The smile is brief from Archbishop Spalding football standout Malik Washington, showing up after a question is posed about his promising future.
There’s talk you might be playing in the NFL someday, how do you feel about that?
For that quick second, Washington dares to venture and look ahead: “Yes sir, that’s the goal,” he says.
But then the quarterback that led the No. 1 Cavaliers (10-2) to their second straight Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship this past fall returns to his carefully measured approach.
“To be honest, I’m just step by step, day by day,” he adds. “I don’t ever look too far ahead because I feel if you look ahead, you’re forgetting about the moment that you’re in.”
In a sensational junior year, Washington, who also starred in basketball, soaked in plenty of special moments.
After the football championship, he was named The Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year. Playing point forward in basketball, he was the driving force as the No. 3 Cavaliers (26-10) made MIAA A Conference and Baltimore Catholic League title game appearances, earning first-team All-Metro honors.
Washington’s steady stream of success, a product of hard work, leadership and humility, paved the way for yet another honor as The Sun’s 2023-24 high school boys Athlete of the Year.
“This is a huge honor and I feel very blessed to be in the position I’m in. I’m thankful to be selected and I also want to thank my family, teammates and coaches for helping me elevate to this position because without them, I wouldn’t be here,” Washington said.
A four-star football prospect who 247Sports ranks as the state’s top quarterback and third overall prospect in the 2025 class, Washington will solely focus on that sport in his senior year. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound athlete has versatile skills and is smooth and explosive. Completing the package on the football field and basketball court are vital intangibles: leadership, game sense, confidence and endless positive energy.
“Before games, he radiates confidence and nothing ever fazes him. If there’s some sort of adversity, he can rise above it and the other players feed off that. So that’s what helps separate him from other high school athletes,” Spalding basketball coach Josh Pratt said. “I think that goes back to his discipline, his work ethic and what his goals are. He’s really set his goals high and wants to achieve them.”
In his second season as a starter at quarterback, Washington completed 195 of 313 passes for 2,093 yards and 21 touchdowns to go with only nine interceptions. He added 225 yards on the ground with six more scores. More importantly to him, the Cavaliers are 21-3 in his two years as a starter and 16-0 in conference play.
With their second straight football championship secured — the Cavaliers rolled to a 40-7 win over McDonogh in the title game — Washington and coach Kyle Schmitt shared a quick minute before the raucous celebration began.
As usual, the two found the same page.
“I remember the final moments of the championship game when we embraced and we almost said it at the same time: ‘Let’ go get No. 3!’” Schmitt said. “So there’s always this cue of optimism and a real joy Malik plays with. That’s the coolest part.”
Conference football foes have one more crack at beating the Washington-led Cavaliers this fall. Loyola Blakefield coach Anthony Zehyoue knows the difficult assignment it presents.
“Malik is a dynamic athlete with a demoralizing skill set,” he said. “He has tremendous poise and displays great leadership for his team regardless of the condition of the game. He’s also very intelligent and always seems to make the correct passing reads on a highly consistent basis.”
Washington insists he’s only one part of any of his teams’ success over the years. He’s aware his part comes with leadership skills that he says he was blessed to possess naturally and worked hard on further developing.
“He’s always pushing everybody to be their best in practice and games, and he’s always encouraging teammates and helping them out any way he can,” said recent graduate RJ Newton, who played both sports with Washington. “He brings energy to the teams, was funny and could keep things light and I never saw him down. So it was great having him as a teammate.”
Washington cherishes his role as a leader.
“It all kind of boils down to empathy. You have to be able to understand where people are coming from and take a walk in their shoes sometimes, realize you can’t talk to everybody the same way,” he said. “Some people you can challenge by yelling at them and others you have to take to the side and have a conversation with. … So it’s really about how you can reach everybody and find that common ground.”
This summer, Washington plans to announce his college choice. In January, he narrowed his list of possibilities to Maryland, Penn State, Oregon, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M and Syracuse before Central Florida joined the mix more recently.
Andrew Ivins, 247Sports’ director of scouting, wrote this about Washington in his scouting report: “Athletic pocket passer with impressive velocity that has won back-to-back conference titles in Maryland’s highest private classification. By far one of the more dynamic signal callers in the 2025 cycle.”
After final exams were completed in May, Washington, who maintains a 3.7 GPA, is focusing on summer workouts to get bigger, stronger and faster with an aim at winning that first game of his senior season, followed by the second.
“I say all the time that I’m super blessed to be in the position I’m in. I’m extremely grateful, and that’s why I continue to work hard and keep grinding. That’s really it,” he said. “I don’t let it get to me too much because I realize it can be taken away super quick. Like one injury, one bad choice and it all can be gone. So I don’t ever let it get to my head.”
