Las Vegas has become a prep football hotbed

LAS VEGAS >> Football dreams can grow in a desert.

At the turn of the century, only the temperatures made Las Vegas a football hot spot. But as the population grew and cost of living remained relatively low, the boom created more communities and more schools and, eventually, better high school football programs.

Brandon Huffman, national recruiting editor for 247sports, remembered when there were only a couple of Vegas-area schools, other than Bishop Gorman High, that drew strong interest from recruiters.

“Now you’ve got 10, 15 different schools,” said Huffman, acknowledging the growing number of transplants. “More kids are moving from L.A., Southern California, to Vegas; kids moving from Hawaii to Vegas, from Northern California to Vegas. Part of it is Southern California has priced people out. A lot of people are moving into Vegas. Vegas is expanding as a city with more residents.”

Chad Kapanui, a former University of Hawaii football player, has marveled at the changes since he moved to Las Vegas in 2005.

“I think it starts with the youth programs,” said Kapanui, Bishop Gorman’s quarterbacks coach.

In particular, Vegas-based Game Changers Sports, founded by Saint Louis School alumnus Phil Faoa, has contributed to the development of youth football. The program, which accepts students as early as middle school-aged, offers both a demanding academic curriculum and extensive sports training. Students can take classes and train with GCS but also play for their neighborhood high school.

Two years ago, quarterback guru Vinny Passas moved from Hawaii to Las Vegas to train passers. Passas has worked with quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa of the Miami Dolphins, Marcus Mariota of the Philadelphia Eagles, Chevan Cordeiro of San Jose State, and UH head coach Timmy Chang. Passas also has trained Bishop Gorman quarterback Micah Alejado, who moved from ‘Ewa Beach when he was in middle school. Last year, Alejado was named MaxPreps National Junior Player of the Year.

“It definitely was a great move to come out here,” Alejado said.

Bishop Gorman, a private school in the Vegas suburb of Summerlin, is the center of the city’s football emergence. Mega donors, led by brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, helped build facilities to fit the Gaels’ football aspirations.

The $100 million athletic center, funded by the Fertitta brothers, features a state-of-the-art weight-training area, stadium-seat meeting rooms, and an athletic-training section with a sauna and separate hot and cold spas for recoveries. There also is a 5,000-seat stadium with individual seats, practice fields and a sand court for leg training. With Nike as a sponsor, the Gaels have more than a dozen different uniform styles and several helmets. The locker room has two barber-shop chairs.

The Gaels, who play locally and across the country, are the nation’s No. 2 high school football team.

“I’d say Bishop Gorman really legitimized Vegas,” Huffman said, “in the sense, kids were still getting recruited from other schools. But when Gorman started sending kids to the Ohio States and the Oklahomas and Michigans, you’d have kids who were playing at Saint Louis and Kapolei leave to play at Gorman their last three years because they felt there was the need to get more exposure.”

Huffman added: “Not everyone wanted to go to Gorman. They wanted to be a bigger fish — Desert Pines, Arbor View and other schools. It really started with Gorman in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Alejado, who committed to join UH in 2024, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to attend Bishop Gorman. With enrollment capped at 1,490 students, there is a waiting list. Nearly 100% of Bishop Gorman graduates go on to attend college.