With some high school players’ recruitment on ice, these scouting events are a lifeline
COVID-19 has threatened the status of Kansas high school sports since March, and for some student-athletes, it has threatened their future in sports even after their senior seasons have ended.
Recruiting during a pandemic has prompted many adjustments for high school and college coaches across the country. In sports like baseball or soccer, for instance, club seasons are arguably more critical than high school seasons when it comes to earning a scholarship. But football players don’t play club seasons, so they rely primarily on what they’re able to show college coaches during their respective schools’ fall campaigns.
This week, the public school system in Kansas City, Kansas, suspended all fall sports competition, including football. The move could ostensibly cost some of the district’s seniors an opportunity to play in college.
Sharp Performance, a Kansas-grown fitness company, has this summer tried to create other outlets for showcasing players’ skills. Sharp has held about 30 events throughout the state this year; its “Last Chance Combine” is set for Saturday in Salina, founder Jake Sharp said.
At Sharp’s scouting combines, athletes are measured and timed in the 40-yard dash, vertical leap, broad jump and other tests used by college coaches during recruitment.
Sharp Performance was at Derby High School Monday, staging a combine for some 200 players. Derby football coach Brandon Clark said Sharp and Sharp Performance have earned broad respect among those in Kansas’ high school and college football communities.
“The thing that has helped him the most is that he really cares about Kansas kids,” Clark said. “When he calls and speaks highly of someone, everyone in the region listens. You’ve got people from Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri that are going to his camps because he has earned that level of notoriety.”
After the combines, players often send updates to college coaches or post their performances on social media. In some cases, Sharp reaches out to coaches himself.
.JPG "_MG_3190 (2).JPG")
Representatives from Butler County Community College, Friends University and other programs were in Derby Monday to see the combine for themselves. Derby sophomore running back Dylan Edwards ran a 4.4-second time in the 40-yard dash, and Sharp called it to a Butler coach’s attention.
“Watching our kids go on to success means everything,” Sharp said. “That’s why we do it. We really, really enjoy the opportunity to work with these kids.”
Sharp knows the value of his work because he was once a Kansas kid himself, another high school player just looking for an opportunity. A graduate of Salina Central High, Sharp made it to the University of Kansas as a running back after becoming the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state.
After his playing career ended, he launched Sharp Performance out of the back of his pickup truck, he said. It’s now a three-location business, with bases of operation in Salina and Concordia and a new venue in Wichita. Although there are other, similar options out there for Kansas athletes, Sharp Performance has become arguably the go-to source for high school training in the state.
For athletes still waiting to learn the fate of their 2020 high school seasons, their best chance of getting noticed is to improve their 40 times or vertical-jump measurements. Clark said that what Sharp is doing, especially this summer, is extremely important.
“Kids are normally going to college camps in and out of Kansas right now, but they couldn’t do that this year,” Clark said. “So this is our way of bringing in some exposure.”