Huskies Offer Huge OT Originally from Congo
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He advertises himself on social media as an "Africa King Kong," plus as a professional athlete, which is both ominous and forward-thinking.
This would be Manasse Itete, a 6-foot-5, 280-pound teenager who arrived in this country four years ago from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to attend school first in Massachusetts and Texas before ending up in Modesto, California.
Along the way, he gave up basketball to become solely a football player. This appears to be a very wise move as Itete, now a 4-star offensive tackle in the Class of 2024, currently holds 17 scholarship offers, including one sent his way earlier this week from Kalen DeBoer's University of Washington recruiters.
“Back home, we don’t even have football,” he told Front Row Preps. “In my first game, I didn’t even know what I was doing, people were saying to me ‘You look crazy out there.’ ”
Not anymore.
Clearly, he is a big kid who could translate to something special on the college football level. A lot of people think so. Other suitors include Florida State, Utah, Miami, Kansas State, USC, UCLA, Oregon and Auburn.
Itete played two sports as a sophomore and junior for Modesto Christian School, which is more of a basketball school — once sending high-scoring guard Adrian Oliver to the UW for two seasons and later to San Jose State before he played professionally overseas.
Six weeks ago, the Congo native transferred to Modesto's Central Catholic High School to finish up, solely concentrating on football.
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