Seniors say combines lack luster without college coaches

Javanti Sparrow had been waiting since his freshman season to participate at the annual high school football combines.

Only rising seniors were allowed at the practice-like football drills in front of college coaches.

So, finally, this was Sparrow's chance to shine. Or it would have been - in years past.

But Sparrow, a rising Western Branch senior, didn't get his opportunity. New NCAA rules make it illegal for college coaches to attend combines.

"It was real disappointing," said Sparrow, considered one of the top rising seniors in South Hampton Roads. "It really took all the fun out of it, especially knowing that I wouldn't be able show them what I can do"

Curtis Campbell, a rising senior at Grassfield, looked forward to showing college coaches that he was more than a track star.

Campbell, a defensive back/wide receiver, spent the past four months concentrating on track, earning All-American honors. He thought the combines would help him display his football talents.

"Now I have to tell the coaches what I can do instead of show them," Campbell said.

Coaches would ask Campbell if he really could run 40 yards in 4.4 seconds.

"They'd always look at me and say, 'Are you sure?'" he said. "So not having the combines the way they used to be made it a little bit harder."

West Virginia assistant Chris Beatty, a highly successful coach at Salem and Landstown high schools before moving to the college ranks, said the new rules limit how well a coach can truly get to know an athlete.

He said there's nothing like giving an athlete the "eyeball test." It lets coaches see if an athlete is really 6-foot-1 or 5-10 and helps them evaluate how an athlete carries himself.

"I want to see how kids interact with one another," Beatty said. "To me, it's not as much to be able to see whether a kid can run or not. A lot of times, you can see how they are by the way they carry themselves around other athletes."

East Carolina assistant coach Steve Shankweiler said the new system hurts the so-called "sleeper" prospect. Two years ago, Shankweiler spotted former Maury linebacker Steve Spence at a combine.

"I would have never known about him had I not seen him at the combine. But now he's at a Division I program," he said.

"Now you have to go to every school to see a kid, and that puts a burden on us and on the school, too. I really think the new rule hurts the marginal kid because now it's to be harder to find the diamond in the rough."

Virginia Tech assistant Curt Newsome said he doesn't think his recruiting in Hampton Roads will be affected. But he thinks coaches who flew in to Hampton Roads from the Midwest and the West Coast for the combines will be hurt.

He also said it hurts the athletes.

"This used to be a big day for them," Newsome said. "Now it hurts those kids who have worked so hard in the offseason to get ready. It takes something away from them."

Two years ago, the NCAA prohibited coaches from watching rising seniors test in the 40, the vertical jump, shuttle run, broad jump and bench press.

So, individual combines were spread out over multiple days because the NCAA still allowed college coaches to watch the athletes participate in practice-like drills without pads.

But now this: The NCAA ruled that coaches can't watch at all.

Calls to the NCAA about the changes were not returned. But an e-mail from Jennifer Kearns, NCAA associate director of public and media relations, quotes NCAA bylaws and says rules were changed "to specify that all evaluations shall be limited to regularly scheduled high school, preparatory school and two-year college contests, practices and regular scholastic activities involving prospective student-athletes enrolled at the institution at which the regular scholastic activities occur."

The e-mail went on to explain that the rule was added in the hope that it would curb the increasing number of non-scholastic recruiting events in football.

Oscar Smith coach Richard Morgan and new Landstown coach Tommy Reamon don't like it.

Reamon said he thinks the NCAA made the changes because it was a disadvantage to smaller schools that couldn't get out and look at kids. To combat that, Reamon invites college coaches to come to his school to see his players.

"That way, I got to make sure my kids were being exposed, knowing that the combine had been eliminated," Reamon said. "By having 17 schools come by and see our kids go through drills, we were able to match that need of the combine."

Morgan said he thinks the new rules went into effect to keep companies such as Nike from making money on combines.

"But, in the process, they affected us, too," Morgan said. "I think it's a huge injustice to the athletes because now they don't get the opportunity to showcase themselves in front of the college coaches like in the past.

"Now what a kid has to do if he wants to be seen is pay to get there and pay an entry fee at a camp in order for them to be seen. Before, at the combines we had 50 schools standing there and, in 20 minutes, they could tell if a kid could play for them."

Indian River coach Cadillac Harris said he hopes the NCAA will re-evaluate its combine rules.

"The NCAA really dropped the ball on this one," Harris said. "They are robbing these kids of an opportunity to showcase their ability.

"Sometimes, the combines were the only chance for some of these kids to be seen."

Larry Rubama, (757) 446-2273, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com