Youth football has always been important to the Kansas City Chiefs organization. As a result, the organization, in conjunction with the National High School All-Star Combine (NHSASC), showcased Kansas City-area high school athletes to several college football coaches earlier this summer. The goal of the event is to allow these student-athletes to continue their football careers by affording them the opportunity to display their talents in a live setting. The event, which took place at the team’s practice facility, even had some special pizzazz as Chiefs Pro Bowl LB Gary Stills stopped by to speak to those present.

With a capacity-crowd of 100 athletes present, the day included such prototypical agility tests as the 40-yard dash, the shuttle run, the 185-pound bench press, the long jump and the vertical jump. The athletes will also be weighed and both their height and arm span will be measured. As a special treat, all of the drills were demonstrated firstly by Stills before the student-athletes were put to the test.

“This is an important step for some of these kids,” Still noted. “For some of them, this is the only chance they’ll get to impress these college coaches. We’ve even got a group of kids from the Kansas School of the Deaf out here today. That type of dedication to football is very, very impressive.”

Having already been implemented by teams such as the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins, the camp has garnered rave reviews throughout the county. In fact, the NHSASC camp is molded after the NFL’s very own pre-draft combine, which annually takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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