Nike Camps and Combines
The Nike 2015 combines begin in February, and I hope more Kentucky high school kids and Kentucky's 7th and 8th grade players can sign up for the combines available to them.
For parents out there here's some information on the combines from Studentsports.com.
In 2015 some of The Nike Football combines have been scaled down due to time and schedule constraints, but Nike and Student Sports still want to provide the opportunity in every market for athletes deserving of a shot to come out and test and see where they rate among their peers and possibly earn a spot in one of The Opening Regionals.
There are 15 combines scheduled and some are open and some are restricted by invitation only. The closest combines are Atlanta on March 21st and Columbus (OH) on May 31st. Atlanta is an open combine while Columbus is restricted.
All Nike combines are free.
Registered athletes participating in the 2015 Nike Football Combines will:
- Qualify for a chance to compete in The Nike Football Rating National Championship as part of "The Opening Finals", to be held in July at the Nike World Headquarters.
- Receive a Nike Football Combine compression shirt. (Athletes still must bring appropriate workout gear: shorts, sweats, football cleats and training shoes.)
- Be measured by height and weight, and photographed.
- Receive a proper, supervised dynamic warm-up.
- Be tested in: the 40-yard dash (twice, fastest time kept), vertical jump (highest jump kept), the 20-yard shuttle (twice, fastest time kept) and the kneeling power ball throw (twice, farthest throw kept). If players are not satisfied with their results, they may scratch them so they are not reported.
- Receive a Nike Football Ratingbased on a calculation of their testing scores.
- Be eligible for consideration for the next step in Nike's off-season plan, attending a Nike Football The Opening Regional, a top-tier national football camp tour. (Selection is based on overall performance and participation is free.)
- Get a chance to compete and be evaluated in a professional environment against others on your team, in your league, in your state and around the nation with the standardized Nike Footballtesting results and rating.
Rivals Camps and Combines
Rivals contends that their camps and combines are the premier camps and combines. Are they better than the Nike camps and combines? Who would know? You can find out only if you subscribe to Rivals. That means it will cost you money. Rivals doesn't allow other recruiting services to attend and I don't believe they allow other media either. News from the Nike camps and combines cost nothing and they allow all media outlets who request press credentials to observe and report. ESPN reports on the Nike Camps. Why? Nike uses their event to sell shoes and other sports equipment.
That puts the Rivals, sponsored by Under Armour, second fiddle for me. Why Under Armour doesn't insist on free and open media reporting is beyond me.
Here's the Rivals scheduled camps. Like Nike's, there is no fee for participants to register.
DATE
DAY
LOCATION
VENUE
February 22
Sunday
Las Vegas, Nevada
March 8
Sunday
Miami, Florida
March 21
Saturday
Atlanta, Georgia
March 29
Sunday
Dallas, Texas
April 11
Saturday
Richmond, Virginia
April 12
Sunday
Charlotte, North Carolina
April 19
Sunday
Piscataway, New Jersey
April 26
Sunday
Cleveland, Ohio
May 3
Sunday
St. Louis, Missouri
May 10
Sunday
Los Angeles, California
Here is a list of the combine:
DAY
LOCATION
VENUE
REGISTER
March 7
Saturday
Phoenix, Arizona
March 8
Sunday
San Diego, California
March 15
Sunday
Austin, Texas
March 21
Saturday
Nashville, Tennessee
March 22
Sunday
Birmingham, Alabama
March 28
Saturday
Tampa, Florida
April 12
Sunday
Indianapolis, Indiana
April 19
Sunday
St. Louis, Missouri
April 26
Sunday
Denver, Colorado
May 3
Sunday
Detroit, Michigan
May 10
Sunday
Baltimore, Maryland
May 17
Sunday
Piscataway, New Jersey
Rivals also has an Elite 11 style Quarterback Challenge. Nike's Elite 11, however, is the premier event for QBs because it is covered by ESPN and any media outlet as is The Opening which features SPARQ competition. Rivals also has something similar to The Opening that's called the Five Star Challenge.
I should point out that players should attend the Rivals camps because, I believe, Rivals is the best rating system. Better than ESPN, 247 Sports and Scout. That's just my opinion.
There are also camps and combines sponsored by the lesser known National Underclassmen Combines (NUC). This organization runs many camps and combines and even has a camp for kids for grades 2 - 6. You can get information for all of the camps and combines here. They have a camp scheduled for March 16th at Lexington Bryan Station High School and another in Louisville at Trinity HS on April 5th.
NUC and Rank By Offers may be teaming up in the near future. They are in negotiations.The one thing that RBO doesn't have is a blog and NUC could provide that. In my opinion, that could be beneficial to both organiztions.
There are other organizations that run camps in the off-season. There are also the college camps which will begin after National Signing Day. Kentucky hasn't yet announced their camps, but they typically occur in June and July for a variety of ages and skill levels.
The point of this, for me, is to attempt to get Kentucky kids national recognition. Getting recognition will result in higher ratings and rankings for Kentucky HS players.. Patrick Towles and Drew Barker participated in the final Elite 11 competition in 2012 and 2014 respectively and Damien Harris participated in The Opening.
Recruiting is all about self-promotion. If you don't get exposure, no one knows about you as a player. Those who wait for recognition are more likely to get little, if any.