One of Rockford's top RBs runs away with Football Preseason Player of the Year honor

The IHSA football season is off and running and it's time to announce the winner of our Preseason Football Player of the Year poll, which ran all week last week and closed on Labor Day.

The poll garnered 41,845 votes.

Check out Week 1 Top Performers: Top performers in Week 1 of Rockford-area high school football

Lutheran's running back Gavin Sanders pulled away for the win, and then his team pulled off a big win in its season opener. Sanders rushed for 155 yards and four touchdowns in Lutheran's 49-6 win over Winnebago last Friday. He had 305 yards and five touchdowns in a Week 1 win over Winnebago last year, and he then finished last season with 1,033 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Sanders hauled in 18,740 votes in the Preseason Football Player of the Year poll, which was almost 45 percent of the total votes. Hononegah's Cole Schmall came in second with 9,456 votes, which was 22.6 percent of the votes, and Belvidere North's Ben Bucher came in third with 7,199 votes, 17.2 percent of all votes.

Other nominees in the Preseason Football Player of the Year poll were: Freeport's Zac Matz; Jefferson's Sebastian Bracius; Stillman Valley's Brock Needs; East's Chris Tolliver; Byron's Andrew Talbert; Boylan's Barron Sholl; Du/Pec's Cooper Hoffman; Byron's Caden Considine; Oregon's Josh Crandall; Guilford's Messiah Tilson; North Boone's Brad Dahl; Oregon's Logan Weems; Harlem's Jahmani Muhammad; Byron's Jared Claunch; Lena-Winslow's Cobryn Lynch; and Rochelle's Grant Gensler and Kaiden Morris.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @JayTaft . Sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com . Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star .

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: One of Rockford's top RBs runs away with Football Preseason Player of the Year honor