Going About the Business of Football : High School Juniors Get a Chance to Impress, and Combine Service Profits

Nakia Wheeler and Damien Howard sat in the last row of the bleachers at Warren High’s football field in Downey on Sunday morning.

The two juniors on Carson High’s football team were changing into turf shoes, preparing for the running they would do later on the soggy field.

But Wheeler and Howard weren’t wearing Carson football jerseys or helmets. And they weren’t waiting to play a football game.

They were sitting with 94 other invited juniors as Dick Lascola described the drills the athletes would be put through at the third annual Scouting Evaluation Assn. Spring Combine.

Lascola, 50, director of the Fallbrook, Calif.-based scouting service, invites who he believes are the best juniors in the Southland.

“We invite who we feel are the kids who have a chance to play Division I football,” Lascola said of the athletes, who participate free of charge.

Lascola and the players are all wearing white T-shirts that read, “We Test the Best.” Testing, after all, is what the combine is designed for. The data and videotapes of the athletes are sold to colleges that subscribe to Lascola’s service.

Upon their arrival at Warren, each player was given a numbered card they wore the entire day. Each player had a photograph taken before being measured and weighed.

After Lascola’s welcoming speech, the athletes were divided into five groups and each was sent to a different part of the field to begin phase one. This phase had five different stations:

* Bench-press. Each player lifts 185 pounds as many times as he can.

* Forty-yard dash.

* Vertical jump.

* Four-cone drill. Each player runs around four cones, testing lateral mobility, quickness in change of direction and acceleration from a standing position.

* Pro agility drill. Each player runs laterally from one cone to another to test quickness from side to side.

Phase two, Lascola described, are skills that players perform in games. Quarterbacks throw. Receivers catch. Running backs practice change-of-direction drills. Defensive backs work on backpedaling.

Under NCAA rules, college scouts are not permitted to have in-person contact with football recruits between Feb. 9 and April 30, which keeps recruiters away from the combine.

Lascola and his staff use up to five video cameras to record the players performing each drill. After editing, two one-hour tapes are provided to the subscribing colleges, along with data on each of the athletes. Lascola would not disclose what he charges for his service.

Lascola said that many of the schools in the Pacific 10, Western Athletic, Big Eight and Big Ten conferences receive the information. The athletes realize the importance of impressing college recruiters and feel the pressure.

“I was thinking about this all last night,” said Wheeler, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound receiver who caught 20 passes for 447 yards and four touchdowns for Carson last season. “(I was thinking) what I was going to do, who was going to be there. I kept waking up in the middle of the night. When morning came I had butterflies.”

Howard, a Carson lineman who recently turned 16, said he couldn’t wait until morning.

“I woke up around 2,” he said. “It was on my mind in my sleep. I woke up hoping it was daylight.”

Other South Bay players who attended the first of Lascola’s two combines--the second will be Saturday at El Camino High in San Diego--included Carson running backs John Houston and Robert Johnson, Peninsula guard Matt Redman, Serra linebacker Joseph O’Reilly and North Torrance free safety Lacy Watkins.

Is it vital for these athletes to attend the combine if they want to receive a scholarship?

“Yes and no,” Lascola said. “A lot of these people may be better than we think they are. And we’ve had kids that’ve come here the last couple years that the colleges said if they didn’t come to the combine (the colleges) wouldn’t have known who they were.

“So that’s a great plus to these kids. Last year we had 90-plus kids that came through the combines that got Division I scholarships. A lot of those other kids would have gone on somewhere too, but they didn’t have the grades. Grades killed them.”

Dick Baird, recruiting coordinator at the University of Washington, said the information gathered at the combine is valuable to a point.

“It’s an extra cross-reference that supplies us with things that we’re not allowed to test,” Baird said. “I looked at (Lascola’s) tape last year and it’s a picture of the kids jumping and running. I don’t know how much validity there is to that. I’d rather watch games. I’d rather see them actually play. When you watch a videotape of a game you can see speed and explosion in actual competition.”

Because each drill tests a different ability, it is easier for college scouts to pick out the faults of an athlete. This can be detrimental for the player.

Said Peter Merandi, an assistant coach at Ayala High in Chino Hills who was in charge of the vertical jump: “If you have a knee injury, especially on ligaments or cartilage where they’ve had to operate or cut, you’re going to have a weak point. You will not be able to jump as high.”

Howard views the combine as a measuring stick.

“I see what I need to work on for next year so I can train (during the) off-season,” he said.

After the first phase of the combine, Howard knew his weakness. He ran the 40-yard dash in 5.15 seconds, a slow time even for a lineman. But Howard’s mother, Lenora, was excited for her son.

“It makes me feel real good that he’s into positive things,” said Lenora, a teacher at Henry Clay Middle School in South-Central Los Angeles. “It’s really just for fun. You just try and tell him, ‘You’re having a good time, and if you don’t do well, that’s life.’ ”

Some might view the combine as a way for Lascola to exploit the young athletes for his monetary gain. But Carson B Coach David Williams believes Lascola is providing a service for the athletes.

“You have to understand that colleges are under NCAA guidelines which have restricted scholarships more so than in the past,” Williams said. “Colleges are making a big investment in the athlete. They have to be sure who they’re getting. And the kids realize . . . colleges search nationwide. So this is an opportunity to show what they can do against the best in Southern California, an area rich with talent.”

The football season ended in December, so some of the players were concerned about being unprepared for the drills. Watkins, who played running back, receiver and defensive back for North last season, was asked what worried him.

“Practically everything,” said the 5-10, 175-pounder. “I’ve been doing track and I haven’t been working out or anything. And I hurt my hamstring a couple of weeks ago.”

Peninsula’s Redman, one of the biggest players at the combine at 6-6 and 290 pounds, said he bench-pressed 185 pounds 22 times, one less than Howard. Redman complained about the field’s condition because of heavy rain the previous night.

“It’s kind of hard with the wet field,” Redman said. “Everyone’s slipping.”

Because of the poor shape of the field, Lascola said he would not provide results of the four-cone and pro-agility drills to colleges.

“The times are not that important as watching,” Lascola said. “You can see a lot from watching a kid run the 40-yard dash to be able to see what kind of athlete he is.”