Locals compete in skills combine
Dalton Crossan, from Sachem North, runs a drill during a football combine at Half Hollow Hills West High School. (May 1, 2011) Credit: Ed Betz
It was the best of times . . . and the best of leaps and lifts, too.
For nearly 200 high school football players, Sunday's Suffolk County Football Association Blue-Chip Combine at Half Hollow Hills West provided a showcase for some of Long Island's fastest, strongest and most agile athletes.
Call it a six-event mini-Olympics that mimicked many of the elements used at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. "It was good to see all the competition from around Long Island," Floyd junior running back Stacey Bedell said. The 2010 Newsday All-Long Island selection competed in the morning session and was one of three players who finished in the top five in three different events. Bedell had the fastest time in the 40 (4.45 seconds), was second in the broad jump and third in the 5-10-5 that measures horizontal quickness with players darting around cones.
Junior running back/linebacker Dalton Crossan of Sachem North was first in the 20-yard shuttle (4.0), third in the standing broad jump and first in the 5-10-5 (7.06) -- the only participant to win two events. His brother Trent, a freshman, was third in the 40, second in the 20-yard shuttle and tied for fourth in the 5-10-5.
The other first-place finishers were junior Rajiv Heron of Floyd in the standing broad jump (9 feet, 9 inches), senior Stanley Constant of Bay Shore in the vertical jump (33.9) and junior Chris Makulik of Patchogue-Medford, who bench-pressed 185 pounds 39 times.
The top finishers from this combine will participate in a state-wide combine competition as part of the Upstate-Downstate all-star football game festivities on June 5 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. "It's great to get exposure and compete with kids from Long Island that you will compete with and against," Dalton Crossan said. "You want to see where you are compared to the other kids. You train to improve and it's nice to see that I improved. But I never want to be satisfied. I'm very hard on myself."
The Crossans and Bedell acknowledged that the strength training they've been doing paid off in stark improvement from last year's combine in the 185-pound bench press. They quite literally raised the bar for themselves in this category. Bedell increased his reps from three to 12, Dalton Crossan went from six to 16 and Trent Crossan soared from three to 15.
"This was an awesome day. Going against competition -- I love it," Trent said. "We all want to show people that Long Island has athletes, too."
That appeared to be a common theme, as several players opined that Long Island is not always on the radar of college football coaches when they scour the East Coast for potential recruits.
"I feel like Long Island doesn't always get noticed," said Roosevelt's Manny Jones, one of the few Nassau County kids who participated.
The event's coordinator, Suffolk County Football Coaches Association president Hans Wiederkehr, said the event will be more inclusive next year.
"This is a good chance for us to showcase ourselves," Jones said. "It's very competitive, but we were all pulling for each other."
Dalton Crossan and Bedell competed despite having just returned from Penn State, which staged a Nike skills showcase for top college prospects on Saturday. Both did well at the home of the Nittany Lions, but not as well as Devante McFarlane of Half Hollow Hills West. The junior speedster elected not to compete against his peers on his home turf Sunday after being named running backs MVP of the Nike event.
"They thought I was a sleeper. They didn't think I'd compete like that," McFarlane said. "I just went out there and had a lot of fun with it."
