Inside The Huskies

Huskies Tap Oaks Christian Roster Again, Offer Young Linebacker

Linebacker Hayden Lowe had his sophomore season shortened by injury.

Dan Raley

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Oaks Christian School, located north of Los Angeles and west of Burbank, has been around for a little more than two decades and been a football powerhouse all that time.

College football programs regularly comb the roster of the elite private school for talent, the University of Washington included, because there's always someone interesting on it. 

One year, the Lions traveled to Seattle's eastern suburbs to play Skyline High School and brought along the following players: quarterback Nick Montana, son of NFL legend Joe Montana; quarterback Trevor Gretzky, son of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky; and wide receiver Trey Smith, son of Hollywood actor Will Smith.

The older Smith memorably held court following the game on the Sammamish Plateau and, in drawing laughs, he mentioned how his son had taken a hard hit and "he went all bobble-head on me."

The younger Montana, of course, accepted a UW scholarship from Steve Sarkisian and spent two seasons in Montlake, playing long enough to start one game and throw two touchdown passes against Oregon State and another against USC in 2011. 

Playing behind Keith Price, Montana transferred out, spent a year at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, and ultimately finished up with two seasons at Tulane, starting as a junior.

That said, the Huskies have reached out to another Oaks Christian player in linebacker Hayden Lowe, a Class of 2025 recruit, and offered him a scholarship.

Lowe is a 6-foot-3, 230-pound sophomore who missed all but three games this past season with an injury, but he was sensational on defense in his limited playing time. He collected 16 tackles, 8 of which were lost yards and 3 that went for sacks, for a 7-4 Lions team.

As a freshman, he played a full Oaks Christian season and came up with 55 tackles, 9 TFLs and 3.5 sacks.

He also holds offers from Pittsburgh, Utah, Michigan, Boston College, San Diego State, Oregon State and Arizona.

The Huskies earlier offered scholarships to a pair of his Oaks Christian teammates in offensive lineman Luke Baklenko and wide receiver Chase Farrell. 

The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Baklenko, the son of Jen, a former UW assistant volleyball coach who helped get the program started, is a Class of 2023 recruit who committed to Stanford well before the coaching change and hasn't wavered on that decision.

Farrell, from the Class of 2024, received his UW offer from the Jimmy Lake staff that was let go. His offer list still shows Oregon, Boston College, Utah, Arizona, Washington State and the Huskies. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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