Inside The Huskies

Huskies Offer Texas Defensive Tackle, Son of Former Big-League Pitcher

Riley Van Poppel's father spent more than a dozen years in the Majors.

Dan Raley

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Riley Van Poppel won't command the level of sporting attention his father did three decades earlier as a Texas teenager, but that's probably a good thing.

He's the son of former hard-throwing pitcher Todd Van Poppel, who could have gone to the Atlanta Braves with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 Baseball Draft. Yet he wouldn't sign with them and ended up dropping down to the 14th pick and the Oakland A's.

At 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, Riley is a defensive tackle for the Argyle High School football team in Argyle, Texas, yet without all of the next-step drama.

Whereas his father might have been a little overwhelmed by his sudden fame, the younger Van Poppel actually told the recruiting websites he felt his scholarship offers initially were slow in coming before everything picked up.

On Monday night, Riley, who's the same height but 60 pounds heavier than his father was in baseball shape, received an offer from the University of Washington, giving him 13 overall.

Other schools pursuing him are Air Force, California, Colorado, Colorado State, Houston, Nebraska, North Texas, Rice, SMU, TCU, Tulane and Vanderbilt.

The younger Van Poppel comes off a junior football season in which he collected 40 tackles, including 14 for lost yards and 7 sacks, for Argyle, which is northwest of Dallas.

He's the youngest of three siblings in the family, all athletes. His sister Halee is a volleyball player for Dallas Baptist University, recently named Division II All-America honorable mention. His brother Tate is a pitcher for Midland College.

Todd Van Poppel, 50, actually came to the Northwest for a summer, spending a Triple-A season in Tacoma.

Blessed with a near 100-mph fastball, he played parts of 13 seasons in the big leagues with the Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and A's through 2004.

Same as his father and brother, Riley Van Poppel also plays baseball, but is more of a power hitter than power pitcher. 

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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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