SPARQ's flying!

We were in Miami this past weekend because my son was attending the NIKE football combine. It's pretty much a testosterone meat market for aspiring college athletes. They measure you, weigh you, test your strength, test your athletic prowess: speed, power, agility, reaction and quickness (SPARQ), and at the end of it all they give you a grade that measures where you are, relative to the competition. The NIKE combine is seen as somewhat of an indicator as to whether or not you should continue to pursue a D1 athletic scholarship or focus completely on figuring out ways to pay off your student loans when you're done with college.

The top ranked guy at the combine scored a SPARQ rating of 116. Now let's not get technical and start a discussion about what goes into how they tabulate the score. For the purposes of our discussion today let's just say a 116 rating is... well, quite frankly, unbelievable! Pretty much every D1 school would be lining up to sign an athlete like that to their program. There were people who scored in the 20's on their SPARQ rating and the lowest score was actually a 12.7. If you're currently a junior in high school and you score less than a 68 on your rating, you should probably consider pursuing things other than athletics. I was thrilled to find out that my son scored a 91.4 on his rating. He was the top ranked defensive lineman at the combine and twenty-first ranked over all player (more than a thousand participated). At 6' 3" and 235 pounds, he has aspirations to get a D1 football scholarship to pay his way through college.

I can't tell you how proud I am as a father to see my son working so hard to accomplish his dreams. It is every fathers dream that his son will be better than him. I dare say that, with his commitment to his faith, his excellent academic work ethic, and his unimpeded athletic drive to become better each day, my son is well on his way to fulfilling my dream while fulfilling his.