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Huskies Get in Line to Offer Young Orange Lutheran LB

Talanoa Ili became an all-conference player and defensive force as a freshman.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Get in Line to Offer Young Orange Lutheran LB
Huskies Get in Line to Offer Young Orange Lutheran LB

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Washington Huskies

High school football players more often are kids trying to put on weight, build strength and hoping their complexion clears up.

Then there's Talanoa Ili, who came out of the competitive gate way before his time this past season, way ahead of everyone else and is deemed a special player.

Ili is a 6-foot-3, 215-pound edge rusher for Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, California, who didn't need any transitional time at all in earning multiple all-region and all-conference honors — he was just a freshman from the Class of 2026.

On Thursday, University of Washington recruiters extended a scholarship offer to this precocious one, giving him 13 overall. 

The difference in his scholarship offers from most other recruits is nearly every single one came from a heavyweight school: Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC, Tennessee, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Stanford, San Diego State, Arizona, California and Washington. 

The Cal Bears were the first to offer Ili — nearly a year ago on June 14, before he had even entered the ninth grade.

For a 7-5 Orange Lutheran team, Ili finished with 70 tackles, which included 15 for loss and 4 sacks, plus he had 3 forced fumbles.

The last Orange Lutheran player to play for the Huskies was safety Brandon McKinney, who spent four seasons in Montlake before transferring to Utah for his final season.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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