Jackets commit Sagar took unlikely path from Brooklyn

When he helped lead his New York high school to the city championship in December at Yankee Stadium, Sebastian Sagar had little idea of where life would lead him next.

Certainly, the idea that eventually he would drive to Gwinnett County with a coach and teammates to train for the month of June, then decide with his family to move to the Grayson High area and finally accept a scholarship offer to Georgia Tech wasn’t on the radar.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Sagar told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week. “Six months ago, if you’d told me I’d end up at Grayson, I’d have said, ‘You’re crazy.’ But it is how it is. I’m just glad I’m here.”

In a commitment story unique to this surreal year, the three-star linebacker has claimed a spot in coach Geoff Collins’ 2021 signing class in no small part because of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on his football and his family’s circumstances.

“If the pandemic had not happened, we would not have moved all this way,” said Rosemary Sagar, Sebastian’s mother. “On the other hand, the fact that the pandemic is on also facilitated and allowed me to move because the office is virtually closed.”

The Sagars were rooted in New York, specifically Brooklyn. Rosemary has a career in finance, managing the investments of a charitable foundation. Sebastian’s older brother Aidan attends Fordham University in the Bronx. Born in New York, Sebastian played for Bergen Catholic in New Jersey in his first two years of high school before transferring to Erasmus Hall Campus High in Brooklyn for his junior year.

“Half my heart is always going to be there (in New York),” said Rosemary, who was born in India and moved to the U.S. at the age of 12.

But, she said, she had grown tired of winters in the Northeast. And then, the pandemic created uncertainty for Sebastian’s senior year. In June, with training opportunities limited in New York, he spent a month in Gwinnett with a coach and teammates to train. He quickly made an impact on trainer William Lee of DASH Performance in Lawrenceville.

“Usually at DASH, we put our workouts on the board, and there’s certain kids, if it’s three sets of 15, they just do 15,” said Lee, co-founder of DASH. “This kid’s always doing three extra reps on everything. That’s something you just don’t teach. That’s just in your DNA.”

While training, Sagar connected with a Grayson football player. Then his mother inquired how he liked the atmosphere and what he thought about living there full time.

“Right away, I said, ‘I’m all in. Let’s go,’” Sagar said.

Like so many office workers, Rosemary Sagar was in a situation that didn’t require her to be in an actual office. There was the possibility Sebastian might not be able to play a senior season in New York because of concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

“I’m very supportive of Sebastian’s passion, and he has real talent,” Rosemary said. “So it would be totally wrong for me to stand in the way.”

It’s not uncommon for high school players to move into Georgia, and Gwinnett, in particular, in hopes the recruiting attention the county’s teams receive will increase their chances for a scholarship. Given that a handful of states have already determined they won’t play high school football this fall, the state may experience an influx of football players hoping Georgia’s season will go forward.

Rosemary Sagar recognized it as a gamble, as there’s no certainty the season in Georgia – now scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 4, two weeks later than normal — will be played, either. (High school sports in New York have been delayed to Sept. 21.) But the opportunity to play his final season in one of the top states in the country for high school football was too much to pass up.

“He could have sat out the season; he still would have had the offers, but that’s not Sebastian,” Rosemary said. “He wanted to be playing and improving himself and challenged. And I thought that was great.”

Toward the end of his monthlong training, she flew down to visit a handful of Gwinnett schools before they decided on powerhouse Grayson.

At the same time, after asking Sagar about his scholarship offers (Miami, Virginia Tech and Syracuse among them, along with multiple Ivy league schools), Lee suggested Georgia Tech and then reached out on his behalf to Yellow Jackets recruiting staffer Thomas Guerry, with whom Lee has a connection. Lee heard back from Tech defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker.

After Sagar enrolled at Grayson and began working out with the team, the reports back to Thacker evidently had grown.

“Thacker hit me up one random day, telling me, ‘I’ve got everybody in Gwinnett County telling me about this kid that moved down here,’” Sagar said. “We hit it off.”

Tech made its offer last Friday on a videoconference call between the coaching staff, Sagar and his mother, who was logged on from Brooklyn as movers packed up their townhouse. Sagar called the next day to accept the scholarship offer, making the announcement Monday. Like many others in this recruiting cycle, he has yet to meet the Tech coaching staff face to face. But he has seen enough to make a decision. Sagar called it a perfect fit, touting the school’s academic credentials and the coaching staff.

“I love coach Thacker and coach Collins,” Sagar said. “We developed a really close relationship in literally one week, and it was the only college where it was the head coach himself that offered me, so it was like, yeah, this is the place for me. They made me feel wanted the most.”

In Sagar, Tech has a defender, 6 feet 3 and 215 pounds, who plays outside linebacker and could conceivably move to defensive end. His speed and effort stand out on his highlight video.

“He’s going to be special,” said Lee, also an assistant coach at Brookwood High. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a major impact, just off his work ethic, his freshman year.”

The Sagars have taken to life in Gwinnett. Their rent is less than a quarter of what they were paying in Brooklyn for a much smaller home. They’ve found some restaurants they like.

“I just went for my first grocery shopping today, and it’s so nice how things are not crowded, and people are so friendly,” Rosemary said Wednesday.

Sebastian raves about his team, which includes two other players committed to Tech — defensive end Noah Collins and athlete Jamal Haynes. He plans to enroll early at Tech.

Committing to Tech is not an outcome Sagar might have imagined even a few months ago. But he’s not questioning it.

“It was a no-brainer,” he said.

CONTRIBUTED Linebacker Sebastian Sagar, who played at Erasmus Hall Campus High in New York last season, traveled to Gwinnett to train. He liked it so much his family moved to the county, and he enrolled at Grayson High.