jets starting QB/former BYU standout Zach Wilson.

In his first game with Corner Canyon in August, Brown completed 18 of 22 passes for 451 yards and eight touchdowns in the first half of a 72-21 win over Farmington.

Brown, a blue-chip four-star recruit, continued to excel with the Chargers, finishing with a single-season, state-record 4,881 yards on 68.3 percent accuracy (254-for-372) with 57 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The versatile playmaker also ran for 430 yards and TDs.

That was a marked improvement from his play in Arizona, where he threw more interceptions than touchdowns as a sophomore and progressed to earn second-team All-Fiesta Region honors after leading Queen Creek to a 6-3 record and a playoff berth.

This past spring, Brown announced he was transferring to Corner Canyon for his senior season. That move paid big dividends. He was tutored by Chargers coach Eric Kjar, who’s worked wonders with quarterbacks at CCHS and Jordan High, and had receivers like BYU-bound Cody Hagen, the 2021-22 Gatorade Utah Football Player of the Year, Blaze DeGracie, Jett Meine, and Jon King.

“It’s been an awesome experience,” Brown told Sports Illustrated about playing for Corner Canyon. “I love living in Utah, playing under Coach Kjar has been one of the best experiences ever. He’s just been a great mentor to me, just an unbelievable coach.”

Though the Chargers came shy of a four-peat, losing an entertaining 49-42 6A state championship game to Lone Peak, Brown completed 22 of 28 passes for 386 yards and four touchdowns while also rushing for 103 yards and a TD.