SoCal DE drawing interest

You don't often find too many sleeper recruits out of Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei. The reason being the Monarchs are a traditional powerhouse program that has sent scores of players to Div I colleges and as a result, the players at the school are fairly well known. This year the Monarchs have a talented defensive end prospect who is just starting to see his stock rise after a big senior season.

Ryan Hurtado, 6-3, 230 pounds finished off his senior year with 62 tackles and 12 sacks and earned league defensive player of the year honors. When you consider Hurtado plays in the Serra league which could be the toughest league in the state, that honor means even more.

Hurtado was a relative unknown prior to the season but his play on the field has drawn the interest from several schools.

"I've gotten calls in the last week from Nevada, UNLV and TCU," Hurtado said. "They just started to recruit me and asked for more film. San Jose State, Hawaii and Fresno State are all showing interest as well. I think right now, the colleges are all planning to come by the school and I may schedule some home visits with them as well.

"At this point in the process, I really don't have a leader. I'm just starting to learn more about the schools and no one has offered me yet so I'm still trying to figure out who is really interested. I want to take a few trips first and really check out the schools and learn as much as I can about them so I can make an informed decision."