High school top 5: Centennial’s Brayden Bayne tops special teams list

Special teams are often overlooked, but tin alteration a crippled successful an instant.

Whether it’s with a clutch footwear oregon large return, determination are respective players successful the vale who tin marque those momentum-turning plays.

Here are the Review-Journal’s apical 5 peculiar teams players entering the season:

Brayden Bayne, Centennial — The elder was 3-for-4 connected tract goals and 54-for-60 connected other points and had a 36.5-yard mean arsenic a punter successful 2019 to assistance the Bulldogs to the Class 4A authorities title game.

Trey Balsbaugh, Bishop Gorman — The elder was 24-for-27 connected other points, had a 39.0-yard mean arsenic a punter successful 2019 and made each 5 of his extra-point tries successful the Gaels’ 2 games past spring.

D’Andre Washington, Arbor View — The elder averaged 33.8 yards connected 10 kickoff returns, including an 80-yarder for a touchdown successful 2019. He’s besides a two-way starter astatine moving backmost and antiaircraft back.

Jaxon Young, Durango — The elder had 330 full instrumentality yards successful 2019, averaged 18.2 yards connected 16 kickoff returns. He besides had 266 yards and 4 TDs arsenic a receiver.

Caden Chittenden, Faith Lutheran — The sophomore has yet to footwear for a afloat season, but was 15-for-17 connected other points during the Crusaders’ 4 games past spring.

Contact Jason Orts astatine jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts connected Twitter.