Stand-out Student Athletes in the South Bay

With fall season underway in high school sports, many South Bay student athletes are in their element.

From showing leadership to breaking records, here some Patch selections for the top student athletes so far this school year:

Football

Mira Costa High School's 30-28 Bay League victory over West Torrance is what set Costa's Brandon Edmond apart as a top high school running back. The 5-9, 160-pound senior scored two touchdowns. Then in on Friday, Edmond amassed 70 yards on five carries and scored from six yards out.

running back is "a great weapon to have on defense," Peninsula co-head coach Kevin Moen said.

“He has played with a tremendous amount of heart and effort in our first five games,” he said.

Cross Country

senior Jonah Diaz made the CIF Masters Meet last year, and continues to run to victory this year. He won 1st Place with a time of 13:46:75 at in the first cross country meet of this season. Diaz this season also broke the Palos Verdes course record with a recorded time of 15:43, according to the high school's website.

Volleyball

Redondo Union junior Skylar Dykstra comes from a family of impressive student athletes, and it shows. In this season, Skylar led Redondo with 10 kills.

Skylar's siblings , Jenna, Devon and Joey also experienced great success at Redondo. Their father, Joey Dykstra, is the foundation of all that coordination and leaping ability. He was a basketball standout who was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1983.

"I like being the youngest," Skylar told the Daily Breeze in an article published Tuesday. "I absorbed most of the information and everything else my siblings had to learn. And they all taught me the same thing: work hard. You're not going to get better if you're not trying for it."