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Huskies Offer Safety from Bay Area Powerhouse De La Salle

Robert Santiago from Class of 2025 pursued by UW.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Offer Safety from Bay Area Powerhouse De La Salle
Huskies Offer Safety from Bay Area Powerhouse De La Salle

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Washington Huskies

High school sophomores aren't supposed to stand in there fearlessly and not flinch against a quarterback with a big reputation such as Jaden Rashid, he of the supposed break-the-bank NIL deal.

Yet that's what De La Salle High's Robert Santiago did, intercepting a Rashid pass on the opening drive of their Northern California playoff game and setting the tone for his team's 30-23 victory over Pittsburg.

Santiago stole the Rashada pass over the middle and raced 30 yards with it, coming up with just one of his many highlights over his 10th-grade season.

For his precocious play, Kalen DeBoer's University of Washington recruiters decided they couldn't wait any longer and last week offered a scholarship to this Class of 2025 prospect.

Just by pulling on a De La Salle uniform, the 6-foot, 170-pound Santiago has accomplished a great deal. 

He plays for one of the more successful high school football programs nationwide, one that ran up a 151-game winning streak from 1992 to 2004 until it was curtailed in Seattle, of all places, by suburban Bellevue High. 

De La Salle steadily has produced college-bound football talent, with Huskies starting defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa counting himself as a proud alum.

For now, Santiago is a mainstay for a Spartans program coming off a 10-4 season. He finished with 3 interceptions, including one he returned 86 yards for a touchdown in a 41-3 midseason victory over Monte Vista.

With 41 tackles, Santiago showed he could cover a lot of territory, in fact on one play coming all the way across the field to stop a runner going around the opposite end.

While the Arizona State-bound Rashada by now certainly knows all about this De La Salle safety, recruiters are catching on, as well. Santiago also holds offers from Miami, Oregon, California and Arizona.

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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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