Shakopee’s Blake Betton had a blast playing on one of the top AAU basketball teams in the country for years, but football took priority this summer.

Betton, the most highly recruited defensive player in Minnesota’s 2027 class, has offers from SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 college football programs.

That caused the 6-3, 200-pound linebacker/safety to sacrifice playing with his childhood friends on Howard Pulley’s Nike hoops team to attend team camps to boost his football recruiting profile.

“I knew my future was more with football,” said Betton, who has offers from Michigan, Iowa and the Gophers, among others. “I still like playing for my high school basketball team, but I just knew to focus on football was the best thing for me. I had to get bigger, faster and stronger and get ready for the camps.”

Betton’s summer basketball was limited to a couple of local summer tournaments with Shakopee. That worked well for his football-heavy schedule. One of his former AAU teammates is the state’s No. 1 junior, Ty Schlagel from Cretin-Derham Hall, who has basketball offers from the Gophers and Wisconsin.

“I definitely miss it and feel like I could still add some value to that Pulley team,” Betton said. “It wasn’t until my freshman year going into my sophomore year when I switched from basketball to football as my main sport.”

Hopkins brothers Jayden and Tre Moore and Waseca’s Deron Russell were among the best basketball players in the state during the AAU season. They didn’t stop training for football as summer basketball went on.

“With AAU season, it’s kind of hard because we’re traveling,” said Jayden Moore, who has Division I offers for basketball and football. “But when we’re back home, the workouts we do for basketball and football are tied into each other and the same. Then we’ll do some extra things on the side for each sport.”

Moore brothers weigh options

If you ask the Moore brothers to pick one sport over the other, they might give you different answers depending on the season.

Jayden was known solely as one of the best point guards in the country until he decided to play football for the first time at Hopkins last year. With Tre as his quarterback, he made 44 catches for 924 yards and scored 11 touchdowns.

Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck offered Jayden a scholarship after his unofficial visit last fall. Jayden still seems to be leaning toward the hardcourt, though.

“My shooting got better after spending time in the gym getting up quality shots,” Jayden said. “I feel like coming into this season my jumper will be the best it’s been in my career.”

Following his brother’s path, Tre played for Team Herro’s AAU basketball program in Milwaukee this summer. The younger Moore stood out as high-level guard prospect at the 15U level, but he could have a brighter future as a quarterback. For the Royals last season, Tre threw for 1,438 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Tre is ranked by Prep Redzone as the No. 1 football recruit in the 2028 class in Minnesota, so he spent even more time getting teammates together this summer on the field.

“I would have basketball practices in the morning,” Tre said. “After that I would have all my football workouts in the evenings Monday through Thursday. On Friday, I would do strictly football workouts and play catch with receivers. On the weekends, I would mix it up. I’ve been able manage both sports well so far.”

Russell rises in second sport

A springy 6-1 guard on the court and a defensive back on the field, Russell committed to North Dakota State for football in June.

Regarded as a top-10 senior in the state, he led Waseca to the Class 2A state championship game in March and scored 38 points in the state semifinals in Waseca’s upset of Breck. He was also named to the Prep Hoops All-AAU first team, playing for Minnesota Select. That list included Wayzata’s Christian Wiggins, an Iowa State commit, and Nolen Anderson, a Gophers commit; they are the Nos. 1 and 2-rated boys basketball players in the state’s Class of 2026.

“A lot of schools asked me how seriously I took football and if I wanted to play basketball,” said Russell, who had older brothers play college football at Washington State (Damarius) and South Dakota State (Saiveon).

Damarius was one of 14 players on the Star Tribune’s All-Minnesota football team last year that also played basketball, including Gophers recruits Roman Voss and Emmanuel Karmo.

Like his brothers, Russell decided football is his future, but he still gets attention via basketball. During a Prep Hoops tournament in July, word quickly spread of Russell’s one-handed dunk over a 6-9 defender.

Soon, however, Russell will use his leaping ability to make interceptions.

“I just try to play both sports as much as possible,” he said. “I’ll try to train for both each day. The transition is [easier] at the end of the summer because we start football camp. That’s when I kind of slow down for basketball to get me ready for the football season.”