Elijah Brown

Elijah Brown is following in the footsteps of other great star quarterbacks of the past at Santa Ana (California) Mater Dei High School, which is known as Heisman High. Mater Dei is the only high school in the country to produce three Heisman Trophy winners (Bryce Young, Matt Leinart and John Huarte). Brown fits the mold of the next great one from Mater Dei. He took over as the starting quarterback for the Monarchs in 2021, and he threw for 2,581 yards and 30 touchdowns. He then put up even better numbers in 2022 – playing against arguably the toughest high school schedule in the country – with 2,785 yards and 31 touchdowns while completing 68% of his passes. Those numbers helped him earn Junior of the Year honors from Cal High Sports and numerous other local publications. “Everything Elijah does is at a different pace,” Mater Dei head coach Bruce Rollinson said before he retired after the 2022 season. “He’s slow. It’s not arrogance, it’s just the way he moves. From afar I watch him and he just kind of saunters. I remember Elijah being around here when he was in the fifth grade. He was in all of our quarterback academies, and he was in our Four Vertical program. He has that ‘it factor’ that all of the other great ones that have played here before have." His father, Kenneth, is a coach at Mater Dei. His mother is Shawna Brown. Away from football, Brown enjoys studying history and he has a 4.0 GPA.