Kaden Snyder grew up following Kansas’ basketball team, dreaming that one day he would suit up for the Jayhawks at sold-out Allen Fieldhouse.

By the time reality set in, somewhere around late middle school and his freshman year at Salina Central, one part of that childhood dream changed and the other remained very much alive.

On Wednesday, Snyder signed with KU, not as a basketball player, but instead as one of the Jayhawks’ top football recruits. And that less than a week he helped lead Central to its first Class 5A state championship.

“I’ve been a fan there for a long time,” Snyder, the Mustangs’ 6-foot-6, 305-pound left offensive tackle, said of his decision KU.

Before arriving at Central as a 270-pound freshman three-plus years ago, Snyder still considered pursuing a college basketball career. But he already started to see the writing on the wall.

“I am a big basketball guy, even now,” said Snyder, who as a junior led Central in both scoring and rebounding. “But then I weighed a lot more than I needed to play basketball, and it was a lot more tough, and football came a little easier for me.”

A conversation with Central head coach Mark Sandbo and offensive line coach Tony Chesney helped convince Snyder that football might be his best bet going forward.

“We knew he was special,” Sandbo said. “When he first showed, everything that makes him good is because he’s been a multi-sport (athlete). He grew up playing basketball, and I think basketball was his first love.”

“We kind of had an honest conversation, like, we love that. You love basketball and it definitely correlates and helps you with football. But where you’d probably be an NAIA basketball player, you potentially could be a Power Four football player. And you know, that projection was right.”

Chesney, himself an offensive lineman on Central’s 2002 state championship team and later at Fort Hays State, saw the same potential.

“I was No. 64 in high school as well,” Chesney said of assigning Snyder the same jersey number as a freshman. “I just asked Kaden the other day, like man, the jury was out whether you were picking 64 so that you could give me a run as being the best 64 around here or just wanted to continue that dominance of the number.

“He just kind of laughed that off, but he’s the best offensive lineman that I’ve for sure ever coached, and I’ve coached some really good ones.”

Snyder saw wearing No. 64 as an early show of confidence from Chesney.

“That was his number,” Snyder said. “He only gives it to beasts, he said. He thought I had the potential early on.

“Coach Chesney always told me when I was in eighth grade, freshman, and of course when he kept coaching me throughout, that I was a D-I football guy if I tried hard and dedicate myself to it instead of basketball. And then what he said came true.”

The transformation did not take place overnight. After starting his football career between 265 and 275 pounds, Snyder struggled to keep the weight on during basketball season, slipping below 230 after basketball.

As a freshman, he played defense at first, before taking over midseason as the starting right tackle. He was a fixture over the next three seasons at left tackle.

“I think he’s closer to 310 right now, or 305, and he looks really good,” Sandbo said. “He carries it well. They’ll get him up another 30 or 40 pounds, and he’ll carry that well.”

“He’s got that next-level body. He’s really top-heavy. He’ll have a big chest, and he’s an impressive looking kid.”

Snyder’s high school numbers speak volumes at a position that more often is measured by the success of the players around him.

“He’s given up two sacks in four years, from a 15-year-old to an 18-year-old,” Sandbo said. “He only gave up two pressures this year. He’s fantastic, and those three big games that we won coming down the stretch, he was a big part of it.”

Snyder’s numbers don’t tell the whole story. He was part of a Central offensive line that paved the way for a Mustang rushing attack that amassed 4,038 yards, or 310.6 per game, led by running back Cooper Reves with 2,844 yards and quarterback Griffin Hall with 960.

“He’s so smart. He’s got a high football IQ,” Sandbo said. “He’s not only one of the best physically, but he’s also one of the smartest to do it. He can communicate things to coaches. He can communicate things to other players.”

Chesney concurred.

“What sets him apart is he’s very physical, and when you’re that long and that big, that physicality brings some extra punch to it, and he is just really smart,” Chesney said. “I think that’s the basketball player in him.”

“He wasn’t the highest jumper, the fastest runner on the court, but he was like a court general on the basketball court, and he brought that over to football. He was kind of like my coach out on the field, too.”

Like the physical transformation, Snyder’s football knowledge was a work in progress throughout his high school career.

“Coach Chesney and coach Sandbo did a great job just teaching me things,” Snyder said. “I was always a football fan, but I never really knew about football, I guess you could say. But it is huge.”

“I’d bet you a lot of money I watched the most film out of anybody on our football team by a couple of times over. I feel more confident when I know everything that’s going on, and that’s the way you should be if you want to be successful.”

Sandbo and Chesney both said they see Snyder transitioning seamlessly to the college level when he moves to Lawrence next month as an early 2026 enrollee.

“He’s a guy who’s going to show up there the way he’s coached up here, and his measurables and what he’s able to do, and he’s going to blend in,” Sandbo said.

Chesney compared Snyder favorably at the same stage to another KU recruit from Kansas, starting sophomore left tackle Calvin Clements.

Snyder would like nothing better than to contribute next fall as a true freshman.

“That’s definitely the goal I’m working toward,” he said. “That’s why I put on so much weight.”

“But either way, it’s a great opportunity and I’m just going to work my butt off to try and make that a reality.”

The only regret in leaving enrolling at KU early, Snyder added, is missing his senior basketball season.

“It’s tough,” he said. “I definitely wish I could play one more year, but I had to decide that it was probably better for me to go early to KU.”

“That was a big part of why I did it, to get a head start.”

So, what are Snyder’s immediate plans now that his final semester as a high school student winds down?

“Right now, I’m just working out, just enjoying my last couple of weeks in Salina,” he said.