Same ol', same ol' for Edison High products

The trend continues at Edison High, where some of the best and brightest college football prospects are aiming for UCLA and USC instead of Fresno State. Obviously a kid should be able to choose whatever school he wants to go to, but one of these days a group of guys at Edison will buck this trend and truly represent their hometown the way Clifton Smith did in his awe-striking Bulldogs career that culminated with a rookie Pro Bowl appearance in the NFL.

Unfortunately for Fresno State, the local high school producing incredible athletes on a regular basis puts more talent at UCLA and USC than its hometown university. The latest in this line, a week after it was announced Tevin McDonald is headed to UCLA, is Wesley Flowers.

You might remember just a couple years ago a talented cornerback by the name of Courtney Viney also chose the Bruins over the Bulldogs. But a funny thing has happened in the past decade or so, just as Ryan Mathews (pictured) leap-frogged Viney, Fresno State has leap-frogged UCLA in program success.

Fresno State has beaten UCLA the past two times the teams played, and before last year's meeting at the Rose Bowl, a newspaper headline screamed a dose of reality: "UCLA seeks upset of 25th ranked Fresno State," it read.

Yes, that's reality now. When UCLA plays Fresno State, UCLA is the underdog. But for some reason, so many of these Edison High kids just aren't feeling the same way.

McDonald picked interesting way to rep his city

I wasn't aware Edison High's T.J. McDonald (aka Tim McDonald Jr.), the son of former 49er/Cardinal Tim McDonald, was interested in representing his city. But according to this quote in The Fresno Bee about the annual City-County football game, he is:

"It's a big deal to me. You play for four years, you have to represent your
city," said T.J. McDonald, also a defensive back. "Now it's my turn and I didn't
want to miss it."

But McDonald chose a strange way to represent Fresno -- by signing on the dotted line to represent Los Angeles.

McDonald signed a national letter of intent to follow in his father's footsteps and play at USC. And then news broke that his younger brother Tevin McDonald is headed to UCLA. For those keeping score at home, that makes three very gift McDonalds, none of which truly represented their hometown in college.

Fresno isn't some small town with no one who's ever made it to big-time sports fame -- it's loaded with well-known athletes. And Fresno State's not some football program no one's heard of -- it's nationally known and is 1-1 all-time with USC (including the '05 cardiac arrest loss at the LA Coliseum when the Trojans were thought to be the greatest team ever assembled). If you're a high school star, you don't have to leave the Valley to "represent" your city. You do it by actually giving back to the place you came from.

When are more Valley kids going to be like Clovis West's Travis Brown, Bakersfield Christian's Derek Carr, Edison's Nat Harrison, Buchanan's Lars Bramer and Sanger's Nikko Motta? The latest Bulldogs recruiting class showed more local kids dream of becoming Bulldogs, but what about the elite talents still drifting away like the McDonalds, Edison's Cliff Harris and Clovis West's Nate Fellner? Be the hometown hero. Give back. Or go to some college outside the area if you'd like -- just don't claim to be "representing" your city if you're not.