In my opinion, the best running back in the state is a junior and hails from Hastings. Shatek opened his junior season with 215 yards on 35 carries and three touchdowns, including the game-winner with just over a minute left in Hastings’ 20-17 win over New Prague. He has clearly gained good weight after a productive summer, which included attending multiple Dakota camps and performing notably at a Wisconsin Badgers prospect camp, where he received a gameday invite this fall. Shatek displayed impressive conditioning, improving throughout the game. He notched his first catch and target on the final drive and then scored the game-winner two plays later from 11 yards out. Shatek is a decisive runner with verified track speed that shows up on tape.He hits creases quickly, gets downhill with urgency, and runs with balance through contact. He wins between the tackles and on the perimeter. He is Minnesota’s most complete running back and a home-run threat on every carry.

One of a plethora of 2027 Minnesota-born-and-bred running backs who are already showing D1-worthy speed and playmaking ability, Hastings Raider 2027 tailback Zach Shatek Zach Shatek 6'0" | 190 lbs | RB Hastings | 2027 State MN was electric in 2024. Boasting a swift and impressive 11.30 100M PR as a freshman in the spring of 2024, as well as 11.42 and 11.45 in May, not to mention 23.50 in the 200M, Shatek’s real-deal speed forced himself into the spotlight in 2024, as he posted 188 carries for 1,026 (5.5 YPC) and 8 TDs to average a little over 100 YPG on the ground against 5A competition. The tape pops as well, and that explosive speed translates onto the field just like you’d hope for.

The first thing that pops is his twitchy and powerful plant & stick lateral agility, and of course, top-end speed. Shatek owns noticeable sudden power out of his cuts, he explodes off that plant foot and gains noticeable distance out of his cuts as well. The cutting ability helps him see, create, and exploit space with the ball in hand, and the lethal jump cut and top-end speed once he hits the sideline makes him hard for defenders to touch, much less tackle. Shatek runs like he was shot out of a cannon and was still scoring long TDs 2-3 minutes into his sophomore highlights. He has the ability to take the ball to the house on any given play, as well as a nose for the endzone, and is hungry for six once he sees and hits daylight. Shatek does a great job of out-running and stepping through those final pursuit angles down the sideline, a position he finds himself in often. The Hastings product owns impressive contact balance for his size and can eat, absorb, and work through tackle attempts at his lower body like nothing happened. He also freezes defender’s feet in space and accelerates out of his cuts, and when you combine it with the contact balance, you have a ball carrier who you need to square up and wrap up to have a chance at bringing down. he can beat tackle attempts in a variety of ways and is a nightmare of a 1v1 tackling assignment for defenders.

Speed is the great unifier and is an objective data point of explosiveness that doesn’t fall into geographic or any other kind of bias, and Shatek has a chance to run sub-11-seconds in the 100M this upcoming outdoor season, which is a data point too hard to ignore for big-time coaches. I can’t wait to watch this kid run the rock the next two years.