Breaking runs and records

With no shortage of bruising ballcarriers coming out of Burroughs High over the years, it's no small feat to go down as the most prolific running back in Indians history.

But that's exactly what Zander Anding did during his epic 2011 senior season, in which he rushed for 2,686 yards in 204 carries and scored 30 total touchdowns, more than enough to put him over the top for the all-time school lead in career rushing yards (3,345) and points scored (250).

"Even with all the great ones we've had, he was just so special compared to all of them," says Burroughs Coach Keith Knoop, who has seen Anding's most recent predecessors Joe Wiggan, Dominique Barnes and Tadeo Zuniga set a standard of excellence for running backs in the program. "He was just such a well-rounded guy in terms of what he could do. He could break tackles, outrun guys, he could catch, he could play defense, he could do a lot of things."

Anding etched his name deeply into the Indians' record books — he broke the single-season rushing record of 2,001 yards and single-game mark of 304, both set by Barnes in 2008 — but also got his name in some pretty lofty company outside of the parameters of the program. Thanks largely to his five games with 300-plus yards rushing, Anding led the state in yards-per-game average (268.6) and his yards-per-carry average of 13.17 led the country, according to Maxpreps.com.

"He's just so dynamic. Such a smooth runner with such a great burst of speed," Knoop said. "When he got five or six yards, you were disappointed because you just expected him to go 80 every time."

With Anding leading the charge, Burroughs went 6-5, shared the Pacific League championship for the third year in a row after ending the regular season with a rivalry win over Burbank and made an appearance in the CIF Southern Section Southeast Division playoffs.

"I feel pretty good about [the season I had]," says Anding, who was named Pacific League Player of the Year. "This year [my teammates and I] just wanted to take it game by game and have fun. ...It was a pretty good season."

Anding's eye-popping statistics, the historical gravity and national significance of his accomplishments and the dominance he exerted over opponents on a weekly basis led to his unanimous selection as All-Area Player of the Year, as voted on by the sportswriters and editors of the Glendale News-Press, Burbank Leader, La Cañada Valley Sun and Pasadena Sun.