The recruiting process isn\u2019t easy to navigate for a high school prospect in the portal age, when many college coaches default to older players to stock their rosters.<\/p>\n
Luckily for Henry Sakalas, he had some good advice close at hand.<\/p>\n
The rising senior safety recently was one of three Nazareth football players to make Power Four commitments, picking Michigan State.<\/p>\n
The other two Nazareth elite commits are heading to Missouri: edge Chris Kasky and offensive lineman Luke Injaychock. All three are three-star prospects among the state\u2019s top 35 in the 2027 recruiting cycle in the 247Sports consensus rankings.<\/p>\n
Sakalas is the second Power Four athlete in his family, joining sister Stella, a rising freshman basketball player at BYU.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was kind of the same way, where her recruitment picked up super late … as well at the end of August, which is late for basketball,\u201d Sakalas told the Sun-Times. \u201cShe was just telling me to be patient, just to understand that not everybody\u2019s success is linear and not everything happens at the same time. … [But] as long as you put the work in, the results will show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakalas wound up with a variety of good options, with offers from Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska in the Big Ten, along with Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale in the Ivy League, among others.<\/p>\n
The 6-4, 195-pounder wound up as the second local player in coach Pat Fitzgerald\u2019s first full recruiting class, joining St. Rita defensive lineman and Romeoville transfer Ohimai Ozolua.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, the big appeal of Michigan State was the coaches,\u201d Sakalas said. \u201cNo. 1 being coach Fitz, and coach [Joe] Rossi being the defensive coordinator. Those are people with very like-minded ideas to [Nazareth] coach [Tim] Racki and the people here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Kasky and Injaychock, the opportunity to remain teammates for the foreseeable future was a big plus at Missouri.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played youth ball together,\u201d Injaychock told the Sun-Times. \u201cI played one year of football without [Kasky]. So we grew up on the football field together, and it was pretty cool now that we get to be able to carry it on on Saturdays, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Injaychock, a 6-5, 285-pounder, had two more SEC offers, from Arkansas and Auburn, along with Big Ten offers from Illinois, Ohio State, Northwestern, Minnesota, Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always had a great relationship with the [Missouri] coaches,\u201d Injaychock said. \u201cThey showed up to Naz a bunch of times; they always showed me a bunch of love. I knew it was the best spot for me as this process moved on. They have great development on the offensive line, specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kasky also had multiple offers from the SEC (Arkansas and Vanderbilt) and the Big Ten (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Purdue).<\/p>\n
Like Injaychock, the 6-4, 225-pounder was sold on the Tigers\u2019 coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the recruitment process started, I realized … I always wanted to go where I was wanted,\u201d Kasky told the Sun-Times. \u201cAnd they showed up. … Everybody has the same facilities; everybody has the glamour. So it\u2019s all about the people. And that\u2019s what it really came down to, and that\u2019s why I picked Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n
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