North Dakota lineman breaking out

The rest of the country may not know about Williston, N.D., standout Brent Qvale, but 6-foot-7, 300 pound offensive tackle prospect is a well known commodity across the state of North Dakota.

Williston head coach Todd Matthews said Qvale may be the best prospect he's ever seen in his days coaching high school football in North Dakota, and it's only matter of time before the secret gets out about his abilities.

"He has great strength as an offensive lineman," Matthews said. "He's very powerful, he has good feet, good hands and he was all-state as a basketball player. His pass blocking is coming along as well.

"In the classroom he's a 4.0 student ranked in the top 10 of his class and he scored a 26 on his ACT already. So really when you look at him, he's the total package."

Playing in North Dakota's highest classification, Qvale was a first-team all-state selection as both a sophomore and junior in football, and he was also a first-team all-state selection in basketball this past season with an average of over 17 points per game.

In track, Qvale captured the state shot put title as a sophomore, and he currently leads the state of North Dakota in 2008 with a mark of 57 feet, 5 inches. He'll defend his state title in the shot at the North Dakota State track meet in Bismarck on May 24.

Matthews said Qvale already has early offers from North Dakota, North Dakota State, Montana and Montana State and Iowa State will be the first Division I-A school to evaluate him in person when they travel up to Williston on Monday. Williston is located about 80 miles from the Canadian border and the closest major cities to it are Denver (704 miles) and Minneapolis (625 miles).

Matthews said Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas State and Duke have also shown early interest in Qvale, but ISU will be the first one to officially evaluate him in person.

"The coach I talked to from Wisconsin asked me what the deal was," Matthews said. "He couldn't believe nobody has been on Brent very hard to this point. I think it's safe to say the secret is starting to get out on him right now."

Matthews said Qvale "lives" in the weight room, and his 360 pound bench press max and 510 pound squat should serve as good indicators of that.

Qvale said he has been clocked at 5.1 seconds in the 40 yard dash, and playing basketball for most of his life is something that has really helped him as an overall athlete on the football field. Qvale's older brother Brian Qvale is a 6-foot-11, 235 pound sophomore basketball player at the University of Montana.

This summer Qvale plans to attend camps at Iowa State (June 14) and Wisconsin (June 16), and he said he's open to any school that will talk to him throughout the recruiting process.

"I'd like to play in a big time conference like the Big 12 or the Big 10," Qvale said. "I think I'm good enough to play at that level and I'm looking forward to showing people what I can do this summer when I attend their camps. Right now I'd say Wisconsin, Iowa and Iowa State are my top three schools."