High School

National No. 1 basketball recruit Tyran Stokes decides to play football

Notre Dame Sherman Oaks basketball star attends first football practice Monday afternoon.

Tarek Fattal

High school basketball's No. 1 recruit for the 2026 class, Tyran Stokes, will play football for the first time.
High school basketball's No. 1 recruit for the 2026 class, Tyran Stokes, will play football for the first time. / Tarek Fattal

With his final high school year ahead of him, Tyran Stokes wants to take full advantage.

Not just on the basketball court, but the football field.

"This could be my last chance to just be a kid," Stokes said.

The 6-foot-8, 245-pound power forward from Notre Dame Sherman Oaks, the nation's top recruit from the class of 2026, told High School On SI that he decided he wants to play football for just one season.

Stokes attended his first practice Monday in full pads and a helmet. He'll need to attend 10 practices in pads, by California rule, to be eligible to play in a football game.

Notre Dame is 2-2 after a narrow loss to Servite in Week 3. The Knights have a bye week and then will play Culver City on September 26, which is expected to be Stokes' debut at wide receiver.

Stokes helped to lead Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks to the CIF Southern Section Open Division final as a junior this past 2024-25 season. He also led the Knights to the CIF State Open Division SoCal regional final. Both losses came to Brayden Burries and Eastvale Roosevelt, which went on to win the CIF State Open Division title.

Stokes finished his junior year averaging 21 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. He was an All-Mission League selection and a High School On SI All-SoCal and All-State selection.

Notre Dame is a regional boys basketball power with Stokes, who has 24 college offers, with USC, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisville and Arkansas as his top suitors.

According to 247Sports director of scouting Adam Finkelstein: "Stokes is the most talented prospect in the national class and a unique match-up for opposing defenders. At 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds with a 7-foot wingspan, he’s powerful, long, and explosively athletic. But while he’s built like a forward, he can make plays like a guard with an ability to create off the dribble and an innate understanding of how to instinctively find a path to the rim, even when one doesn’t seem to initially present itself. He’s especially lethal getting downhill in the open floor and loves to take the ball off the defensive glass (10 rebounds per game in EYBL) and start the break himself."

How that translates to the football field is anyone's guess. He has similar size and strength to LeBron James at the same point and The King was an All-State wide receiver in Ohio at St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron). He received offers from major college programs to play football and in 2011 during the NBA lockout, considered switching to football.

Stokes has communicated no such ambitions as of yet, but will reveal more likely this afternoon. We're heading to practice right now so stay tuned.

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Tarek Fattal, SBLive Sports
TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.