WEST BOCA RATON, FL.- After five long months without 561 high school football, spring is in session.
Today (May 2), I began my Palm Beach County spring coverage just a short ride from Paradise at West Boca. In 2023, the West Boca Bulls shocked the county as they recorded a 9-3 record, en route to a FHSAA Class 3M District 10 runner up finish (Coconut Creek).
The Bulls were led by the jaw dropping sophomore season recorded by running back Javian Mallory. Last season, Mallory recorded 1415 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns, as well as 438 receiving yards and 6 receiving touchdowns. While these numbers are quite impressive, my favorite statistic is that Javian recorded over 100 rushing yards in 8 of 11 games. Mallory’s elite stat-line earned him a finalist nomination for the 2023 New Era Prep Offensive Player of the Year (Nedrick Boldin), and the 2023 New Era Prep 561 MVP (Luke Douglas).
During the off season, Mallory was ranked as a 4-Star recruit by Rivals.com (7 RB, 19 FL) and 24/7 Sports. The elite back also has garnered over 30 Division I offers (at the time of this writing).
While last season was impressive for Mallory and Co., and this offseason brought national attention, 2024 brings on a new task: The job isn’t finished.
“To be honest, we’ve still got more to prove.” stated Javian Mallory. “It’s cool to have the eyes on us, it means we’re doing something good, but we haven’t won anything yet.”
While that statement may currently be true, the Bulls are trending in a very positive direction going into year three with Head Coach, Dylan Potts. Potts took the reins of a 1-9 West Boca team following the 2021-22 season. In his first year, he went 6-4, and then recorded an aforementioned 9-3 season in year two.
Headed into year three under Coach Potts, the Bulls are hungrier than ever. Every player that I interviewed spoke about the intense training they underwent this off-season to prepare for 2024.
“I’ve been building upon my strengths and weaknesses.” 4-Star DB Jaydin Broadnax (’26) stated. “I’ve focused on what I can do better; change of direction drills, speed, more lifting. All of that.”
“I enforce that (unwavering hard work) into everything that I do.” DT Xavier Reid (’26) said. “Lifting, recovery, on field work, in the classroom, anything I can do, I’m getting that work.”
During today’s practice, the Bulls really honed in on their passing offense today. Quarterback Mason Mallory (’26) has shown serious improvements as a passer, climbing the pocket as it collapses. M. Mallory was methodically reading the defense, which led to him making very impressive throws during situational drills and 7on7.
Mallory was linking up with targets of all positions and sizes, with his most impressive throws being to TE Demetrius Geathers (’26) for a deep touchdown across the seam and WR Billy Clancy (’27) wide open in the end zone. Expect a big junior season for the duel-threat quarterback.
What’s next for West Boca? Well right now they have to game plan for a very talented Vero Beach team. The Bulls will face the Fighting Indians in Vero Beach on Monday, May 13 in a highly anticipated 561 vs 772 matchup.
