Senior Signing Spotlight: Collin Gapen

This is No. 10 in a month-long series of profiles of Arizona high school seniors that signed with four-year colleges. Here's the full list (currently totaling 278) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.

SPOTLIGHT: 2/17/20

No out-of-state college signed more Arizona players in this class than the University of Mary. The Division II program in Bismarck, North Dakota successfully garnered 10 recruits, including Collin Gapen.

The 6-1, 175-pound wide receiver at Casteel selected UMary over four other offers. He went on a visit in October, and a couple things stood out. One thing on the field and one thing off.

"On my visit to Mary, the coaches there brought me in as if I were already part of the team and to see the excitement on their faces when I went there was truly something else," Gapen said in an e-mail interview. "The offense that they run is also super similar to the offense at Casteel, so I believe I would be able to transition easily to their offense."

Gapen, who committed in December and signed in February, was pretty much in on the ground level at CHS as his will be just the second senior class to graduate from the Chandler District school located in Queen Creek. He played on varsity all four years (a total of 44 games) and had 97 receptions and 27 touchdown catches.

One thing that will take some getting used to will be the frigid temperatures of North Dakota. Checking the weather, Tuesday's high is expected to be 8 degrees with the low at minus-11. While it wasn't that cold during his October trip, it was a bit of a culture shock.

"It was an abnormal visit, considering it was 30 degrees and snowing the whole time, which I'm not really used to yet," Gapen said. "But after I toured their facilities and the school, I was really impressed with what they had. It made me realize that I didn't have to go D-I to be at a nice school."

Gapen won a 3A state title as a sophomore during a 14-0 season for the Colts. In each of his seasons, the distribution of the footballs to the receivers has been balanced, but Gapen has always been the "big-play" guy. He averaged 18.9 yards per catch in his career.

I recall seeing a deep one that he snagged right before the half at Apollo in his junior year.

Following that title, Casteel was moved up. Not a level to 4A, but two levels up to the 5A. It seemed, from the outside, that there were a lot of schools that didn't like the Colts whooping up on those 3A schools and claiming a championship. Perhaps it was jealousy, but Gapen says now that there was some hostility at the time.

"The whole team had a chip on our shoulder," Gapen said. "Every game we went into, we had a target on our backs, which ultimately motivated us to play better. People would sometimes even laugh at me when I would wear a Casteel shirt in public, saying we are a 'wanna-be Basha'. But I feel like within the past four years, we've done some amazing things in sports."

Indeed the Colts have. The four-year varsity record in Gapen's time is 41-9. Perhaps even more impressive are the back-to-back nine-win seasons the Colts posted in 5A. Last year's team reached the semifinals.

With the new realignment rules created by the AIA, Casteel will be moving up again. This time, to the 6A in 2020. Gapen said he thinks returning QB Dane Christensen (3,118 yards and 30 TDs as a junior) will be the best QB in all of 6A next season.

One new thing Gapen did as a senior was add kickoff returner to his repertoire. He averaged 32 yards per return and broke one for 81 yards and a touchdown against Marana Mountain View. Gapen said head coach Bobby Newcombe knew he liked returning kicks and each week, the Colt special teams unit would change up how they block on the returns leading to success.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to be one of the fastest players on the field, either.

Gapen ran track and was on the winning 4 x 400 relay team for Casteel at the famed Chandler Rotary meet last March.

It's a comforting feeling to not only have nine other players from Arizona joining him at Mary, but one is a long-time teammate. Defensive tackle Donzell Howard makes it a pair of Colts heading to the Midwest.

"Donzell and I have been teammates since fifth grade and when I found out that he committed there (in January)," Gapen said. "I was super excited for him. We've been through a lot the past four years and I'm ready to attack the next four years of football with him."

Gapen plans to major in Mechanical Engineering at Mary.

UMary not only brought in a big recruiting class (45 total players), but a new assistant coach. Mike Van Diest joined the Marauders last week. He was a six-time NAIA champion at Carroll College in Montana as the head coach and defensive coordinator. The Marauders (2-9 last season) open their 2020 season on Labor Day weekend at Wayne State (Neb.).