In the portal era, it’s harder than ever for high school football players to get recruited.
The degree of difficulty increases for lower-profile programs that aren’t regular stops when college coaches make their rounds every spring. And affordability, an increasing real-world concern, also is an issue for players who have a hard time finding money for travel and entry fees to the traditional summer camps.
But the growing problem has a new solution: a series of combines that began in late April in southern Illinois and are continuing this month throughout the Chicago area.
The spring combines were spearheaded by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association, which secured IHSA sanctioning.
For programs like Muchin and players like Mountain Lions junior defensive back Izel Lumbreras, the combines are a way to level the playing field and get on colleges’ radar.
Muchin was one of 11 teams that participated Wednesday in the Hinsdale Central combine, which drew more than a hundred college coaches from FCS programs such as Western Illinois and Valparaiso to NAIA and Division III programs.
“It matters to me because we’re not just repping for us,” Lumbreras told the Sun-Times. “We’re repping for all Chicago public schools. We’re not as [well] funded as all these other schools here.
“So just to be here is a blessing, and to compete with all these great players and compete in front of these great schools.”
Muchin is a relatively new program that launched in 2011 at the lowest level of Public League football and didn’t play between 2019 and 2022 because of the pandemic. Its enrollment of 890 is dwarfed by that of some of the schools it competed against at Hinsdale Central, including the hosts, Lyons, York and Marist, among others.
Third-year coach Byron Goodrich and his team face some unique challenges. The school is located in a high-rise at State and Madison, and the Mountain Lions practice more than two miles away at 23rd and Federal.
But Goodrich, who played at Leo before moving on to North Dakota, isn’t fazed by the hurdles his team faces.
“We just want to get our name out there showing that we can compete here,” he told the Sun-Times. “We’re a real deal in the city. We’re not a slouch.”
Lumbreras and scores of other players tried to demonstrate that in a variety of individual drills followed by one-on-one reps.
After the combine ended, players and college coaches mingled on the field, making connections that could turn into something more tangible. In at least one instance, it already has: Richards sophomore defensive back/wide receiver Pierre Ray picked up his second Division I offer from Western Illinois.
The benefits aren’t one-sided. RJ Ghilarducci, the assistant head coach at Valparaiso, is glad to see Illinois following the lead of nearby states such as Indiana and Ohio in launching spring high school combines.
“You actually get to see the guys playing football a little versus just seeing them in [high] schools and talking to them or going off their junior tape,” Ghilarducci told the Sun-Times. “I’m getting to see them move around and do actual football drills. It’s really valuable for recruiting.”
And the chance to help that process along made it easy for Hinsdale Central coach Brian Griffin to say yes when he was asked to host a combine.
“To provide an opportunity for free for kids to get evaluated and even just to do some of the stuff that, if they go to camp, they might do — that’s why we all got into education,” Griffin told the Sun-Times. “It’s a no-brainer to be a part of it.”