Carlo Alvarez

We had over 750 athletes participate during the day from 9 states. A great number taking into consideration that this was the first time that Cincinnati has hosted a combine event and that it was SAT Saturday.

The top score of the day came from Princeton Quarterback Spencer Ware with a SPARQ rating of 115.86 . His marks of 4.25 in the shuttle, 37.5 inches in the vertical jump and 38 feet, 6 six inches in the power ball toss all ranked in the top 10 on the day in those categories, and his 4.72 40 was very impressive on the slow track. Ware currently holds offers from Ohio State, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, N.C. State and Duke, and that list should continue to grow in the next few months. 

Another athlete with a lot of hype coming in was Lakota West LB, Jordan Hicks. At 6-foot-2, 208 pounds and a SPARQ rating of 102.66, he didn’t disappoint. Hicks’ had a 4.56 40, a time ranked third-best out of the 708 total participants. He also clocked 4.54 in the shuttle and a 36.9 inches vertical jump and 36 feet, 6 inches on the power ball throw.

During the combine, I was responsible for the athlete warm up as the players prepped for their tests. We ran the dynamic warm up in groups of 40 and made sure that we incorporated a variety of movements to activate, stabilize and mobilize all the joints of the shoulder, hips, knees and ankles. It took us about 10-15 minutes for the entire warm up.

I quickly realized that maybe 10-20% of the total number athletes that went through the combine were really ready to compete successfully. The majority of the kids could barely lunge in three planes of motion properly. Half of the athletes couldn’t complete the entire warm up sequence, without complaining about the tempo. 

I could rant all day about how I feel that the majority of these kids aren’t really training properly for their age level. But it was obvious that the training programs for the majority of these athletes isn’t really working on their athleticism. 

This coming week, I will be running the Nike Football Mini-Camp at Rivers Edge Sports Complex. The mission for NIke and myself is to help football players improve on their scores, learn proper training techniques, and maximize their speed, agility, quickness, power and explosiveness, as they prepare for the 2009 season.