Upland High School is graduating 15 starters from the team that claimed the CIF-SS Central Division championship but the Highlanders may be adding a significant piece to their football team next season. Rumors are circling that Alta Loma sophomore Donta Abron, a second-team All-Inland Valley running back who rushed for 1,356 yards last season, may soon transfer Upland.
Upland head coach Tim Salter confirmed that Abron had not yet enrolled, but if he is going to it will likely be when Upland’s second semester begins in three weeks.
“It sounds like he’s going to register but I don’t know because I haven’t talked to him,” Upland coach Tim Salter said. “So as of now it’s a no.”
Alta Loma head coach Jose Fuentes, who’s team went 0-10 in 2009 (making Abron’s 1,451 total yards and 7 TDs that much more impressive given his status as the primary target of every defense) said he was unaware of any plans for Abron to transfer but knew his sophomore running back was absent from school on Monday.
Abron would undoubtedly be a welcome addition to an Upland team graduating 57 percent of the rushing attack that was the driving force of its offense. The Highlanders are graduating three from a platoon of running backs that ran five players deep. The two returning are junior starter Walkeem McDonald (72-452, 2 TDs) and leading rusher Cole Champman (86-513, 3 TDs), also a junior.
“(Abron) was one of the best backs in the league,” Salter said. “He ran hard, especially for a sophomore. He played well against just about everybody in our league.”
