Lynn Jensen might just be starting a franchise. The Lake Highlands High School grad and assistant football coach is part of the Yale-Texas connection that has sent three recent Lake Highlands students to play football at the Connecticut Ivy League university. Beginning with his stepson Stuart Satullo, Jensen has worked with a Yale recruiter to also send Kenneth Estrera and Ben Breunig up north.

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          The three players are part of what appears to be a Texas infiltration of Yale football. The 19 Texans on the team outnumber any other state’s representation.

 

          Jensen’s relationship with Yale football recruiter Shawn Halloran has turned to friendship.

 

“Since Stuart was recruited, we’ve become close friends. He’ll call me and ask for names of students to look for,” Jensen says. “We’ve gotten a lot of notoriety for our Yale connection. It’s really unique and amazing. People call us and ask how we got it started.”

 

          Satullo, who will graduate this year, chose Yale for its academics. The oft-told story tells of Halloran viewing the taped game of an Austin Westlake High School recruit. Instead, Satullo caught his eye.

 

“Yale was an easy choice for me once I was accepted,” Satullo says. “I’m glad that I got the opportunity to go to school so far away from home, so that I was able to branch out.”

 

He plays defensive end/outside linebacker for Yale just as he did at Lake Highlands. He credits his coaches with preparing him for his college experiences.

 

“My coach was Dexter Adams. However, Ed Barry and Paul Maturi had a major impact in my high school coaching and spent enough time working on my recruiting process, on top of coaching me, that I wouldn’t be going to school here if it wasn’t for them.”

 

Kenneth Estrera is a linebacker for Yale who will graduate next year. For most of his life, he thought he would go to UT, but Satullo’s encouragement led him to investigate Yale. Breunig, the youngest of the three, rounds out the trio.

 

“Kenneth and Stuart are good friends of my older brother Bart, so I first heard of the opportunity to play here from them,” Breunig says. “Once I saw how well they were doing here, I decided I could succeed here, too.”

 

The three players have stayed friends at a school that is far from home.

 

“I am pretty good friends with the other LH guys, since we all play defense we have a lot of the same meetings and workouts together,” Breunig says.

 

“They call them the Texas Trio and the Three Amigos,” Jensen says of the three Lake Highlands grads.

 

All have found success on Yale’s football fields. Satullo became part of the College Football Hall of Fame as a participant in Yale’s 800th win, the most of any college in the country. He also contributed to Yale’s 1999 Ivy League Championship, led the league in sacks during his sophomore year and was also voted to the All-Ivy team this year.

 

With the other four Texans in the starting lineup, the three LHHS alums bring a toughness now celebrated as the mark of Texas football.

 

          Tough as they are, however, Satullo and Estrera agree that Connecticut weather has taken some getting used to. What do they miss most about Dallas ? Satullo is unequivocal: “The warm, sunny weather!”