BOWLED OVER: Hun School football star Luke Wafle is all smiles as he was joined by family members, friends, and teammates when he was honored this fall for being chosen to play in the Navy All-American Bowl. Wafle will be playing for the East squad in the January 10 game that features the top 100 high school football players from across the country. Star defensive end Wafle will then head to the University of Southern California to start his college football career.
By Justin Feil
Luke Wafle begins the next chapter of his football career later this month when he leaves The Hun School to join the University of Southern California team for the spring semester.
In between is something of an epilogue to his Hun career. Days before he starts at USC, he will compete in the Navy All-American Bowl, which will be televised from San Antonio, Texas, on NBC on January 10. The annual contest features the top 100 players from across the country in this year’s graduating class.
“It’s just starting to settle in because I got named it a couple months ago,” said Wafle, who lives in Middletown. “When I just sit down and really think, I just kind of look at the mountain I climbed. I’ve been watching McDonald’s All-American, Navy All-American, I’ve been watching this stuff since I was a young kid and just to grow up like 10 years later and be in that select few, it came a long way really fast so it’s pretty cool.”
When he returns to the field for the all-star game, it will be his first action since the Raiders completed their season in early November.
“It’s gonna be interesting,” said Wafle. “We’re just gonna throw it together, but I’m just gonna rely on my muscle memory and let my instincts take over.”
Those traits along with his work ethic seem to have worked out well for the 6’5, 250-pound defensive end. Rivals, ESPN, and 247Sports all rank him the No. 1 player in the state of New Jersey. Rivals ranks the five-star recruit fourth nationally.
“Luke Wafle has freakish size for his position, but what really separates him is how well he moves and how physical he plays,” said Hun head coach Todd Smith of Wafle, who also played as a power forward on the Hun basketball team. “From the moment he steps on the field, you know you’re dealing with someone different.”
The Navy All-American Bowl selection is another honor for Wafle. He’s also a finalist for the Navy All-American Bowl Defensive Player of the Year that will be announced January 9. He spent three seasons at Hun and also was a varsity starter on the Hun basketball team as a junior. He put up impressive numbers in his final gridiron season with 99 tackles, 37 for loss, including 23 sacks.
“He wanted the toughest competition every week, and he thrived in it,” said Smith. “Against elite programs, Luke consistently proved he belonged on the field with anyone in the country.”
Wafle’s numbers in his final year represented a significant jump from his junior year. In 2024, he had posted 53 tackles, 18 for loss with eight sacks. He showed his experience and drive in a dominant final scholastic season.
“This season more than any season just everything clicked technically and just with what the mission was and what I had to do,” said Wafle. “Also I think that with the more difficult schedule, I got to play in more games. If we were to blow out a team, I would be sitting out like in the first quarter. But then if I’m playing St. Frances or some team like that, I’m playing the whole game. So I think that helped. But I would mainly attribute it to just putting it all together from my game standpoint.”
Hun faced a lineup of heavy hitters this year. The Raiders finished 8-4 this year with notable wins over Archbishop Spalding (Md.) and The First Academy (Fla.) and competitive losses to NFL Academy in Ireland, St. James Academy (Va.), St. Frances Academy (Md.), and IMG Academy at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
“Hun is where I built a lot of my confidence, especially this year,” said Wafle. “I just see what we’re all going up against. It’s the competition aspect of every day in practice, I’m going against a Division I college player in practice. And then on Fridays/Saturdays, I get to go against more powerful commits and this year it was really good for my development and I got better throughout the season.”
Aside from his time on the field, he also became more of a leader. That role was something new as a senior when he stepped into being a captain.
“It’s not as easy as I used to think it was looking at other captains,” said Wafle. “You just gotta be the backbone for the team and everything basically falls on you. But I needed that from just a leadership standpoint and it was a lot of fun, just learning all the stuff it takes just to be that level of a leader.”
