Players to showcase skills in combine

The Daily Citizen’s Southeastern 7-on-7 Championship is bringing area fans plenty of football with this weekend’s 32-team chase for the tournament title, but the action won’t stop there.

In addition to the passing competition, activities in Dalton will include a skills combine and a lineman camp, adding to the options for both players and spectators.

The combine and camp will take place at the Durkan Soccer Complex on Saturday, with combine activities shifting to James Brown Park on Sunday. Both events are free to all varsity football players.

The event begins at 9 a.m. the first day, with check-in followed by the five local teams participating in the tournament — Christian Heritage, Coahulla Creek, Dalton, Northwest Whitfield and Southeast Whitfield — testing their players in the combine from 10 a.m. to noon. The lineman camp will run from noon to 4 p.m., and the combine opens again at 4 p.m., when walk-ups are welcome to participate in drills. On Sunday, only Southeastern competitors will be participating in the combine.

Gary Jones, advertising director for The Daily Citizen, said a combine is the perfect complement for a tournament with a high level of talent on display such as the Southeastern. The tournament includes several players ranked by recruiting services as among the best at their position or overall at the state or national level.

“Basically it’s just one additional feature for this community event,” Jones said. “We wanted to grow this thing and felt it was a key component for taking it further. And by hiring someone who does this for a living, we thought it was the only way to go.”

The combine will be hosted by Elite Athletic Events, which is based in Nashville, Tenn., and regularly puts on combines and records video of the athletic tests for college scouts and coaches. Owner and CEO Kevin Fitzgerald is the man in charge, and he picked the brains of Division I coaches to see what the drills should be.

“Through my contacts I’ve actually talked to a few college coaches and got their input,” said Fitzgerald, who is a former strength and conditioning coach at Florida State, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. “Basically they’re helping us set it up and these guys are getting high school kids coming into their camp and are recruiting. I asked, ‘What is the biggest inefficiency you see in the kids coming to you? What do we need to focus on to try and prepare them? What is the biggest thing they are missing?’”

And the answer? Fundamentals.

“Basically what we’re going to work on is going back to fundamentals,” Fitzgerald said. “(The coaches are) saying, ‘A lot of these kids don’t have the fundamentals.’”

The combine includes a video players can purchase for $25 to show colleges. This is the cornerstone of Fitzgerald’s business.

“From my experience being a collegiate strength coach, it’s one thing sending (written information) off to schools and saying, ‘This is what I ran,’” Fitzgerald said. “Most schools won’t believe it. If they can’t see it, then they won’t believe it. They want the video verification. When I was at Florida State, we had the No. 1 defensive player in the nation sign with us.

“He said he ran under a 4.40 40-yard dash, and the best he ever ran with us is a 4.69.”

Because NCAA regulations prohibit coaches from attending combines, videos allow them to see the potential recruit and get a definitive example of his skills.

“That’s why most of the coaches out there don’t believe the combines unless they can see the kids run,” Fitzgerald said.

This is the first time Fitzgerald’s company will put on a combine in conjunction with a seven-on-seven tournament, and it will be an abbreviated version of what he usually does, when the combine lasts more than five hours and includes more position-specific drills.

Jones said an integral part of putting on this scaled-down version of an Elite Athletic Events combine is allowing players to participate without having to pay. For both the combine and lineman camp, any varsity high school player, regardless of his school or its participation in the Southeastern tournament, can take part.

“It was important for us to make it free for the community,” he said. “So (Fitzgerald) agreed to let the kids come through for free and even gave a discounted rate for what he provides.”

The combine will include four tests: the 40-yard dash; the pro agility or “short shuttle” test; the “L drill,” also called the cone drill; and the broad jump.

“The broad jump will show what kind of lower-body power a kid has,” Fitzgerald said. “The 40-yard dash shows what kind of speed you have, and the pro agility and L drill shows what kind of quickness you have and how you can change direction.”

The inaugural tournament also included a combine, but this will be the first time Fitzgerald is in charge.

“We’re going to have representatives from scout.com and 247sports there, too, so they can witness this firsthand,” Jones said.

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Players to showcase skills in combine

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