Inside The Huskies

Huskies Offer Tight End for Arizona State Champ

The UW already has the Horizon High kicker coming north as a walk-on.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Offer Tight End for Arizona State Champ
Huskies Offer Tight End for Arizona State Champ

The big game in the Arizona desert went into overtime. 

Trailing 30-24, Horizon High School from Scottsdale had the ball third-and-goal on the 10 against Desert Edge in Goodyear, with this match-up of unbeatens taking place in suburban Phoenix, south of the city.

The white-shirted Huskies decided to go for it all right there. 

Tight end Mark Klopfenstein ran to the right corner of the end zone, made an adjustment as he saw the play unfolding, leaped and caught the ball on a fade route, outwrestling a defensive back for possession as they fell to the ground. 

The showdown game was only tied at that point, requiring place-kicker Grady Gross to come in and decide things with a conversion kick, which he did. 

Horizon 31, Desert Edge 30.

The University of Washington Huskies are interested in these Arizona Huskies. On Monday, Kalen DeBoer's recruiters offered a scholarship to the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Klopfenstein, this coming three weeks after Gross signed paperwork making him a UW preferred walk-on.

To get them both on board, the Huskies will have to outwork teams such as Michigan, Michigan State, Tennessee, Baylor, West Virginia and Colorado among 17 suitors vying for the services of Klopfenstein, who's part of the Class of 2023.

The Horizon High tight end comes off a junior season in which he caught 43 passes for 562 yards and 10 touchdowns for a 12-2 team that captured the Arizona 5A state championship.

Again, Grady is headed to Seattle without a scholarship but with a head of steam, hopeful he can earn one once the UW's Peyton Henry uses up his eligibility next fall. 

DeBoer's recruiters no doubt will encourage this kicker to lean on Klopfenstein as much as he can to join him in another Husky setting.

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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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