By Grace Raynor / The Athletic
Tobi Haastrup had no idea what to do.
He had never lined up in a defensive stance. He was not sure what it meant to jump offside, and he had never heard of a tackle for loss. Come to think of it, he did not exactly know what downs were, or how they worked. But there he was, working out last summer with the Mayde Creek High School football team in Houston.
“Everything was new to me,” said Haastrup, who was born and raised in England.
Who needs to know the rules when you are 6-foot-4, 235-pound 17-year-old and run a 10.7-second 100-meter dash?
The school’s defensive line coach, Dechristeon Wilson, who is also the school’s assistant track coach, urged Haastrup to try football heading into his senior year. At best, Haastrup would take to the sport. At worst, he would leave high school with no regrets.
“Little did I know,” Haastrup said.
On Aug. 30, he played in his first football game and finished with five sacks and a few offside penalties.
Within a week, more than a dozen Football Bowl Subdivision schools, including Mississippi, Louisiana State, Tennessee and Texas A&M, reached out with scholarship offers.
Three months later, Haastrup is up to 23 offers and one of the most coveted uncommitted prospects in the class of 2025. The early signing period is next month. The superstar who never attended a summer camp or took an official visit before this fall is ranked No. 279 nationally in the 247Sports Composite.
With official visits to Boston College, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Florida State, Texas Tech and Southern California in the books, Haastrup will make stops at Michigan and Oregon before a Dec. 2 decision and Dec. 4 signing.
And to think, three months ago, he knew nothing of the Big Ten or Southeastern Conference.
“It’s overwhelming at times,” he said. “But I thank God each and every day for the experiences.”
Haastrup was born in England and spent the first nine years of his life in South East London. He did not follow American football. The family moved to the Sacramento, California, area in 2016 and then, three years later, relocated to Houston, where Tobi, the youngest of three children, started to come into his own as a sprinter and shot-putter.
But he never thought much about football. That changed this past summer.
Mike Arogbonlo was hired as Mayde Creek High School’s football coach in May after a stint as the quarterbacks coach at Duncanville High School, a Texas powerhouse. A few of his new assistant coaches wasted little time in filling him in on priority No. 1.
“The first thing I was told by the coaching staff was if I could get this kid to come out that looks great, is fast — he’s a great athlete,” Arogbonlo said of Haastrup. “I said, OK. And I went and found him, and we started talking.”
Haastrup and Arogbonlo hit it off, bonding over their Nigerian roots. There was an innocence to Haastrup that Arogbonlo appreciated. More than anything, the player was willing to learn and had no problem acknowledging what he did not know.
“It just kind of takes you back to the basics,” Arogbonlo said. “There were a lot of questions that he had: ‘What’s a first down? Where’s the down marker? What’s a defensive end, and what’s the difference between a defensive end and an outside linebacker?’ He didn’t know any of those things. But he’s been like a sponge, just soaking in whatever he can.”
Wilson, the defensive line coach, realized the staff needed to simplify the game for Haastrup as much as possible. He decided to relate football to track whenever he could. Exploding out of a defensive lineman’s stance was just like springing out of track blocks. The same speed Haastrup used in races would be what got him to the quarterback, too. The only difference was Haastrup would need to learn to run around a curve instead of down a straightaway, which Wilson prepared him for with various figure-eight drills. The two worked on ghost moves, bull rushing and other pass-rushing techniques, with Wilson letting Haastrup pick his favorites come gametime.
“With him, it was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to take it back — way back,’” Wilson said. “Like I’m teaching younger and younger kids. Like I’m teaching my nephew or someone. But I love that because it was like a blank canvas.”
When the season rolled around, Haastrup’s biggest issue was lining up offside. He would be so focused on his pass-rush technique that he forgot the basics and kept picking up 5-yard penalties.
“All I knew was, ‘Get down and just see ball, get ball,’” he said.
But as time progressed, Haastrup started to be more comfortable. By midseason, he settled in and did not need to look to the sideline as often for guidance. Through film study, he was able to pick up how opposing linemen set their feet and eventually developed countermoves he could use.
Mayde Creek was just 5-5 this season, but Haastrup finished with 20 tackles for loss and nine sacks, playing at the Class 6A level of Texas high school football.
“The main question was always, ‘Is he 6-3 or 6-4?’” Arogbonlo said. “And I would tell coaches: ‘I don’t care what he is. He’s a 10.7 100-meter runner at 240 pounds. This is a no-miss because at worst he’s playing special teams.’”
Arogbonlo said he fields a call or two from a college coach every day about Haastrup, who is starting to get a feel for which programs are historically the most successful and which conferences are the most competitive. Wilson, the school’s recruiting coordinator, has helped guide him through the process, encouraging him to trust his instincts.
Academics are important to Haastrup, who eventually wants to attend medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon. His 19-year-old sister is studying neuroscience at Texas A&M. Development will be a major part of the decision, too.
“Because I’m still so new to the sport,” he said, “it’s definitely going to be one of the most important decisions I make in my life.”
In a college football world in which prospects are often first identified in eighth or ninth grade, Haastrup’s story is rare.
“Football can take you places you never thought you would go,” Wilson said.
In Haastrup’s case, he’s just getting started.
“I suspect with more time, with nutrition, with the training table on the next level, with the coaching staffs, I just expect a huge growth,” Arogbonlo said. “I really believe he’s a Sunday player. That’s the kind of kid I think he is.
“If God could make a football player, he made Tobi.”
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