2020 Senior Class in Review: St. Thomas Academy Cadets w/ Ben Reppenhagen

After reaching out to St. Thomas Academy’s stud LB and Texas Christian commit [player_tooltip player_id="10978" first="Ben" last="Reppenhagen"] a few days ago in-regards to where he’s playing his college football, PrepRedzoneMN learned that this 2020 senior class for the Cadets is a historic and honestly extraordinary football class that we thought should be shared with our readers at PRZ. Coming off a program rich in Division I tradition in both commitments and success at the next level, this 2020 graduating class topped talent-filled senior classes such as 2012’s senior class of Paddy Clancy [Dartmouth], John Gould [St. Thomas], Isaac Hayes [U of Minnesota], 2013’s class of Pat McFadden [Stanford], Danny McManus [Dartmouth], Alex Stevson & Nick Waldvogel [St. Thomas], Wyatt Schmidt [USC], and 2016’s class including Sean McFadden [Boston College], Mac Brown [Ole Miss], Joe Markert [South Dakota] to stand atop the the Cadets throne of D1 college commits in a class AND college commitments overall. As stated by Reppenhagen himself to PRZ: "Not sure if you know this but STA is actually sending 4 guys from the 2020 class to D1 programs- most in school history and maybe most from one school in MN. Not sure." [caption id="attachment_22025" align="alignleft" width="196"] #25 is signed to the Horn Frogs![/caption] I’ll fact check his thought that this is the most of one school in state history, but that’s definitely the highest number in Minnesota for the class of 2020. When asked by PRZ who is playing where, <a href="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/6512937/5de6ad7ff55fd80f1cbc6689">Reppenhagen</a> told us he’s going to TCU, <a href="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/8306737/5df6c4f564df7909fca50463">Jackson Smith</a>- Kansas State (can’t wait to play them), <a href="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/8171397/5d866a0b9a914d1160b97cd2">Stephen Betts</a>- Notre Dame, <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/8171554/5d8669b92aa6480950fd4a8e">Joe Deyak</a>- NDSU" It’s a really impressive list with All-State, All-Metro, & All-District distinction amongst the four, and Reppenhagen summed it up well by stating "I think our 2020 STA class was super special." He went on to explain that "we were a small class of only 100 boys. Many people didn’t give us a chance of going back to state but we really lived our motto- BROTHERHOOD, had incredible coaches, and worked our asses off all year." When elaborating on how this class put such a staggering amount of kids into college programs for a "small class" by STA standards he also added that "We are a very tight-knit group of friends. We have like 10-11 guys from our class playing college football next year- Wash U, Gustavus, UST, St. John’s, etc." That’s a lot of kids playing college football, and he told me that a usual class at STA is around 125 and there’s was 97, making it all the more impressive. The following list is the remaining Cadets to sign with college programs: "<a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7154140/5dcad114bd746e0c74bf9040">Patrick O’Keefe</a>- St. John’s University. <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7154119/5dc8a3493449f70f349dd650">John Herzog</a>- St. John’s University. <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/6512907/5d6aa0a6b023720cd0859664">Matt Boland</a>- Salve Regina. <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/6512942/5d879fbcf31e1f0f0810fae4">Gabriel Sirek</a>- Wash U-St. Louis, <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/8171695/5d9b282cff0cac0cf4e21428">Trajan Kaeppe</a>- Gustavus, <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2CMSLD">[player_tooltip player_id="10964" first="Tommy" last="Brandt"]</a>- Kansas, Air Force, but not recently back on the market and looking for a place to play. The Cadets went 11-2 in 2019 with their only two losses coming to the 5A state champs Chaska, once in the regular season finale and again in the state championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium, and the second matchup was especially tough. Put politely but Reppenhagen himself: "We should of had it won but those 4 highly questionable calls in the last 2 minutes really hurt." It would hard to be a Cadet and not think the refs may have changed the outcome of the game, but this senior class still had a lot to be proud of. [caption id="attachment_22227" align="alignright" width="300"] NDSU commit Deyak.[/caption] The TCU commit and senior captain told me that " I think our class was special because we all bought in to Coach O’Brien’s philosophy around toughness and accountability. And, we all dedicated ourselves to an aggressive strength and conditioning program." It also seems that Coach O’Brien’s made it exciting for the football players to get into conditioning, but even that couldn’t compare to what makes STA so special. As Reppenhagen told me that "actually, Coach OB had us do the U of MN Football offseason workout program. It really helped us. But most of all, we played for each other and trusted and believed in each other. We had BROTHERHOOD on the back of our uniforms because that’s what we played for. It’s truly a powerful ideal at STA." There’s a lot to get excited about in the future if you’re a St. Thomas Academy fan as well as the Cadets return All-State/All-Metro pick [player_tooltip player_id="18040" first="Garrison" last="Solliday"] and All-District and PRZ sleeper RB [player_tooltip player_id="18062" first="Danny" last="McFadden"], but Reppenhagen told it best. He told PrepRedzoneMN to finish things up that "Solliday and McFadden will be good but so will Jaime Smith, Oscar Berg, and Vascellaro. Sophomore Love Addabyo will be exciting to watch too." He’s more than right, and PRZ is pumped to see how the Cadets bounce back from their 2019 11-win season. Hope you enjoyed this celebration of the Cadets, and thanks for reading!