Prep football: Hiram Johnson’s Fragata builds a name as he leads the state in passing
Generally, the most prolific high school passers throughout the country are names that light up recruiting message boards with four and five stars pinned to their profiles. But sometimes lesser-known quarterbacks, from lesser-known programs, can surprise people with gaudy statistics.
That’s the type of year Marino Fragata is having.
Fragata, a junior quarterback from Hiram Johnson in East Sacramento, enters the weekend with the fifth-most passing yards in the country, according to MaxPreps.com, with 2,040 in just five games. Of the four signal-callers ahead of him on that yardage list, three have played more games.
“I didn’t see it coming like this,” Fragata’s mother, Jenny, recently said in a phone interview.
Few could forecast Fragata becoming such a productive quarterback. This season is his first as a starter on varsity. Those who know him didn’t think he had the arm strength to win with throws downfield, let alone become one of the top passers in the country. He has more passing yards than any other quarterback in the state.
But taking a deeper look into Fragata, a quiet kid with a near-4.0 GPA, the ingredients for his success have been there for years.
According to his mother, Fragata began breaking down game tape when he first began playing quarterback in an 8-and-under league. From there, his study habits have only intensified.
“We would record all of the games (on video), and would just watch it as family, and (then) he would study it on his own,” Jenny Fragata said. “Like he would literally just watch film on his own. I don’t know what he was looking at specifically. But he would just literally take the time and just study. And if he knew we had film on the other team, he would study the other team.”
Fragata is unimposing and quiet. His coach, Alex Gomes-Coelho, has known Fragata since grade school and said not much has changed in terms of Fragata’s introverted personality.
“Rino’s extremely quiet. Like, very, very quiet,” Gomes-Coelho told The Bee. “It’s going to be hard to get some words out of him, I’m going to tell you that right now.”
Indeed, Fragata is a young man of few words. His mom and coach were far more expansive in their interviews than the soft-spoken high school junior.
But in some ways, Fragata’s words can carry more weight when he does speak up, like earlier this season when one of his receivers was struggling with drops, or when Johnson lost its Week 1 game to Bella Vista before reeling off victories of 62-22, 56-28, and 54-27 the next three weeks while Fragata was lighting up the stat sheet. Fragata said he used his voice to uplift his teammates.
Fragata said his friends and teammates describe him as “chill, quiet, and then I’m funny when I want to be. And then sometimes I bring the energy too.”
Fragata became the starting quarterback when last year’s signal-caller, Jhayson Fowler, was moved to receiver after breaking his collarbone last season. Fowler has also been an important piece to Johnson’s offense, producing 112 yards per game while Kirk Brown and James Hunter average 98.5 and 76.0 yards, respectively. Fragata’s had plenty of options in the passing game.
“So then (Fowler) came back,” Johnson assistant coach Blake Kennedy said, “(and) when you got a kid like ‘Rino who can throw the ball and make the right decisions, you take our old quarterback who is one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen, and you put him out at wide receiver, and now he’s making huge plays at wide receiver instead of at quarterback.”
Gomes-Coelho pointed out that his program has been known for running the ball. In recent seasons the team had eight to ten times more rushing yards than passing, but that’s changed this season with Fragata at quarterback.
Much of that stems from the intense study habits he mastered long before high school. It was clear to Gomes-Coelho when Fragata was a freshman, two years before his arm strength caught up with his quarterback acuity, that he had a chance to develop into a productive passer.
“The kid shows up every workout. He’s smart, he knows all the progressions front to back,” Gomes-Coelho said. “He spreads the ball around. I think he’s hit nine different receivers. He’s not forcing it to one person. He’s extremely good at stepping up in the pocket even though he’s 5-foot-6 or 5-7.
“Teams have tried different things (defensively). They’ve tried dropping ends, they’ve tried pressuring up the middle, they’ve tried bringing pressure off the edge. He just steps right up into the open gaps. He’s very calm and composed for being a junior starter, first time. The game’s on his shoulders and we’re throwing 80% of the time.”
Fragata’s college prospects remain unknown, given he’s just five games into his first season as a varsity starter. He said he would like to play football in college if he’s presented an opportunity, but made it clear being close to his family will remain a priority.
“I feel like my family motivates me and I’m just really close with them,” Fragata said. “I feel like I’d feel homesick a lot.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2022 at 9:49 AM.
