There were more than enough superlatives tossed about along with Medicine Balls, Footballs, Weights, and anything else the players could get their hands on at Skyway Park on Saturday. The weather wasn’t the only thing cooperating to make the 2011 BCP BHSN Ignite Combine a raging success either. Everything fell into place rather nicely I must say and that’s taking into account that we’ve barely scratched the surface with evaluating the talent that graced our presence.

I truly mean “graced” as well. There were several moments of “wow” during the day which (for me) began at Starbucks at approximately 5:45 am. Did I mention there was some talent out there yet? I’ll get to it. But first, let’s talk about the important stuff like who was there, what did we eat and who ran the fastest….or maybe not. Better yet, let’s talk about the reason why we were there in the first place; a chance for the entire Tampa Bay Area to come out and quite simply “show ’em what you got.”

Tampa Bay’s recruiting/exposure wheel was not reinvented yesterday, however it was given some grease and a new set of bearings especially for those student-athletes that don’t necessarily come from the prep football “factories.” Although the “factories” did have some representation, the “other” guys were deep which is kinda the way I like it. With the addition of some 1-AA Programs in the next few years in this state, things just got that more interesting with regards to the number of opportunities to continue living the dream and events like this one became that much more important in my opinion.

I purposely wanted to see what the youngins’ had to offer and they didn’t disappoint not one bit. Some of the 2014 crop of players are giving me the shakes, and I mean that in a good way. Some of them are coming out of areas not exactly known as pigskin breeding grounds and some are. Two kids that come to mind regarding the former are East Lake’s Artavious Scott (’14) and Palm Harbor University’s Ethan Thompson (’14). Unless you get into the immediate vicinity of these young men and see their baby faces, you would not have the slightest clue these kids were sitting in MIDDLE SCHOOL last year.

Scott is a Wide Receiver that has been turning heads since I saw him at the Sling-N-Shoot when is QB Pete Dinovo (not too shabby himself) pointed him out to me. I actually thought Dinovo was joking when he told me the 5’10” 166-pounder was an incoming Freshman. Guess he wasn’t. You will undoubtedly here the sentence “Touchdown pass from Dinovo to Scott” an abnormal amount of times this Fall. Obviously it’s a matter of preference when judging someone that you’ve only seen for hours, but when a current NFL Wide Receiver (Maurice Stovall) chooses you over the likes of Plant City’s Senior WR LaMarlin Wiggins (who will have double-digit D1 offers by July IMO), you’ve done something right.

Thompson has the makings of a Hunter Joyer in terms of his size (a very bulky 5’10” 172) and his versatility at the RB position.  Although Joyer is more of a Fullback to me, I think Thompson can do both and with success. He ran a 4.8 40yd-dash, but that was after a double-step out of the start on the electronic timer and he was MOVING when he got to the stripe. That sort of bulk and speed moving downhill out of the backfield is going to make Matt Lepain EXTREMELY happy to add to the Blanch, Beam, and Pavlock trifecta and will add another dimension to an offense that clicking on all cylinders will put up 40 on anybody.

Finally, I have always felt these types of events were exponentially more important than ending up on someone’s list. In fact, let’s keep it real. THE ONLY list that should mean anything once you’ve made it to a blog site (because once the gossip police know your name it doesn’t matter; they’ll get the word out good or bad) is the Dean’s List or Honor Roll or staying off the academically ineligible list. I always say the greatest athletes I’ve ever seen NEVER made it out the ‘Hood and that can be anywhere. Not just the “Hood” you think I’m talking about. Common link? They couldn’t spell football therefore they were no longer allowed to play it. Sorry. But I digress.  May be a cliche to you, but it’s literally a life-or-death choice for some. Including myself.