College is about making new friends. However, it is always nice to come to a school with a few familiar faces to help ease the process.
This is not always possible for student-athletes as they usually attend schools where scholarships are offered, even though their friends and close teammates may head in different directions.
According to the NCAA website, about two percent of high school athletes earn athletic scholarships.
Most high school football programs are proud if a player or two is awarded a scholarship to play at a major institution, but when a single high school, such as Centennial High School in California has six players on a single team such as ASU, it is truly special.
"It's awesome," Centennial coach Matt Logan said. "It's fun to watch. Just about every game is shown here so we get to watch them. I'm sure there are a lot of recorders set on Saturday afternoons and Saturday nights to watch the ASU games."
The Centennial Huskies are rich in football tradition making it easy to believe they produced players such as Brandon Magee, Will Sutton, Vontaze Burfict, Shelly Lyons, Michael Eubank and Angelo Magee.
Centennial's football team has won six California Interscholastic Federation championships and nine league championships. They also won a state championship in 2008, when Lyons, Burfict and Brandon Magee anchored the defense.
Senior linebacker Brandon Magee also recognizes the rarity of having six players from one school on the same team.
"It's great seeing all the former Huskies here," Magee said, before adding that he expects more Huskies to come to the desert in the future because of Centennial's strong football tradition.
While the Centennial connection is great for the players themselves, Sutton also believes it is inspiring to the kids in southern California.
"It's special," Sutton said. "Back home its special because it gets a lot of kids thinking and hoping they can make it to the next level."
Not only do the six players have a southern California connection, but their friendship goes even further as Magee, Burfict and Lyons are roommates and consider themselves "brothers."
Although Sutton is not part of the line-backing trio, he is also close with them and has been for a few years.
"They're my boys," Sutton said. "I came out here a lot, even before I was getting recruited, just to hangout with them."
Through their unparalleled success, the former Huskies and current Sun Devils may make it seem like everything comes easy to them, but their great fortune is all attributed to a tremendous work ethic.
"It's just a testament to how hard they've worked," Logan said.
The high school coach was not the only one willing to talk about hard work as the players themselves are also proud of the effort they put in behind the scenes.
"I haven't had a break in seven years," Magee said. "I just train. I live here. This is what I do."
Along with Magee, Sutton also knows the importance of a strong work ethic.
"The harder you work the more you will be successful," the sophomore defensive tackle said. "So if I come out here and work everyday I will be successful at whatever I do."
Although the players enjoy spending time together and playing alongside each other, they are not satisfied with simply being on the field.
The Sun Devils have not been to a bowl game in the past three years, something the Centennial players vow to change.
"It's not going to be what I thought until we win that championship this year," Magee said.