THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505160120
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, BEACON SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
COLLEGE COACHES couldn't believe their eyes when they looked at their stopwatches.
Green Run sophomore lineman Clyde Bryant had just finished the 40-yard dash in 4.8 seconds. Guys like Bryant - 6-foot-3 and 300-plus pounds - aren't supposed to run that fast.
When 6-3, 265-pound Stallions lineman Troy Smith zipped past in 5.0 seconds, coaches were shaking their heads. So were some of the Beach District coaches whose teams will have to face these speedy giants this fall.
But such surprises are what the annual Beach District Recruiters Combine is all about. Each year for the last seven, the district coaches have run their top football players through several drills in front of college scouts and coaches.
It is a chance to be seen by a coach carrying a college scholarship.
``Charles Winslow ended up at Clemson because of this thing,'' Green Run coach Elisha ``Cadillac'' Harris said, smiling at the attention his kids were getting last Tuesday. ``It amazed me that a talent like him could ever get overlooked, but somehow he did. This thing opened a few eyes and they were after him.''
This year's event at Ocean Lakes High saw more than 200 young athletes compete in the 40-yard dash, a vertical jump test and weight lifting in the bench press and power clean. Information packets on grades and other statistics about players also were made available to the more than 45 college coaches and scouts on hand. And a room with televisions and VCRs was set aside so that they could watch the kids in game film action.
But most coaches were more interested in raw athletics, and this combine provided ample opportunity to see it firsthand.
``You get to come to one place at one time and see a number of kids who get to show off their talents,'' Penn State assistant Bill Kenney said. ``Sometimes you do find a hidden talent at these things.
``I go to a number of them, because it lays some foundation for recruiting kids you are impressed with.''
One of Kenney's former players - Darren Perry of Deep Creek High and now the Pittsburgh Steelers - was also on hand last week.
Perry and former Penn State teammate Keith Goganious - a Green Run graduate - are the celebrities behind the new Hampton Roads Football Camp, which co-sponsors the event.
Perry was as impressed with some of the talent as his former college coach.
``I'm here to promote the camp. It's something we didn't have when I was in school,'' Perry said. ``We didn't have anything like this (combine) either. I think both things would have helped a lot of kids if we'd had them back then.''
Not all of the event is directed at the scouts and college coaches. Organizers use the time to again stress to players the importance of maintaining their grades.
Before any competition began, Ocean Lakes coach Jim Prince talked to the players, aiming much of his statements at some of the freshmen and sophomores in the crowd.
``There are NCAA academic rules and regulations that must be followed for you to be eligible to play in college and you all have heard about them and you should know what they are,'' Prince said. ``Your ninth-grade year is just as important as your senior year, so start now. Don't wait.
``This thing is for you and we're stressing all of this because it's very disturbing to us to read that Hampton Roads can't supply academically qualified kids. So I can't stress enough how important it is that you keep up on this stuff.''
Prince then went on to discuss how the combine's testing would work as college coaches milled in the background, eyeing some of the physical specimens they would be watching.
The combine took on a competitive nature, both individually and as teams.
That atmosphere was helped by Hampton Roads Football Camp and its sponsor - Tom Bates of R.K. Chevrolet - which outfitted the athletes in team logo and colored T-shirts. It was a classy way for Beach District coaches to showcase their athletes.
``I don't know a coach who doesn't really, personally, feel they have an obligation to see the kids go to college,'' First Colonial coach Frank Webster said. ``They wouldn't stay in it if they didn't feel that way.''
Webster said it was good training for the kids, too - especially the freshmen and sophomores.
``It's a really great motivator for them to witness just how some of the recruiting process works,'' he said. ``This is a very good thing for everybody involved - for us, the kids and the college coaches.'' MEMO: Editor's note: Results of the combine will be published in an upcoming
Sunday Scoreboard section of The Beacon.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by PETER D. SUNDBERG
[color cover photo]
Green Run players Elroy Hines and Lamont Briscoe work out the kinks
before participating in the running event. Both Hines, a 6-foot-3,
270-pound two-way tackle, and Briscoe, a 6-2, 215-pound running
back/linebacker, will be seniors next season.
Similar to college players at the NFL Combine, the high school
players strutted their stuff in the 40-yard dash, vertical leap and
two different forms of weight lifting.
Calvin Gilchrist competes in weight lifting - bench press and power
clean - in which a formula was used to give smaller kids a chance
against bigger ones.
ABOVE: Ocean Lakes coach Jim Prince stressed academics to the
athletes, particularly the underclassmen: ``There are NCAA academic
rules and regulations that must be followed for you to be eligible
to play in college and you all have heard about them and you should
know what they are,'' Prince said. ``Your ninth-grade year is just
as important as your senior year, so start now. Don't wait.''
LEFT: Debra Winston and daughter Adriane, 9, were on hand to cheer
for Debra's son, Carlton, a freshman at First Colonial.
by CNB