Winona State 2020 Recruiting Class Breakdown: Minnesota Boys

The Winona State Warriors are coming off of an 8-4 2019 record and have won at least 8 games the past four seasons of competition. They also hold a strong appeal to Minnesota recruits, and have long earned the commitments of some of Minnesota’s best high school football players year in and year out. This 2020 recruiting class is no different, as the 10 signees from the Land of 10,000 Lakes are some heavy-hitters that had some of the most accomplished and successful 2019 football seasons of any preps in the state. Get an in-depth look at these commits below and check out their highlights. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy! Overall, Winona State had significantly less information available on their 2020 commits, so the information available was limited at best. However, there are still some relevant stats and awards I could find so I can still do a class breakdown. The commits came mostly from the Metro, with <em>Kasson-Mantorville’s </em><strong>Easton Knoll </strong>and <em>Winona’s </em><strong>Garit Wollan </strong>being the lone signees out of the Metro area. Three of the commits held D1 scholarship offers coming out of high school, an impressive accomplishment in-regards to WSU’s recruiting. Four of the 10 are linebackers with all of them being over 200 pounds, and 2 of the 10 are receivers, and surprisingly only one of the commits is an offensive lineman - something the NSIC schools usually find in MN. The most accomplished of the class is most likely former <em>Fridley </em>All-State duel-threat QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10987" first="Kaleb" last="Blaha"]</strong>. With a lengthy and impressive list of accolades and 69 career TDs, he’s an exciting and athletic player with a ton of upside at the receiver position. The gem of the Minnesotans is <em>Robbinsdale Armstrong </em>All-State OL <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10977" first="Noah" last="Pappas"]</strong>. An absolute monster of a blocker who held two D1 offers and a ton of NSIC scholarships, <strong>Pappas </strong>was the last of the Minnesotans to commit to the Warriors and I believe has the best chance of playing as a true freshman in this 2020 season. To get some more details on the signees and watch some highlights, check out below. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10995" first="Chance" last="Backer"] </strong><i>(Chatfield) </i>6’2, 210 lbs. LB. @ChanceBacker . 2x All-District, 2019 District Defensive POY, 2019 AP Third Team All-State, MN All-Star. Three-year starter on back-to-back section runner-up teams.   <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/10773444/5c5f565cb3c89f0a6812e949">Junior Year Highlights</a> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10987" first="Kaleb" last="Blaha"] </strong><em>(Fridley) </em>6’1, 190 lbs. WR. @KalebBlaha7 . 2x All-District, 2x District MVP, <em>Kare11 </em>and <em>StarTribune </em>All-Metro, AP All-State First Team, 2x Team Offensive MVP, Team MVP, 2x <em>MNFootballHub </em>player of the week, Old Dutch/WCCO athlete of the week, ABC Newspaper athlete of the week, Mr. Football nominee, MN Vikings All-State team. Career highlights as a duel-threat QB who totaled 69 TDs, 4,500+ yards, 114.8 passer rating. Led <em>Fridley </em>to their first 10-0 season in school history and won a district and section championship. <a href="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/10707121/5ddec3879680cc16308ff108">Career Highlights</a> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10979" first="Joe" last="Demro"] </strong><em>(Wayzata) </em>6’2, 235 lbs. DE. @joedemro . <em>MNFootballHub </em>and <em>Kare11 </em>First Team All-Metro, All-District, MN All-Star. Posted 75 tackles, 24 TFLs, and 13 sacks. Winona State was the first school to reach out with a scholarship, which was followed by offers from MSU-Mankato, Bemidji State, University of Sioux Falls, Concordia-St. Paul, Southwest Minnesota State, UMD, Augustana, Valparaiso (D1), NDSU PWO, University of Minnesota PWO offers.  <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/8228595/5d8fd05232dc140e90b2edfb">First Five games senior year</a> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10990" first="Dejon" last="Hall"] </strong><em>(Roseville) </em>6’2, 215 lbs. LB. 2x All-District. @DejonHall2020 <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2CAc8p">Senior SZN</a> <strong>Myles Hawthorne </strong><em>(Osseo) </em>6’0, 205 lbs. LB. @MylesHawthornee The son of former UMN Golden Gopher and Miami Dolphin Ed Hawthorne was a tackling machine at <em>Osseo </em>who I got to see play live in person last season. He held an offer from MSUM as well. <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2CEfD8">Senior Season</a> <strong>Easton Knoll </strong><em>(Kasson-Mantorville) </em>5’11, 190 lbs. WR. 2x All-District.  @EastonKnoll <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7985446/5d88134cda5b5b0daced29d9">Senior Year</a> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10977" first="Noah" last="Pappas"] </strong><em>(Robbinsdale Armstrong) </em>6’6, 315 lbs. OT. @Noah_Pappas77 First Team AP All-State, First Team All-Metro. Held D1 offers from South Dakota and Bryant University, as well as other NSIC offers from Bemidji State, SMSU, Wayne State, St. Cloud State (rip), MSU-Mankato, and Northern State. <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7978207/5dc4b14ab534480db40acdbb">Senior Season</a> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10976" first="AJ" last="Scaife"] </strong><em>(Roseville) </em>6’2, 205 lbs. LB. @scaife_aj All-District. Held a D1 offer from North Dakota, as well as NSIC offers from MSU-Mankato, Bemidji State. <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2C9GhT">Senior Season Highlights</a> <strong>Jake Van Hulzen </strong><em>(Coon Rapids) </em>6’0, 185 lbs. QB. @jakevanhulzen All-District. Also held a Bemidji State offer. <a href="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/7660853/5dcd6cd19680fb0d04093fc4">2019 Season Highlights</a> <strong>Garit Wollan </strong><em>(Winona) </em>6’3, 220 lbs. TE. All-District. <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7621099/5ddb12bab53fa80f84488bb9">Senior Season Highlights</a>