Mission Prep Catholic Head Coach Chad Henry out of San Luis Obispo (Calif.) is all smiles when talking about his senior defensive tackle, Andrew DaRosa.

If it were up to Henry, he would have an entire team named Andrew DaRosa.

"Defensively, he's just a force of nature and he's the kind of guy that we base our entire defense around with his ability to dominate the ball inside," states Henry. "He's a unique combination of explosive speed and strength and plays a great pad level. He's the guy that draws the double and triple team, but he's able to actually beat them. It's not often you can see a defensive tackle who can run down pitch on the outside or running downfield making tackles. He gets off the ball so fast, that they try to cut, but he goes around them ... they try to block him, he bullrushes them ... if they double team him, he splits it."

When you listen to Henry, you walk away feeling that DaRosa is an under the radar prospect. A lot of that might have to do with the level of competition that Mission Prep goes up against throughout the year. They are a smaller program playing against comparable size schools.

But there are two schools who value his talents and although they haven't pulled the trigger (offer), that might have more to do with DaRosa getting his test score up a little more in order to meet the academic requirements at West Point and Cal Poly.

"Right now the two schools that have consistently calling and talking to him are Cal-Poly and Army," says DaRosa's head coach, who says that Cal Poly might have a slight edge.

"He would really love to go to Cal-Poly, being a local kid he really likes the place. But Army has been interesting to him and intriguing. I don't know what his interest level is at this point, but Coach Guyader of Army will be out next week. I think the more they talk the more he is warming up to the whole idea of West Point. Andrew is a prototypical guy for what both systems would want to do."

"I am interested in Army and I'm very interested in Cal-Poly," shares DaRosa, as he chimes in. I am still thinking about the serving part afterwards when it comes to Army and I live really close to Cal Poly ... 5 minutes away.


DaRosa currently tips the scales at 6-foot-2, 265 pounds, but he's a guy that he could easily get up to about 285-295 pounds. He's a big guy already, but he has a lot of weight that he can put on his legs.

His primary position with us is defensive tackle and that appears to be where college recruiters are projecting him. But DaRosa is quick to turn his attention back his top two schools. "Coaches are calling me a lot," he says, but Cal Poly and Army are really knocking on more door ... those are the two main schools."

"I spoke to Coach Guyader a couple of days ago and he was coming over to the West Coast, where we were going to meet, but that didn't work out. I really want to be part of a team, and I want a college that supports the team, and not just with the students, but the coaching staff and all that stuff."

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