All-County Football 2025: Dash Fifita is the defensive player of the year

ALL-ORANGE COUNTY FOOTBALL 2025

Defensive Player of the Year: Dash Fifita, Santa Margarita, Senior 

Santa Margarita’s Dash Fifita stood out on a defensive unit loaded with standout players from the front line to the backfield.

He was fast, instinctive and rugged as a linebacker and was a leader for a Santa Margarita team that won the top divisional championships in the CIF Southern Section and CIF State playoffs.

The 5-10, 185-pound senior was a Trinity League Most Valuable Defense selection this season.

He had 12 total tackles in the Eagles’ 42-7 win over Corona Centennial in the CIF-SS Division 1 championship game, including two sacks and one forced fumble. Fifita contributed eight total tackles and an interception in a 31-6 win over Orange Lutheran in the semifinals.

Fifita had six tackles in a 47-13 win over De La Salle in the CIF State Open Division championship game, including one of the Eagles’ three sacks.

Fifita finished the season with 101 tackles, second-most on the team behind fellow linebacker Leki Holani’s 108. Fifita had 16 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks.

Santa Margarita defensive coordinator Steve Fifita, Dash’s uncle, said his nephew has “a bunch of stuff you can’t measure.”

“He’s fearless,” Steve Fifita said. “His football IQ is through the roof. He really loves the game.”

Dash said he tried on every down to embody the three cardinal rules of Santa Margarita’s defensive group.

“Play relentlessly, play with violent intentions,” he said, “and the last thing is play with discipline, which means no jumping offsides or celebrating too much. Have humility in everything you do.”

Fifita signed with the University of Arizona, where his brother Noah is the quarterback.

“It’s been a dream of mine for my whole life to play with my brother,” he said.

Santa Margarita’s football team enjoyed many highlights this season. The Eagles shared the Trinity League title with Mater Dei and St. John Bosco. The Eagles beat Mater Dei 7-6 in a league game and beat Centennial twice, in a nonleague game and in the CIF-SS Division 1 final.

There were plenty of highlights for Fifita, but what he cherished the most was the opportunity to accomplish all of those things with his teammates.

“It’s a cliche to say it,” he said, “but it was all about the brotherhood we all had. That’s what we preach as a team, to believe in the sacrifice. When you do that, it’s going to show on Friday nights.”