Salpointe Catholic will open its high school football season Friday night. And, if things go right, the Lancersβ schedule will end with a state championship game sometime around Thanksgiving.
Running backs Bijan Robinson and Mario Padilla headline what Salpointe coach Dennis Bene calls βthe best skill guys weβve had in a while.β
Defenses are sure to stack the box to stop the Lancersβ vaunted rushing attack, meaning the offensive line play will be key to the Lancersβ success.
Thatβs where senior tackle Matteo Mele resides. Heβs raring to go.
βIβm really excited,β Mele said this week. βI canβt wait to get out there and hit someone.β
This time last year, Mele was playing tight end. A lot has changed since then β Mele moved to the offensive line, grew to 6 feet 6 inches and 275 pounds, added 14 scholarship offers and a four-star rating from all the major online recruiting services. In June, the re-made Mele committed to play at Washington.
βIt was a great feeling,β Mele said. βItβs always been in the back of my head that I wanted to play football at the next level. I always had the size and Iβve always been pretty athletic and I thought maybe if I work hard itβll come true.β
Bene saw enough in Mele to move him to the line. It was, frankly, an easy sell.
βI said βof course.β Thatβs what will get me to the next level,β Mele said. βI was ready to do that.β
Bene sent Meleβs highlights to Louisville and Kansas State, offers soon followed. Washington State was the first program to offer. It wasnβt long before Washington, Oregon and Oklahoma were all involved.
At first, Mele had visions of playing at Arizona. Meleβs grandfather is Bill Lueck, a former all-conference offensive lineman with the Wildcats and a first-round pick of the powerhouse Green Bay Packers in 1968.
Arizona was one of Mele’s earliest offers, but didn’t stay near the top of the list for long. Once Mele’s name started rising in the recruiting rankings — Scout.com rates him the No. 3 recruit in Arizona and the No. 23 offensive tackle in the country — and blue blood programs expressed their interest, the lineman realized he was ready to go somewhere else.
βIβd always had mixed feelings because I thought before I started getting offers, βHow cool would it be to play for my home school, the University of Arizona?β My grandpa went there so Iβd carry on the tradition. Both my parents (went there),β Mele said. βThen these big offers started coming in. One thing my grandpa told me is, βYou have to get out of your comfort zone.β So towards the end it got into my head that I want to leave the state.β
Among the power programs, Washington did the most work to land Mele. Offensive line coach Scott Huff visited a Salpointe practice to evaluate the tackle, then offered a scholarship a week later. Mele committed to Washington just a few days after his first visit to the UW campus.
βThey were one of the schools that actually sent a coach,β Mele said. βA lot of schools sent coaches after theyβd offered me but they came and evaluated me before they pulled the trigger. Instead of seeing what other schools have done they actually thought I was a good fit β¦ and itβs just the education you can get there, the area, Iβve always liked the Pacific Northwest, Seattle is awesome and I went for my visit and I loved it.β
With his college decision made, Mele will focus on this season. And opponents, for the first time, will focus on him.
Mele has been named a preseason All-American by MaxPreps, the only player in Arizona to receive the honor.
βThatβll be interesting to seeβ how he handles that, Bene said. βHeβs going to be a matchup problem for some teams because heβs so big and heβs so long and heβs so athletic β (heβs) 275, 6-6 and he can move his feet. But with that said, if he goes up against a kid whoβs not very athletic, that kidβs in trouble.β
