JACKSON, AL — Orange Beach High School sophomore Lee Steele is known as a 3-star tight end recruit, but he's been a basketball guy since he was born .
He's being recruited by Alabama football along with Tennessee, LSU, Ole Miss and others. He has interest from basketball coaches at Alabama , Texas A&M and Auburn.
His pinned post on X isn't a gridiron highlight − it's a dunk.
Steele grew up knowing his father, Leroy, as both "Dad" and "Coach," shaping a love for sports. Now 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, he's built to play at a high level. His skills, whether catching footballs or slamming basketballs, have put Steele in a sticky situation: Will Steele choose to shine in a starting 11 or a starting five?
OATS SHARES HIS TAILOR: Alabama football's Kalen DeBoer gets tailor-made wardrobe upgrade
"I still have full love for it (basketball), and it's something that I want to pursue. For football, early on, I stopped playing around fourth grade, and we transferred to Orange Beach going into my seventh (grade year). My dad took the head middle school football coach job, and it just took off from there. I just missed it a lot," Steele said.
Steele is early in his recruitment, especially as a basketball prospect. Following a visit to see Kalen DeBoer's team beat Louisiana-Monroe in September, he told The Tuscaloosa News that he knows choosing basketball or football is a "mature" decision to make, and not one that he's ready to set in stone.
If the opportunity presented itself for Steele to play both sports, though? That's a different story.
"I'm not really knocking any sport off of the paper yet, because right now, I don't really know what I want to do. Honestly, if I can play both, I'm going to try to play both, but that's just up to the college," Steele said.
The last Alabama football player to entertain the idea was cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry. He practiced with the Crimson Tide basketball team for a time and attended games but never played.
After making a trip to compete in an Alabama basketball camp over the summer, Steele and his high school basketball coach Chris Laatsch aren't counting out the possibility of seeing the youngster in Coleman Coliseum.
Steele knew he was coming for a private workout Crimson Tide football tight ends coach Bryan Ellis, which resulted in his Alabama football offer in June.
"I can't lie. Being young, being in there and the coach is asking, you know, he's kind of trying to put you on the spot. I feel like that's the thing I did well was just answering the right questions at the right time and asking the right questions at the right time," Steele said. "He's asking me all these questions about, 'How did it feel to try to be a leader on the team? What was your role on the team?' They're trying to look for leaders and players that won't follow a deadbeat."
He didn't know that the basketball summer camp weekend would include a performance that would turn the heads of Nate Oats and assistant Preston Murphy, who Laatsch recalled being "impressed" after Steele recorded 30 points − three 3-pointers − eight boards and six assists against a team from Boulder, Colorado.
Laatsch said Oats and Murphy called Steele over for a chat at the camp.
"He's a team-first guy. He didn't dwell on it," Laatsch said, "Obviously, it meant the world to him ... but he's not too big for his teammates. They respect his humility."
The conversation was casual, not much more than an exchange where Oats was picking his brain and trying to get to know who he was as a person, rather than a recruit, according to Steele.
"Because who knows a lot of kids from Orange Beach? In small-town Alabama? Him (Oats) being from Buffalo, I don't think he knows a lot of towns down in the South, so he's learning about kids from the South," Steele said.
The 2028 prospect can't be formally recruited for basketball until June 2026.
"He wants me to come back down I believe, so hopefully that plays out, and I can go back up there and show them what I have," Steele said of Murphy.
An Alabama fan, Steele has his share of favorite Iron Bowl rivalry moments like Alabama's fourth-and-31 win over Auburn.
"I mean, we've beat them so much, I don't know which one to choose. For them (Auburn), it'd obviously be the Kick Six," Steele said.
His knowledge extends to Crimson Tide hoops, too.
"I'd say the best basketball moment that happened this year was the Mark Sears game-winner at Auburn," Steele said.
Steele sees himself as more of a Grant Nelson-type, despite being a combo-guard.
"We both fly under the radar on the court, and I feel like him shooting the ball, driving, being versatile, being athletic at the rim, I feel like that's me, and I feel like that's what fits him," Steele said.
As a freshman, he was the leading scorer for his basketball team on its way to the Class 4A Elite Eight alongside his older brother Matthew, a University of Montevallo baseball player. In football, Steele leads Orange Beach in receiving yards.
He got his first action against Division I recruits in a 41-0 loss to Jackson High on Thursday, Oct. 9, in which he caught a couple of first downs on tight end screens while continuing to learn the ropes of being a ball-hawking safety − a position he only started playing in September. Wearing a script A towel on his waistband, Steele got a piece of Alabama commit EJ Crowell a couple times, but the 5-star running back commanded a winning four-touchdown performance.
While Steele spends two hours in the basketball gym six days a week, he's concerned he won't be ready when basketball starts.
"I just want to go the gym. Yeah, I'm tired and all in the middle of football season, but when football season's over, will I be lost, or will I actually be ready and be in shape? That's one thing I'm really worried about is me not being in shape for basketball, but I know I will because I'll put the time and effort into it," Steele said.
Laatsch has what he called "the best basketball player I've ever coached," with a "high ceiling" on and off the court.
"His dream was to play SEC college basketball," Laatsch said. "He's a basketball guy playing football."
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama TE recruit may also want to play basketball for Nate Oats
