It’s fall 2018, and Highland Park High School has just won its third consecutive state championship.
Part of the team effort on the school's turf was defensive lineman Prince Dorbah, a junior who has now grabbed two state titles within the span of two years. In fact, he transformed from someone who refused to play the sport — as an avid high school basketball player — into a player who encapsulates a love for football.
"I'm telling you right now, I did not wanna play football," Dorbah said.
His resistance to the sport didn't last long, especially after the Highland Park football coaches saw something in him. After the 2019 season, Dorbah went on to play football at the University of Texas. Fast forward to the present, Dorbah continues to be bought into the game at ASU as a redshirt junior, where his defensive efforts have placed him fifth in the Pac-12 and placed 13th in the nation in sacks, according to Fox Sports.
However, he's placed first in his family to play college football.
Dorbah is originally from the Ivory Coast, a small country on the western coast of Africa. He made the move to the United States with his family when he was three.
"I was a refugee," Dorbah said. "My country was at war within its own government. So we just had to find somewhere safe to go live."
His family relocated to Highland Park, right outside of Dallas, Texas, where his distant family ended up adopting him and his brother. Dorbah has lived there ever since and grew up playing sports.
While soccer, peewee football, and YMCA games were tossed into the mix, the sport that Dorbah grew to love was basketball. Dorbah had a passion for the sport, and to play football wasn't something of interest to him at the time.
Then Coach Don Woods sought him out.
"Coach Woods, he was the coach who put me in football when I didn't wanna play football," Dorbah said. "Those coaches saw something in me when I didn’t see something in myself. They pretty much changed my life."
Coach Woods approached Dorbah during his sophomore year at Highland Park. He was still playing basketball, and he wasn’t going to budge from the sport. Woods was determined to be the force that beckoned him to move into football after being a witness to Dorbah's athleticism.
"He was fast, he was big and strong, and he was always good-sized," Woods said. "His quickness was tremendous."
With his physical traits paired with his determined attitude and work ethic, Dorbah was Woods’s ideal candidate for the team. The coaching staff threw him on varsity his sophomore year and switched him from an outside linebacker to a defensive lineman, as that's what the team needed.
"I might've even begged him, I don't know," Woods said.
Woods's bets on Dorbah paid off in his favor. Over his three seasons at Highland Park, Dorbah became a prominent player in sacks and helped take his team to multiple state championships while developing into a team leader.
After solidifying himself as a football guy and a college prospect, Dorbah continued his career collegiately at Texas. His family played an influential role in his decision to remain in his home state.
"I'm a Texas kid, so I wanted to stay home and play for my hometown so my family could come see me," Dorbah said. "When I was in the portal, me and my dad sat down … He told me no matter where I go he would support me, try to go to each and every single one of my games, any way he can."
Despite making the transfer to ASU this year, Dorbah remains grateful for the support of his family and for the games when they can see him play. Dorbah credits the transfer to the overall vibe of the Sun Devil football program, which he feels is what he needed at this point in his football career.
"I can probably go to every coach and have an honest conversation with any single one of them about anything in my personal life,” Dorbah said. “They're all pretty much mentors for me and father figures I can go to. Me and my teammates, we can talk to each other about anything.”
Dorbah played in seven games during his two years at Texas before transferring to ASU. For the Sun Devils' new coaching staff, especially defensive line coach Vince Amey, it was exciting to develop Dorbah’s skill set and see him prove himself early on in his ASU career.
"He's a deep thinker," Amey said. "Which helps us out in making sure, as coaches, we stay on point too, because sometimes he’ll see things that we might necessarily not see, so we're all working together, and it's paying off on the field."
Within his first season as a Sun Devil, Dorbah has garnered six sacks and 24 total tackles, 10 of which are unassisted. Amey coins him as the "silent assassin" for the work he executes on the field and for his quiet, humble demeanor off the turf.
His progression into a defensive leader on his football teams is a far call from the basketball player he once wanted to become.
"I gotta whole lot of respect for him, and I’m really proud of what he’s done," Woods said.
Dorbah is aware of the fortunate position that football has placed him in.
"A lot of people where I come from (would) kill to be in my position," Dorbah said. "I always try to use that as a chip on my shoulder, just maximize the opportunity 'cause a lot of people would kill to have the same opportunity I have."
Being the first in his family with such an opportunity shapes the dedication and passion he’s grown for the sport.
"He has something to prove, he's going out, and what he does is for his family," Amey said. "That's a pretty big deal for him to be the first in his family to do that, and now he can say for the generation to come that this is what dad did."
Edited by Vincent DeAngelis, Sadie Buggle and Caera Learmonth.
Reach the reporter at katrinamic03@gmail.com and follow @kat_m67 on X.
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