Inside The Huskies

Huskies Offer Northern Cal Recruit Who Does Everything Well

Hayden Anderson might be a defensive back or a wide receiver, but he also plays quarterback.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Offer Northern Cal Recruit Who Does Everything Well
Huskies Offer Northern Cal Recruit Who Does Everything Well

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Washington Huskies

The only thing that's certain about Hayden Anderson and his football pursuits is he already wears a "W" on his football helmet and the University of Washington coaching staff would like to see that continue.

Otherwise, you can find the 6-foot-1, 190-pound recruit from Windsor High School in Northern California lining up just about anywhere on the field and making things happen.

On Wednesday, Anderson received a scholarship offer from the Huskies, with co-defensive coordinator William Inge doing the honors.

He's typically a defensive back, when he's not lining up at wide receiver. 

However, this speedy Anderson also was asked to play quarterback last season, as a fill-in for his injured older brother Judson, and he responded with a 231-yard, 5-touchdown rushing effort in a 51-38 victory over Sebastopol. He popped a 78-yard scoring run in the opening half and a 71-yarder that went the distance in the second half.

He's a Class of 2025 prospect, so this was all done while this football prodigy was just a sophomore, presumably leaving him two more high school seasons to complete. Not to be confused with Hans Christian Anderson, this kid is a fairy tale waiting to happen on the next level.

"The biggest thing I can describe him as is he's an anomaly," Windsor coach Dean Sexton told the Press Democrat newspaper in Santa Rosa. "There's really not one thing that you can hang your hat on that he does well — he does everything well. For us, if we put him at any position on the team, he'd be the best guy."

Windsor is a town of 26,000 located 63 miles north of San Francisco, 28 miles from the coast and 9 miles north of Santa Rosa. The most famous resident to emerge from there is Guy Fieri, the guy with the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives TV show.

This Anderson might give the spiky-haired one a run for fame and fortune some day.

For a 10-3 Windsor team, this red-haired kid rushed 45 times for 522 yards and 10 touchdowns, caught 14 passes for 957 yards and 10 scores, and completed 5 of 8 passes for 171 yards and 2 TDs.

For sheer excitement, Anderson's longest TD catch last season went for 83 yards, longest scoring run for 78 yards and longest pass for points was 72 yards. As a freshman for the Jaguars in 2021, he zipped 99 yards with a reception to score. 

Anderson, who likewise has a scholarship offer from California as recruiters look him over, also intercepted 4 passes, logged 16 tackles and came up with a tackle for loss for Windsor.

Catch him if you can.

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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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