The Times’ football player of the year: Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa

Taking off like a swan dive into a pool of water, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa landed on top of the pile, his body weight forcing the Corona Centennial ballcarrier to hit the turf and end the play. Forget that Viliamu-Asa missed a season because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in 2021.

Healthy and undeterred, he’s willing to sacrifice his body on any play. That’s what standout linebackers do, and at St. John Bosco High this season, no one was better.

“He’s one of the best football players in my 21 years as a head coach,” Jason Negro said. “His intelligence is the No. 1 thing. His ability to understand the position and his relentless pursuit to the football is beyond my imagination how someone can play that well.”

Committed to Notre Dame, the 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior with a 4.2 grade-point average has been selected The Times’ player of the year in Southern California high school football.

His is a comeback story from having to start over after his devastating knee injury in the last game of the 2021 spring COVID season to reaching a level of play this season that left every opponent knowing he was the most dangerous predator lurking on the field, ready to leap forward at any moment, like a great white shark striking out of nowhere.

“If he were a Madden-created player, he’d be [rated] a 99, because everything he does is at the top of the lane,” Negro said.

To understand the rise, you have to go back to that night in 2021. There were two minutes left in the final game of a meaningless spring season during his freshman year. He suffered the injury against Mater Dei that would sideline him throughout the fall 2021 season.

“It was on third down,” he said. “I went in for a blitz. I got through. I went in for the takedown, stepped wrong and felt something in my knee, felt the pain and got carried off the field.”

Said Negro: “I remember walking on the field. My heart just sank because I knew he had just lost his 2021 season. That was heartbreaking for me because he was such a committed player as an incoming freshman to go through all the training to just play in a spring game that meant nothing to anybody.”

There was surgery, rehabilitation and recovery. He made it all the way back for his junior year and this season helped St. John Bosco win the Trinity League championship and made it to the Southern Section Division 1 final, averaging 13 tackles a game.

His injury also gave him a different perspective to prepare for life beyond football.

“The injury gave me a taste to realize football isn’t going to be forever,” he said. “That definitely had an effect on my decision to go to a college to prepare me beyond football when football ends.”

High School Sports

Complete coverage: The Times’ 2023 All-Star high school football team

St. John Bosco linebacker Kingstonn Viliamu-Asa is the Los Angeles Times’ prep football player of the year. A look at the 24-player team plus back of the year, lineman of the year and coach of the year.

Dec. 17, 2023