{"id":82581,"date":"2025-12-05T09:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/82581\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:50:08","slug":"westerns-maxwell-young-caps-transformation-by-signing-with-fresno-state-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/82581\/","title":{"rendered":"Western\u2019s Maxwell Young caps transformation by signing with Fresno State \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.\u00a0Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n

ANAHEIM \u2014 Maxwell \u201cBunchie\u201d Young arrived at Western before his junior season known for his appearance in a Super Bowl commercial but he wanted more from football.<\/p>\n

He aspired to someday play in college.<\/p>\n

There was one major problem.<\/p>\n

He weighed 145 pounds as a wide receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t strong because I was coming off a collarbone injury,\u201d recalled Young, who transferred to Western from Leuzinger. \u201cI had to put on weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Young, Western had the training program and coaches to transform his body. The work, however, was left to him.<\/p>\n

Young dedicated himself to the weight room and developed into the No. 1 target for Western quarterback Chance Thomas this fall.<\/p>\n

And on National Signing Day on Dec. 3, Young took a major step toward his goal by signing with Fresno State.<\/p>\n

The senior celebrated the achievement with his mother Laura, friends and teammates during on-campus ceremony at Western.<\/p>\n

Pioneers\u2019 running back Skylar Lendsey and defensive back Ernest Nunley signed with UNLV and Cal, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of emotions,\u201d Young said before the ceremony. \u201cSince I was a kid, this is what I\u2019ve been dreaming for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a process,\u201d he added. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t an overnight thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Young played at 6-foot and 180 pounds and emerged as one of the best wide receivers in Orange County. He tallied 58 receptions for 1,005 yards (17.3 yards per catch) and 13 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Young also played cornerback for the second consecutive.<\/p>\n

He credits his improved strength to his work with Western strength and conditioning coach Wendell Lauderdale, a longtime assistant under coach Dan Davidson.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Wendell, he\u2019s the one who built me into who I am in terms of strength and conditioning,\u201d Young said. \u201cI put on 30 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauderdale remembers his first individual training session with Young.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I broke him,\u201d Lauderdale said. \u201cBut he got up from that, and ever since then, he realized \u2018OK, I can do this.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just went to work,\u201d the coach added. \u201cHe was consistent. He was dedicated, and he just did everything I asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young plans to enroll early at Fresno State and major in communications. In 2020, he starred in a commercial for the NFL before Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

With his blonde hair and bright smile, Young ran the ball onto the field before kickoff in Miami.<\/p>\n

Now, Young is preparing to run onto a college field as a player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long journey,\u201d he said. \u201cWe finally made it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.\u00a0Subscribe now ANAHEIM \u2014 Maxwell \u201cBunchie\u201d Young arrived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[163,7,6916,112,114,113,2043,32508,2044,611,127,77],"class_list":["post-82581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-anaheim","tag-california","tag-dan-albano","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-recruiting","tag-high-school-sports","tag-orange-county","tag-sports","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}