Bears Grab 4 Star DE in Croteau

Cal garnered their second commitment of the week with the commitment of 6-5/230 Liberty (Peoria, Arizona) High School defensive end Braxten Croteau after his visit to Berkeley this weekend.

The 4.0 student, who has his sights set on Cal's prestigious Haas School of Business, found the perfect balance of athletics, academics and location he was looking for in the recruiting process.

"This was my first time in the Bay Area," said Croteau. "I loved everything about it. 

"I made a checklist and Cal fit everything I was looking for. I was looking for a strong school academically and athletically and Cal checked the boxes perfectly for me."

Croteau was present for the Bear's practice yesterday, seeing a combination of scrimmaging and drills, giving him a good idea how the Cal staff runs practices.

"I liked the tempo of practice and how the coaches coached and ran things," said Croteau. "It was a real plus for me.

"I also had the chance to sit in on two meetings. I liked those a lot. I like how Coach Tuioti ran things. He sat me down afterwards and went over things with me and how they'd use me there."

Croteau's recruitment has been a team effort so far.

"I've talked with pretty much all of the coaches at Cal," said Croteau. "Especially Coach (Charlie) Ragle, Coach (Justin) Wilcox and Coach (Tony) Tuioti the most. I like all my relationships with the Cal staff and I'm looking forward to growing those."

The 4 star DE traveled to Berkeley with his father, as well at LB/S teammate Ryan Puskas, who came up separately.

"It's totally up to Ryan, but I've talked to him about playing together," said Croteau. "I think it would be awesome to continue playing together. We're great friends and he's my brother so it would definitely be great if we could go up there together."

Croteaux compiled 70 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and nine sacks in his junior season for Liberty.