By Paul Garcia II/Cronkite News
PHOENIX – They come from Eloy, Yuma, Surprise, and many Arizona cities in between. Fifty-four of them make up nearly half of the football roster.
Since when did Lake Forest College, in an affluent north suburb of Chicago, become a hotbed for Arizona recruiting?
When the Foresters open their 2025 season with a neutral-site game Saturday at Chandler Hamilton High School, many family members will have the opportunity to see their sons compete in college for the first time.
“To us, it’s not a neutral site game; it is a true home game,” coach Jim Catanzaro said. “This game isn’t just for the players but the families, too. A lot of these families have never been to Chicago to watch these guys play college football.”
For nearly two decades, Lake Forest, a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 1,800, has tapped into Arizona’s football talent, making it an unlikely pipeline and drawing dozens of Arizona high school players every year to the Division III school located 30 miles north of Chicago. The culmination of this recruiting strategy comes full circle in Saturday’s 6 p.m. game against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags.
The origin of this unlikely union starts with Catanzaro. In 2007, when he was the defensive coordinator, he found his first Arizona recruit, linebacker/tight end Steven Yena from Chandler Basha High School. Yena became a two-time team captain after Catanzaro took over as head coach in 2009.
“Steve was the guy that started it all,” Catanzaro said. “His grandfather lived 15 minutes away from our campus in Vernon Hills.”
In 2008, the Foresters’ Arizona-built roster doubled in size to two when Desert Vista defensive back Brock Ungvarsky committed. Brock’s father, BJ Ungvarsky, was so impressed that he became a freelance recruiter for Lake Forest by securing a media credential for photography.
“He would take pictures at games of the players he thought we should recruit,” Catanzaro said. “He’d send me photos and a newspaper with names circled every week.”
BJ’s recruiting paid off in 2010 when the Foresters featured seven Arizona recruits, doubling to 14 by the 2016 season.
Lake Forest’s fortune from the Arizona pipeline became plentiful after the Maricopa County Community College District ended all of its football programs after the 2017 season for budget reasons.
Catanzaro recruited at the junior college level, with a focus on the MCCCD, when he was a positional coach at Division II Wingate University in North Carolina. He would ask Arizona high school coaches where players would go to play now that the Maricopa County junior college teams were gone. The answer was nowhere, especially since Arizona has far fewer collegiate options than many states.
“That doesn’t seem smart, Catanzaro said. “There’s pretty good football out there.”
Lake Forest took advantage, and in 2018, the first year MCCCD ended football, Catanzaro brought in 22 players from Arizona high schools. Since then, Lake Forest rosters have seen at least 30 players from Arizona on them. And in 2025, the Foresters will have the most players they’ve ever had from the Grand Canyon State: 54.
The journey these Arizona players endure to continue their football dreams is what intrigues Catanzaro so much.
“They’re coming out here and sacrificing time away from their families,” Catanzaro said. “What they’re giving up versus what a guy who grew up 35 minutes from campus, they have a little bit different of a sacrifice to be here.”
That sacrifice is not lost on the rest of the Lake Forest team.
“With that commitment, it allows them to inspire that full buy-in from other players,” Catanzaro said.
Another aspect that entices Catanzaro is how football never has an offseason in Arizona, unlike in Illinois.
“They really don’t take breaks in Arizona anymore,” Catanzaro said. “Whereas in other states like here in Illinois, it’s still required that they’re not with their coaches until the summer.”
For the players, supplanting their desert roots to have Midwest dreams is a challenging journey. The culture and family-first aspect that Catanzaro has built over the last 19 years made it an easier transition.
Senior captain defensive lineman Michael Kelley felt he was under-recruited out of Bradshaw Mountain High School in Prescott Valley and thought his football career was coming to an early end until he took a late visit to Lake Forest.
“I was a little skeptical of Illinois and Chicago at first, but it was beautiful up there,” Kelley said. “Everyone from the coaching staff, the faculty, and the players I met really emphasized the family part that coach Cat preached while recruiting me. That’s what really drew me there the most.”
Catanzaro appears to have a knack for finding the under-recruited and getting the most out of them. Junior defensive lineman Preston Mosher, who played at Sunnyslope High School, had 8 1/2 sacks last year as a sophomore.
“I was under-recruited and Cat and his staff took a chance on me,” Mosher said. “I came up for a visit and just fell in love with the place. It has proven to make the best sense in my life academically, professionally, and athletically.”
Mosher was one of three players in Lake Forest’s 2023 class out of Sunnyslope. Wide receiver Charlie Fielder and offensive lineman Matther Krüger joined Mosher on the journey to Illinois.
With 54 players on the roster from Arizona, it often means not only spending time with former high school teammates but also former rivals turned family.
“I played against two of my roommates in high school,” Mosher said. “We talk about that game all the time. They beat us, so I don’t love to relive it, but it’s interesting to make these connections and see how small the world really is.”
The world gets smaller on Saturday when Kelley, Mosher, and the rest of the Foresters come to Hamilton High School.
“It’s going to be such a rewarding experience,” Mosher said. I have 100 people coming to the game, friends and family that can’t go to the Lake Forest games.”
Kelley has been looking forward to this game since it was announced four years ago, when he was a freshman.
“It is more likely than not that this is my last game I’ll ever be able to play in Arizona,” Kelley said. “It’s been driving me and motivating me all summer. Worked my tail off for this game.”
Lake Forest wants to make an Arizona home game a staple for them every few years, but due to funding, it will be challenging to make it a reality.
“The fundraising for this game took us three years to earn,” Catanzaro said. “If someone wants to help me fund it, we’ll come down every year.”
One thing that Catanzaro is going to continue every year is utilizing the recruiting pipeline between Arizona and Illinois.
“We aren’t going to be a carpetbagger school, take five kids and never return or only come down here when there is top talent available,” Catnazaro said.
“Arizona is our southwest suburb.”
