The tiny town of Kindred, N.D., just southwest of Fargo, has a population of about 1,000 people.
When a few high-profile visitors rolled through Kindred Public School District 2 on Jan. 26, it was not a surprise that the middle schoolers sharing a building with Kindred High School could hardly contain their excitement.
“Hey, Michigan is here!” young students squealed to their teachers.
“Notre Dame’s here!”
Indeed, football coaches from both staffs had made the trip to Kindred on the same day. Stanford came, too.
It’s not often that college football coaches flock to North Dakota for recruits, but it’s also not often that North Dakota — a state that, as recently as last year, didn’t have a player ranked among the top 2,000 prospects in the country — is pumping out blue-chippers.
This year, the state has two four-stars in the same class for the first time in the modern recruiting era, which dates back to 2002. And it just so happens that tight end Brooks Bakko, the nation’s No. 120 prospect, and athlete Luke Starcevic, No. 216, attend the same high school — a school with just over 400 students in grades 7-12.
“It’d be hard to put a number on it,” Kindred head coach and middle school principal Eric Burgad said of the number of college teams that have come through his program to visit the star-studded duo. “It was crazy, though. It got to a point where I had to ask myself, ‘OK, do I need some help with this?’ because I’m our middle school principal and I’ve got a job to do during the day, and the number of coaches that reach out and just want to be in Kindred … is a lot.
“We’re happy when the dead period comes around, and these guys can catch a breath.”
Bakko, who received his first Division I offer from Minnesota around this time last year, committed to the Gophers late Monday night, waking his parents up around midnight to tell them the good news once he got off the phone with tight ends coach Eric Koehler.
#AGTG COMMITTED❗️❗️I am blessed to announce my commitment to the University of Minnesota 〽️〽️ I would like to thank my Family, Coaches, and teammates for this opportunity! ROW THE BOAT! @CoachKoehler @Coach_Fleck @CoachHarbaugh @nick20lee @kindredfootball #skiumah pic.twitter.com/bSguMs0rjf
— Brooks Bakko (@BakkoBrooks) April 7, 2026
Starcevic has upcoming official visits planned to Notre Dame, Kansas State and Oregon, and is hoping to issue a commitment within the next month or so.
The two pals have known each other since fifth grade, dating back to their days playing grassroots basketball together.
Now they’re putting North Dakota high school football on the map.
“Going through it together has been unique, obviously, and we’ve both had a lot of fun, and it’s been a really cool opportunity for us,” Starcevic said. “Maybe we’ll look back in a little bit and realize how special it is. It’s been cool to be, I guess, the face of football recruiting in the state, and it’s just been a fun journey. We’ve both worked hard for this, and we’re happy it’s all paying off.”
Burad has been a high school coach for a dozen years and a head coach for three. He’s aware that North Dakota isn’t exactly the first (or most convenient) stop on the list for college recruiters who routinely flock to Georgia, Florida, California and Texas for talent.
Recently, however, Burad has noticed that North Dakota seems to be producing more FBS-caliber recruits. Riley Sunram, a former four-star defensive lineman out of Kindred, signed with Minnesota in the Class of 2024. Starcevic’s older brother, Jake, a former three-star linebacker, enrolled at Army in the Class of 2025 before transferring home to North Dakota in December.
Burgad has a theory for the shift.
“I honestly think social media has made the recruiting just really kind of open up,” he said. “It’s easy for these kids to take their highlights from a Friday night game or the first four games of a season and put them on their X (account) and that stuff, coaches are very well connected.
“If a coach in Minnesota sees it, it might make its way to a coach in the South and a coach on the West Coast, and I just think those things circulate a lot better. We’ve always had really good players in our state — maybe it’s just a little bit easier to access them now.”
Bakko and Starcevic have both received double-digit offers, many from schools in the Big Ten and Big 12. Because North Dakota is so cold, they play multiple sports year-round and don’t just focus on football — another advantage from Burgad’s perspective that makes his recruits more well-rounded athletically in this era of hyper-specialization. It helps that both players are comfortable playing in the snow, too.
Starcevic’s recruitment has been particularly interesting because some schools are recruiting him as a defensive end, others project him as an offensive lineman and Oregon is pursuing him as a tight end.
He played tight end and defensive end as a junior this past season, with Burgad and the school’s offensive coordinator jumping at the opportunity to put him on the field with Bakko in 12-personnel packages.
“He’s one of the best football players I’ve seen,” Bakko said. “So I’m proud of him, I’m going to support him wherever he goes.”
Kindred rolled through the 2025 regular season with a 10-0 record but was upset, in overtime, by Devils Lake in the Division AA semifinal.
In many ways, Bakko and Starcevic are the only two people in North Dakota who know exactly what the other is experiencing. Many times when a college coach would visit the school and the two friends would temporarily be excused from their respective classes, they’d walk through the hallways together, wondering about who might be waiting for them.
“Having Luke, one of my best friends, by my side through it and helping each other out, visiting places together, it’s been really fun,” Bakko said.
The duo has one more season of high school football together before Bakko heads off to Minnesota and Starcevic is off to his school of choice. In addition to Kansas State, Notre Dame and Oregon, Starcevic said he might schedule a few more official visits.
If these two are successful at the next level, it will only help put the spotlight on one of only five states in the U.S. with fewer than 1 million people.
“I definitely think it’s growing and people are finding out more about the talent in our state, which is good,” Starcevic said. “Hopefully it continues to grow in the future and North Dakota keeps thriving.”
