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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Turn Their Attention to Next Great Bosco Player

After signing Deven Bryant and Khmori House, the UW pursues safety Isala Aisa Wily-Ava.
Dan Raley|
Isala Aisa Wily-Ava, middle, meets with Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
Isala Aisa Wily-Ava, middle, meets with Ohio State coach Ryan Day. | Ohio State

Three years ago in Los Angeles, St. John Bosco High School's top defensive player was linebacker Deven Bryant.

Two seasons ago, it was linebacker Khmori House.

Last fall, it was free safety Isala Aisa Wily-Ava, who's back for more.

The University of Washington football team can say it currently has one of these guys from the Southern California powerhouse in its starting lineup, started and lost another to the transfer portal and North Carolina and is aggressively pursuing this third standout.

On Wednesday, Wily-Ava revealed he has aranged three in-season recruiting visits in the months ahead: Aug. 30 at Ohio State, Sept. 27 at Washington and Nov. 29 at Michigan.

If there's a telltale pattern here, the Buckeyes are involved in each game, coming to Montlake and Ann Arbor, Michigan, as the opponent.

Who knows, Wily-Ava, a 4-star prospect from the Class of 2027, might grow sick of the Buckeyes by the time he's all done.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Wily-Ava, with two high school seasons left to play, currently holds 27 offers, picking up one from the UW on October 1, midway through Michigan week for the Huskies.

Other schools outside of his three planned visits, offering him include Florida State, Georgia, Kansas, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and USC.

Wily Ava comes off a sophomore season in which he piled up 72 tackles, a school-record 7 interceptions, 4 pass break-ups and a sack while becoming a first-team All-Trinity League selection and considered Bosco's best player though just a 10th-grader.

He mans the deep position instinctively, tested but not falling for double-passes, and coming hellbent up the middle on safety blitzes.

"I'm just doing what I was taught to do," said Wily-Ava to a recruiting analyst, echoing what Deven Bryant has said about himself and his Bosco days.

This SoCal team typically plays a college-style defense, making its players even more attractive to the top college programs such as the Huskies. Their learning curve is much shorter.

The UW has made inroads at Bosco, which gives its recruitment of Wily-Ava legitimacy over the next several months.

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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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