Foster Sarell: The Recruiting Yeti

Foster Sarell might be one of the best offensive linemen in the 2017 recruiting class, but things didn’t start on the gridiron 6-foot-7, 315-pounder. In fact, Sarell’s athletic career began on the hardwood and he thought his future would be in the game of basketball, according to his mother, Pam Sarell.

“He started playing football when he was in second grade,” Mrs. Sarell told Irish Sports Daily. “He wasn’t an active participant because he was only six or seven years old. Foster’s first love, which he actually thought he would play in college, was actually basketball.” 

While many athletes across the country play multiple sports and have ‘first loves,’ the game of basketball was different for the Graham-Kapowsin (Wash.) lineman. He was good and played on one of the best AAU teams in the country.

“He was a big man and our team was sponsored by Brandon Roy,” stated Mrs. Sarell. “We traveled maybe his eighth-grade year, they were like the No. 4 team in the country and No. 1 on the West Coast. They were a pretty deal big deal. 

“Basketball was it for him. That’s where he thought he would spend his time in college.”

The Foz Finds Football 

As a dominant 13-year old basketball player, Foster found his second love on the gridiron. ‘Foz’ as he is known to his family, not only shined on the football field, but as a middle-schooler, he shined on the high school football field.

“As a seventh-grader, he played on the ninth-grade team and as a ninth-grader, he started on varsity,” explained Mrs. Sarell. “I think he finally figured out sometime in there that he might be pretty good at football. Him having fun pancaking kids and he really, really thoroughly enjoyed that kind of stuff.” 

Mrs. Sarell had some hesitation about the jump in competition, but her son proved he could handle it in stride.

“I am a mom, so I tend to be more worrisome about his safety and stuff like that, but he was bigger than every kid out there, even as a seventh-grader,” laughed Mrs. Sarell. “He continued to his pancaking and thought he could handle those kids. As a mom, you think that my son is two years younger than these boys and you kind of worry. He proved to me that he could handle himself. 

“When he was a ninth-grader, he played on varsity and our league is a pretty decent league, especially when he started as a freshman, because we had better teams in our league. I was more nervous about that. My kid is 15 years old and he is going against 18-year-olds and that scared me more than him in seventh grade. Ninth-grade boys aren’t all muscular like they are in high school.”

A Football Future

In his transition to loving football, Sarell had success from game one at the varsity level. That success led to early offers from the Pac-12 and many would follow for the Graham-Kapowsin star. 

“After his first game, he had an amazing season and that’s kind of what brought all the attention to Foster,” Mrs. Foster recalled. “His first game was against a really good team and we beat them. Our running back then, Teague James, figured out all he had to do was follow Foster’s hips. He made lots of touchdowns, so that was pretty cool for both of those guys.”

While the family knew Foster was good at football, it wasn’t until those offers started to pour in that it truly became a reality. 

“I have always been more leery about thinking like that, because he is my baby boy,” Mrs. Sarell said of the moment she knew her son would be a coveted prospect. “My husband knew right away that Foster was good. I don’t know the technicalities of football and I didn’t even know what a pancake was. I say to myself that ignorance is sometimes more bliss than knowing all that is going on. As a mom, you tend to worry a little bit more. It took me a little while to know.

“When he got his first offer as a freshman from Washington and then Stanford came along after that, which was like ‘Oh my gosh, Stanford.’ That’s kind of when I figured it out.” 

Humble and Kind

Notre Dame, Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State are just a few of the schools that have offered the Washington native, so it’d be pretty easy for Sarell to turn into someone with a big head. 

However, Sarell is the furthest from that person and he has dealt with the pressure of being the biggest kid his whole life, so there isn’t much to not like about his future.

“I am a school teacher, so if I had a kid like Foster in my classroom, he is just super friendly, very polite and he opens doors for people,” explained Mrs. Sarell. “I don’t know if you know country music, but Tim McGraw has a song that goes ‘Hold the door, say please, say thank you’ and that’s Foster. That is actually my song for Foster, because he has all those characteristics that he talks about in the song. He is just a super low-key guy. 

“There has always been pressure put on Foster ever since he was a kid, people thought he was way older than he was. When he had normal kid meltdowns, people would go ‘Wow, what’s wrong with that kid. He is too old to be doing that’. He was actually like three years younger than what they thought he was.”

The experiences of his youth helped shape Sarell into the young man he is today and he defines the popular term gentle giant, but don’t think he doesn’t attack when he is on the football field. 

“He has always had that kind of pressure to act older than he is, so he is really mature,” stated Mrs. Sarell. “He is very mature, polite and loving. He is just like you’ve heard, he is a gentle giant outside of football and sports.

“My husband definitely gave him the mean streak steak. I am always like ‘Don’t hurt him too bad.’ He always tells Foster to send a message and I guess Foster has done a good job of that. It’s been an amazing blessing.” 

The Recruiting Yeti

As a national recruit, there are many things asked of a prospect. Attending camps, visiting schools, interviews and much more. Sarell keeps things close to the vest and only speaks to select few in the media and controls his Social Media in a way most could only hope to. 

“People call Foster the ‘Recruiting Yeti’ because he is not out there,” Mrs. Sarell explained. “I have always told him that I have a real problem with kids that care about making themselves look good. A lot of kids put up tweets about recruiting and offers and I personally am not attacking anyone, but, as a family, we don’t do that. Foster has tweeted things like ‘I had a great time at Notre Dame,’ but we don’t do the other stuff.

“He doesn’t post much on Twitter. I feel like the line between bragging about yourself and being proud – where is the divide?” 

Even on the recruiting trail, Sarell has been selective in the schools he has visited. He isn’t taking visits to take visits, but visits to schools he needs to see.

“We don’t do a lot,” Mrs. Sarell said of recruiting visits. “He has really only visited Washington, Stanford and Notre Dame. We don’t plan on taking him on anymore trips this summer. I just talked to the Alabama coach last night and I told him we aren’t going to be taking trips this summer and his trip to Alabama would be more of an official visit. 

“We only do things that make sense. Foster connected with Coach (Harry) Hiestand and therefore we made the commitment to fly out to Notre Dame to hang out with the team and the coach. That made sense to us. Other than that, there aren’t any other trips planned this summer.”

Faith and Humility 

There are life lessons parents hope to teach their children and the Sarells have taught their son well from the day one. Humility is something they have driven into their son and it’s reflect on a day to day basis, but Sarell’s faith is also a driving factor in keeping him grounded.

“To me, I feel Foster is a really humble kid,” said Mrs. Sarell. “We have taught him about humility from day one. In the basketball days, Foster was known to be this big kid, who had amazing feet and could throw up threes or hang in the paint, so we always kept him really humble. ‘Don’t listen to what other people say. Don’t take what they are saying and put it in your head and if you act wrong, I will crush you.’ 

“I think humility is a big one that he has definitely acquired from our teachings. We definitely are a faith-based family, we’re not Catholic and are more Baptist. He wears a cross necklace around his neck every day and that means a lot to him. He meets with our pastor and they talk about all kinds of things from recruiting to making good life choices.

“His faith is very important to him and a part of who he is.”