Shrine Bowl berth is a numbers game

Having lots of 'heart' won't help if player doesn't perform well at combine

Clayton football coach Gary Fowler wasn't pleased when his son Drew was overlooked by area colleges as a senior in 2003. Drew eventually signed with the Air Force Academy, where he had an exceptional career and earned a berth in a postseason all-star game as a linebacker.

But it took participating in a football combine at Apex High School last month for Gary Fowler, coach of the North Carolina team for the 2008 Shrine Bowl Game of the Carolinas, to understand exactly why Drew had been passed over.

"They ... looked at his 40 time and put a line through his name," Fowler said.

That's one reason it hurt the coach a little each time he put a line through the name of one of the 900 players who participated in the three combines held to identify prospective members of the North Carolina team that will compete in the Dec. 20 Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas.

With the stroke of a pen, based on an objective measure of strength or speed, a young man's hopes of playing in the all-star game were greatly diminished.

"It bothers me," Fowler said. "I wish I knew what was inside their hearts. I wish I knew how badly they want to play."

With no hope of learning the motivation of every prospective player, Fowler and his staff will rely on information gleaned at a combine, tapes of games and recommendations to choose their team.

"On the days of the combines, I told every one of them to have a good time," Fowler said. "There was no guarantee.

"We are not giving out scholarships, but we could give them a chance of a lifetime" -- the opportunity to play in a Shrine Bowl.

Football combines -- in which high school players are put through drills, measured for height and weight, tested for speed, strength and agility, and compared with each other -- are held throughout the spring.

There are various sponsoring organizations, and the drills are conducted in various ways. But the goal, much as it is in the scouting combine for college players that leads up to the NFL draft, is to see which players stand out, at least by the numbers.

There is no easy way to measure "heart," but size, strength and speed are another matter.

Here are some of the key categories coaches use to evaluate high school players:

40-yard dash

The players were buzzing with the talk of 40-yard dash times during the Apex combine.

College recruiters, who get a full set of the combine results, may be more interested in the pro agility drill or the vertical jump than the 40, but those drills have to be explained.

The 40 is pure speed.

But the players aren't really as fast as their 40 times seem to indicate.

At the start, they take a three-point stance -- one hand on the ground -- and are told to go when they are ready. At least two coaches per runner start their clocks when the player's hand leaves the track.

Reaction time is not a factor, because there is no starter's pistol. Every player has the advantage of a rolling start -- he is moving forward and may even get in a step before his hand leaves the track.

Durham Jordan's Torrance Hunt ran a 4.22 at the Apex combine, but he prefers to use a 4.25, an electronically timed sprint at a Nike combine in Baltimore. (His time in another drill, the pro shuttle, was 3.97, but he uses a 4.37.)

Regardless, his mail has increased. Hunt said he has heard from two or three schools since his times have become available.

"I think there has been some talk about my speed," he said. "Speed is the key in football, especially at my position [cornerback]. You have to run fast to keep up with the receivers."