McALLEN — Opportunity awaits Rio Grande Valley high school football athletes with aspirations of playing at the collegiate level as the second RGV Combine Presented by CJ Recruiting is set to be held at Cavazos Sports Institute on Friday and Saturday in McAllen.
The pro-style combine will be conducted in front of national scouts from Rivals, a college recruiting network, and includes physical assessments of height, weight, standing reach, wingspan and hand size. There will also be verified combine assessments such as the laser-timed 40-yard sprint, standing broad jump, standing vertical jump and a power toss.
The combine will conclude with a recruiting seminar from combine host CJ Cavazos, an advisor who has helped a number of kids from the RGV find homes at the college football level. He said the combine is a great opportunity to answer the questions that college coaches will be seeking during the recruiting process.
“Everybody knows that track times don’t lie. Jumps don’t lie. Everybody understands that that’s what football is,” he said. “Football is a measurable sport — height, weight and speed. It’s going to teach a lot of parents and a lot of kids how they can be prepared for tomorrow and be realistic about where they want to play college football.”
During CSI’s first combine in January, multi-sport athlete Gabriel Grubbs from Dallas Christian traveled to McAllen and was named one of the event’s outstanding performers. He later fielded Division I college offers from the Air Force, Arizona, Army and Marshall, among others. Grubbs helped his odds by running a 4.6 at the combine, which is listed on his 247Sports recruit profile page.
Two RGV athletes also clocked 4.6 times in the 40-yard dash — Sharyland Pioneer junior receiver Joseph Graham Jr. and former Brownsville Pace running back Marc Garcia.
“This is a great opportunity to be seen. We’re just trying to help bridge that gap and provide opportunities to be seen besides your film,” CSI owner and combine co-host Jaime Cavazos said. “I think life is about opportunities and you want every single chance you get to be seen. All it takes is one coach to like you or to impress.”
The action is scheduled to start with a middle school combine from 6-8 p.m. Friday at CSI. Saturday will feature two sessions of the high school combine beginning at 9 a.m. and noon.
Spots are available for the middle school and high school combine, but will be limited to 30 athletes per session. Registration is available at CSITrain.com. The event will also be live-streamed by Rio Sports Live. For more information, call 956-451-2017 or visit CSITrain.com.
The sign up fee is $100. Athletes should bring track spikes to maximize 40 times. Regular training shoes are required for all other assessments, and football cleats will not be allowed.