He expects that his time at Hun will help make his transition to the next level easier. He is part of USC head coach Lincoln Riley’s top-ranked recruiting class, and the spring practices will give him a chance to adjust, improve and take aim at some lofty goals.
“Just acclimating to the speed at college, that’s the one big thing I’ve heard,” said Wafle. “It’s a lot faster so getting used to that, getting more powerful, me personally getting faster and then brushing up the technique and learning the game — just kind of how offenses work. I think those are the two big steps that I’ve heard from everybody is just learning the game and getting your technique down. So cleaning all that stuff up, and then I see myself playing, being a freshman All-American.”
That drive has been on display throughout his Hun career. He followed older brother Owen, who transferred to Penn State last year after beginning his college career at Michigan, to Hun and was able to make an impact in his first season for the Raiders as a sophomore. He did not settle for that achievement.
“His work ethic is unmatched,” said Smith. “Luke treats every practice rep like it’s Friday night, and he’s relentless about improving his technique, strength, and football IQ.”
Wafle now brings that mindset to USC. He’s part of the buzz around the Trojans, whom he compares to a start-up company with big potential. Their enhanced Bloom Football Performance Center set to open this coming summer, one of many reasons that factored into him choosing to continue his career at the Los Angeles school.
“Coaches, like from top to bottom, I have full trust in that whole staff,” said Wafle. “The resources that are there for you as a player. By the time I’m there, they’ll have a whole new facility for football, just everything you could imagine that you need to be a good football player and get recovery, all the tools, like everything you need. LA, just that place is special. Being there, you can feel all the minds that you have access to. That’s an underrated aspect of it. And just the players. We have the number one recruiting classes here, so a couple years down the road what do you think’s gonna happen?”
Wafle benefited from playing at Hun and having an older brother. Both helped him become the player he is now. His brother has both inspired and consulted him through his playing career.
“He just paved the way so it made this dream look a lot more realistic,” said Wafle. “That’s the guy I was growing up with my whole life so once he started getting a bunch of offers, that’s when I knew I could really do this too. So then once I started chasing the dream, it was like I have to be at that standard now. That was tough for a while, but just putting your head down and grinding and just trusting the process — my brother would always be in my ear giving me advice to just trust everything, trust the process and know good things happen.”
In just a couple of years, the recruiting process changed significantly from Owen to Luke. Now, colleges can offer student-athletes money directly to play for their school in addition to the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals that started to become available when Owen was being recruited. Those deals can factor into recruiting decisions that were already competitive.
“The recruiting process, it’s insane,” said Wafle. “There’s so many different branches you could go off into. You don’t know where your coach is going. You don’t know where all the players that are committing are going. You have to make sure you find something solid and concrete and I think I definitely found something solid in USC, learning that lesson from my brother who’s had two head coaches leave on him at Power 4 big-time schools like Coach (Jim) Harbaugh and Coach James Franklin. That’s unfortunate but I found a concrete spot in Lincoln Riley and USC. I think it’s on the way up for that program. That’s why I landed there.”
He’s anxious to get started. Leaving his senior year at Hun several months early is a calculated sacrifice, but he says that he’s made other sacrifices for football.
“It’s giving up a little fun just to get an extra six months of development at the program, getting with the guys and then that catapults into this season,” said Wafle. “I think that’s how we’re seeing a lot more freshman phenoms because they’ve been there at the program, they’re ready to roll sometime like fall camp. I think it’s good for football. My brother didn’t get to do it and he was six months behind everybody so he was just playing catch up his whole freshman year. So I’m excited to do it and I’m going to take advantage of my time.”
He approaches his next chapter with goals to drive him, and he’s following the same tunnel vision approach and grinding work ethic that helped him excel at Hun. Three years after he arrived, he’s leaving as a highly sought All-American with the potential to help elevate another program, this time at the college level.
“I just know I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” said Wafle.
“Getting embraced by the football team, and the basketball team as well, that’s how I remember just the support system around me. And just everything set up for me to get better and for the guys to get better.”