Jordan Titus and Savion Robinson didn't exactly become tight growing up playing youth football in St. Paul. But they played against each other often enough that a friendship evolved around their love for the game.
"We competed against each other all through youth football," recalled Titus, a stalwart senior two-way lineman at Hutchinson. "He played for West Side Boosters. I played for Frogtown. We actually played each other for the league championship in eighth grade."
Titus left St. Paul before his freshman year when his father's job mandated a move to Hutchinson. Playing in that football-mad community, Titus parlayed his 6-1, 285-pound physique and uncommon explosiveness into a sterling high school career and collegiate opportunities from such programs as Minnesota State Mankato, Minnesota Duluth and Sioux Falls.
Robinson, a product of the youth organization that spawned Jalen Suggs, Terry Lockett and Kaden Johnson, followed their path to Minnehaha Academy. A fleet-of-foot wide receiver, Robinson, playing for SMB, caught the game-winning touchdown pass in the 2019 Class 4A state semifinals, lifting the Wolfpack over Titus' Hutchinson team.
"I talked to him after the game," Robinson said, adding with a laugh, "He never tackled me, though. That would have hurt."
Robinson, too, garnered more than a few offers to play college football after high school, from Division I FCS schools such as North Dakota and South Dakota State and Division II Minnesota Duluth, Bemidji State and the University of Mary (N.D.).
But for both, one name jumped out as they pondered their college futures:
The University of St. Thomas, set to become the second Division I football program in the state.