Dragons embrace combine, prepare for 2024 season
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Lineman Colton Jenkins takes off on his 40-yard dash during Wednesday’s combine. - Ken Leinart
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Lucas Butz, a senior wide receiver and long snapper, shows off his vertical leap last Wednesday. - Ken Leinart
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Head Coach Jason Hamock talks wih Kayson Hendrix about his distance on the medicine-ball throw. - Ken Leinart
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Ryker Armes, a junior running back and linebacker, made good time during his 40-yard sprint. - Ken Leinart
It comes quickly.
Clinton High School Head Football Coach Jason Hamock noted how fast the high school football season unfolds.
Football, on this day, with the Clinton High School Dragons on Wednesday, June 19, was a day to kind of relax and maybe have some fun from early summer workouts and a time to measure themselves.
Triple F Elite Sports Training of Knoxville offered its company services for free, to hold a combine for the football Dragons at the Clinton City Football Field.
“Triple F, in conjunction with 5 Star preps, offered us this, with no costs, and, well … Yeah,” Hamock said.
After three or four weeks learning plays, getting formations down, and conditioning – which are never fun, but part of the process of building a team – it was time to give the players something in return.
Tests.
Cue the marching band, right?
But Wednesday was different.
For any football player taking part in a combine is special.
No, it’s not something you see on television concerning NFL draft combines.
“They get their times, preseason material to showcase themselves,” Hamock said. “Quickness, strength, agility.
“And it can show where they were and how they have advanced when college recruiters ask,” Hamock said.
Vertical jumps, strength testing, 40-yard times, and an agility drill were recorded for each Dragon, with 40-plus players participating.
About 12 of the players taking part in the combine are rising freshmen.
And the Dragons took the experience like a team.
“It’s a great experience, Dragon senior Andrew Mcamis said. “Not many schools or players get to experience a combine unless you pay to go to a camp, and Triple F is bringing this to us for free.”
Mcamis, either as a senior leader or just because of his competitive nature, kept eyes on his teammates’ times and performances.
“Everyone is having a good time and always staying focused on getting better,” he said. “But it’s still a competitive thing.”
The combine allowed the Dragon squad members not only to compare their abilities against each other, but against what other schools were recording.
“It gives you a feel of where you’re at as a player,” Mcamis said.
For Hamock, it’s also a break for the team.
“They’ve worked hard,” he said of early summer workouts, which he knows are about to change.
“This is a chance to let them have a little fun before the dead period,” the coach said.
Saturday, June 22, started the “dead period” for high school athletics in Tennessee. It runs the last week of June though the first week of July.
“We’ll go back to work in the mornings and evenings (after the dead period); we’ll get our 7-on-7 scrimmages, and then in the fourth week of July, we’ll go full contact,” Hamock said.
He said people, fans, players — everyone —thinks they have so much time, but in reality, “It’s on you, it’s here.”
Blink once or twice, and football season is here.
Hamock said while he may be “head coach” by title, he and Don Colquitt are really co-head coaches.
“We’re equals,” Hamock said. “He’s more than ‘assistant head coach.’”
Colquitt shrugs off the compliment.
“We’re working for the kids,” he said. “We’re working for the community.”
Wednesday was a “free day” from all the early summer work, from the drudgery of a regiment designed to learn plays with no contact, and the conditioning.