Player of the Week: Tanner Villalobos had a career night featuring seven touchdowns

MIDDLETON, Mich. (WLNS) – Nobody had a better Thursday night in week six of the 2024-2025 high school football than Fulton’s Tanner Villalobos. The running back/defensive back strung together a career-best night to help the Pirates take down Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart Academy 60-33. Villalobos finished with 293 yards rushing 27 carries for six touchdowns while also throwing for 86 yards and a touchdown. So what is his secret? Simply some hard work.

“I woke up and did construction, then I went to weightlifting and after that, I went milk cows,” Villalobos said. “I was up from dawn till dusk every day and in the weight room every day. And on the weekends if I wasn’t in the weight room I was fishing on my off days.”

“He’s our hardest worker and so when your hardest worker is your best player on the team great things can come from it,” Fulton head football coach Zachary Baker said. “We ask a lot of Tanner but Tanner is all about the team. Working hard and supporting your teammates is what we talk a lot about and he just happened to have a night where he was able to have the hot hand.”

Villalobos’s career night has a deeper meaning than just stuffing the stat sheet. His father, Lupe, unexpectedly passed away in 2017, and their shared love of football still connects them.

“It was really special,” Villalobos said. “I do it for him. He was he was my rock. And I do everything for him. I’m hoping he’s watching over me right now. He was always like a coach to me and he was your stereotypical perfectionist, which paid off in the end.”

“Lupe loved his kids unconditionally and he just would have been very proud of Tanner and the man that he is becoming,” Baker said. “You know the saying it takes a village and being in a small town where everyone knows everybody it most definitely takes a lot of people. He would have just been so proud of Tanner.”

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