Family is key for Ohio State signee Devin Sanchez

HOUSTON – After already raising two college football players, Daniel Sanchez III knew athletic excellence when he saw it. His grandson Devin Sanchez was around 10 or 11 years old when the elder Sanchez first saw the potential that has made Devin one of the best defensive backs in America. 

Daniel Sanchez III and his wife of 48 years Linda met in their hometown of Galveston, putting love and sports at the center of their daily activities. They raised two college football players. Two of their grandsons are among the top high school athletes in Houston. They also have a granddaughter who is a talented softball player. 

Devin Sanchez, a 5-Star defensive back at Houston’s North Shore High, signed with Ohio State on Wednesday. He’s considered the top player in Texas in the Class of 2025, which is why every major football power recruited him. Devin committed to Ohio State in January and never wavered.

Devin’s first cousin Aiden Sanchez, a senior at Pasadena (Texas) Dobie High, is a 6-foot-4, 220 pound left-handed pitcher/outfielder who also excelled as a linebacker/defensive lineman/wide receiver this season.

Aiden Sanchez is in line for a baseball scholarship. Devin Sanchez also excelled in track during his first three years of high school, but he’ll focus on football at Ohio State. 

Gifted family

“At an early age, when Devin and Aiden were playing together at Little League, I saw … then that he was special in a certain way,” grandpa Sanchez said. “He was probably 10 or 11 years old playing Little League, and I told my son, his dad, I said, ‘He’s special.’”

Devin was gifted with athletic genes. His mother Deetra Sanchez and father Daniel IV met at the University of Texas – El Paso, where they were both student athletes. Deetra was a sprinter on the track team. Daniel IV played football. Their oldest son Dylan was a defensive tackle at Texas A&M-Kingsville. 

With Deetra and Daniel IV guiding him, Devin blossomed into one of most coveted recruits in the country by the end of his sophomore season. At 6-foot-2 and 175 pounds, Devin Sanchez has been considered one of the top two cornerbacks in America and one of the top two players in Texas in the 2025 class for the last two years.

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Through it all, Devin has had a large, supportive family pushing him and cheering him on. Linda Sanchez notes with a smile that her son Daniel is tough on his boys. Daniel readily concedes the point.

Love, however, has been the key, Devin insists. That support was evident Wednesday morning at North Shore High during the Texas power’s annual signing day ceremony. Seven of Sanchez’s family members attended the ceremony. Deetra’s sister Shanlanda Holman and Devin’s sister Danni joined the family at the signing event.

‘Amazing’

“It’s amazing,” Devin said of his family’s support. “As I preach to my coaches at Ohio State, I’m big on family and relationships. These are the people … that are my backbone. 

“They’ve been with me since Day 1, since I started playing football. So it’s amazing that they’re here.”

Devin Sanchez, who is biracial, is the top Latino football prospect in the Class of 2025. His paternal grandfather is Mexican American. His paternal grandmother and maternal grandparents are African American.

“Family is everything,” Linda Sanchez said. “Ever since they came into the world, even before they came into the world, I was ready to instill all of my values on the African American side as well.

“And my husband on the Mexican American side. So they have double cultures.”

As was the case for former North Shore receiver/quarterback David Amador II, who is a sophomore star at UT-San Antonio, Latino students have taken pride in Sanchez at the predominantly Latino school. 

“The name (Sanchez), yeah, it’s great for the Latinos,” Daniel Sanchez III says. “A lot of the Latinos follow him. You see them at the high school. It’s great.”

Two cultures

Devin will carry his Latino and African American values to Columbus, Ohio, in the spring as an early enrollee. Grandma Linda was fighting back tears as she spoke of her grandson.

𝐍𝐒𝐃 ➡️ @Devin2416#THE25 | #GoBucks 🌰 pic.twitter.com/viOdP7lImR

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 4, 2024

She ran track and played volleyball in high school, so that’s why she jokingly takes credit for her grandkids’ athletic genes. They go back and forth playfully taking credit for the family’s athletic genes. 

It’s also clear that they’re proud of the job their son Daniel III and daughter in-law Deetra Sanchez have done raising their young family.  Wearing Ohio State gear, they all glowed with pride.

Linda is proud of the father her son has become and proud of her grandson Devin’s major milestone. 

“I’m very excited to see Devin go forward with all of the values that I tried to instill as well as my husband,” Linda Sanchez said. “Hopefully everything that we’ve tried to instill in him, he will remember and carry forward. Family is everything. Our family values are everything. I think he will do fabulous wherever he goes, Ohio State and beyond.”