Inside The Huskies

Huskies Offer Second Mater Dei Player, This Time a Tight End

The UW has signed a handful of players from that school over two decades.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Offer Second Mater Dei Player, This Time a Tight End
Huskies Offer Second Mater Dei Player, This Time a Tight End

Mater Dei is a California football powerhouse, the largest co-ed Roman Catholic high school west of the Mississippi.

It is the only high school nationwide to produce three Heisman Trophy winners on the college level in Bryce Young for Alabama (2021) Matt Leinart at USC (2004) and John Huarte for Notre Dame (1964), all quarterbacks.

Behind the sprawling football facilities in Santa Ana, it has more football coaches on staff than most college teams and endless donors who are extremely generous with their money.

New UW coach Kalen DeBoer has shown recently that it is a natural place to go shopping for talent.

On Thursday, his University of Washington recruiters extended a scholarship offer to Mater Dei tight end Spencer Shannon, this coming a week following an offer made to Monarchs linebacker Leviticus Su'a, two important figures from a 12-0 team that won the CIF Division 1 state championship and was crowned as the schoolboy national champion by USA TODAY.

Prior to DeBoer taking over, Husky coaching staffs had limited success in landing and keeping Mater Dei players.

The UW currently has one alum on the roster in redshirt freshman offensive lineman Myles Murao, who is expected to be an exceptional player whenever he gets on the field on game day.

Over the previous two decades, linebacker Gerran Brown and wide receiver Nik Little have been the only others from Mater Dei, with Little first going to junior college, to come north to the UW. However, Brown transferred out and later became a starter for California and Little was forced to medically retire.

Now Shannon, a Class of 2023 prospect same as Su'a, has a Husky offer.

At 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, he's huge for a high school tight end.

While he caught just 3 passes for 81 yards and a score for the run-first Monarchs, he's considered by the recruiting analysts to be a first-rate blocker, which might prompt him and his big frame being moved to offensive tackle at the college level. 

For now, Shannon is a three-striper, one who wears the red Mater Dei helmet with a trio of white lines on it that run from front to back. They represent pride, poise and courage for those who wear them. 

Shannon holds 15 offers, among them from UCLA, California, Tennessee, Minnesota and Louisville.

If the Huskies were to sign him, he would look good lining up next to Murao at some point and maybe establish a stronger connection between the schools. He might consider bringing  that Monarchs linebacker with him, too.

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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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