Cal gets a commitment from Atonio Mafi out of San Mateo!

The California Golden Bears stay local in their latest commit. Atonio Mafi got his Cal offer today at a junior camp, and was quick to make his verbal to the Bears soon after that!

Mafi plays along both the offensive line and the defensive line in high school. It sounds like the coaching staff wants him to start his career as Cal’s elusive nose tackle in a 3-4 system.

At 6-3 and 350 pounds, you can tell Mafi puts in the work to thrive. He’ll have to trim a bit for the collegiate level, but the strength is already there. A look at his tape.

Mafi got offers from Air Force, Hawaii and San Jose State before Cal pounced to land his commitment.

Now four of seven’s first Cal commits hail from the Bay Area (with another additional two hailing from Northern California) in Mafi, Nick Alftin, JH Tevis and Omari Harris. Justin Wilcox stated that regionalism would be an important part of his recruiting strategy, and so far it appears that’s where the Bears are making their early hits.

It does seem to make sense logistically too. Thanks to this local approach, so far a lot of these Cal commits have chatted about it being their dream to play in Strawberry Canyon, which makes sense. They grew up watching Cal. It has to be easier getting them to commit to Cal!

Welcome to Cal Atonio! Go Bears!