Cards offensive player selected to All-District

The Columbus Cardinals are the 2024 Class 3A Division 1 State Champions, but several offensive players were selected to the All-District team.

11 total players were selected to the All-District team on the offensive side of the ball, one of which was named the Co-District MVP.

Adam Schobel was named the Co-District MVP after throwing for over 3,000 yards 54 touchdowns and only three interceptions. Schobel threw nearly 300 passes this season (290 total) and only threw three interceptions, it’s an impressive stat to say the least.

While it is impressive he will say it himself, he did not do any of it alone, so let’s look at some of his teammates who were named to the 1st All-District team.

Grayson Rigdon, Braylon Fisher, Camdon Pitchford, Cooper Osborne and Keyon Hemphill-Woods were all selected to the 1st All-District team for the Cardinals. Rigdon needs no introduction, but he ran for 2,051 yards and 40 touchdowns in his senior season.

A lot of people questioned if Rigdon’s production could carry over from 6-man to 11-man football, safe to say we have our answer. Fisher and Pitchford were the perfect tag team at receiver, Fisher the speedster that teams had to account for and Pitchford the guy that feared no one and welcomed contact.

Fisher finished the season with 1,338 yards and 16 touchdowns while his partner in crime, Pitchford, finished the year with 1,206 yards and 21 touchdowns. Osborne also showed his value as a receiver as he hauled in a couple of touchdown passes this season.

His ability to run block and pass protect as a tight end is something that needed to be highlighted before the season was over. 2,000-yard rushers don’t grow on trees, and it takes good blocking in front of them to get the job done and Osborne was a big part of that.

Hemphill-Woods was also a big part of that effort to run block and pass protect as he was the lone offensive lineman to be selected to the 1st All-District team. He is only a sophomore and after the year he put together, he will be anxious to get back on the gridiron.

The 2nd All-District team saw the rest of the offensive line and one receiver was selected. Elijah Usher was the lone receiver and he started to shine really bright late in the playoffs.

He was a consistent and reliable target for Schobel late in the season, so much so that Usher led all receivers in the State Championship game with 106 yards.

As for the lineman, they lost one of their own in Aleks Medrano early in the season. Christopher Quinn, Ivan Valenzuela, Mason Pavlicek and Weston Krpec all stepped up and did what needed to be done to win a State Championship.

All of them are sophomores except for Krpec who is a freshman. To step up in the way that they did and shoulder the load of this offense and fight in the trenches every night is inspiring.

The Cards earned their State Championship before the New Year and now they have earned All-District honors to ring in 2025.