BYU plays host to 150 potential football recruits

How would you like 150 potential football recruits dropped right on your doorstop on a near perfect summer day?

Well, Michigan and Ohio State experience "it." So do Miami, LSU, Stanford and USC. Penn State coach Joe Paterno once complained when "it" didn't return to his campus, a place way out of the way.

"It" is called a Nike Training Camp and it's for high school football players, a key step in getting labeled as a two-, three- or four-star recruit. After 10 years of lobbying hard to host one of these, BYU finally got one on Saturday.

It's a coveted event. Nike schools like BYU are candidates. Reebok or Adidas or Under Armour schools need not apply. Sorry, Notre Dame.

This one in Provo was small by Nike standards. The Stanford or USC camp can draw more than 600 athletes. But the BYU camp is one of the last in the circuit, and because of that, it drew campers from all over the country who wanted to get noticed just one more time heading into their junior or senior years next fall.

"This just didn't drop in our lap," said BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe. "Our relationship with Nike goes way back with LaVell Edwards and Phil Knight. We earned it."

Like most things this side of Tiger Woods irons and golf balls, Nike decides things.

"They pretty much tell us where to go," said Brian Stumps, the national football director for Studentsports, a marketing firm contracted by Nike to stage such camps that draw the top high school players in the nation to various venues each year.

At these camps, Stumps has two "elite" coaches for each position who take campers through rigorous skill sets. The NCAA outlawed Nike from doing a "combine" event on any Division I campus, where 40-yard-dash times, shuttle runs, vertical jumps and other measurements are taken. That portion of this camp took place in Murray on Friday. BYU benefits because all this talent is on campus and the Cougars are the hosts — but Bronco Mendenhall's staff was prohibited by the NCAA to be present when drills started. Make no bones about it, his staff was pressing a lot of flesh, pumping hands and patting backs for more than an hour before things got under way. Then the staff slipped out of its indoor practice facility as Stumps' staffers began the training session. "No question, this is a benefit," said Holmoe, when quizzed about the event on Friday. "This is a big deal for BYU to get a Nike Camp at their place," said Brent Eads, a Studentsports associate. "To have these kids and their parents visit your campus, see your facilities in person is a nice bonus. Many of these players would never have come on campus. I've been to these all across the country, and I'd say BYU's facilities, for this event, are probably in the top four." The BYU Nike camp drew athletes from 24 states including Florida, New Hampshire, Georgia and Alaska. Four came from Hawaii, including BYU defensive back commit Jray Galea'I (Kahuku), Trend't Marson (Mililani), Kala Freil (Kamehameha) and QB-TE Kimo Makaula (Punahou). The two top prospects in camp were likely John Martinez, a lineman from Cottonwood High, and receiver Rock Fritz from Wayzata High in Plymouth, Minn. On Saturday, former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin worked the quarterbacks — more than two dozen of them.

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