The spring football trend last year was to get several high school football teams together at one location to help cut down on college coaches’ travel time.
The Chandler Unified School District has found another way to draw interest.
The district is holding a spring football recruiting jamboree on May 15, a Wednesday, when college coaches can move from one Chandler district school to another all day at staggered times.
Chandler’s district is arguably the strongest for high school football in Arizona with Chandler and Perry meeting in the last two 6A finals.
“CUSD administration and football coaches wanted to work together to communicate to their network of colleges on the product CUSD delivers,” district Athletic Director Marcus Williams said. “With a unified approach that is sensitive to the college recruiter’s time, we felt that an all CUSD jamboree, specific to each program, will assist in communication of our amazing student-athletes.”
College coaches from all levels will be able to spend nearly two hours at each school.
Each school will provide the coaches with full roster names, heights, weights, year in school, grade-point averages, transcripts, and any vital information. They’ll be able to watch the prospects during a spring football workout.
Spring football for Arizona high schools begins April 29.
Arizona College Prep coach Myron Blueford is excited for the kids in his 3A program, the smallest of the six Chandler schools.
“With being a new program in 3A, I scratch and claw to get our players noticed,” he said. “We have talent here at ACP and events like this give our players the opportunity to showcase that talent. It’s also important to let our current and future players know they can come to ACP and be seen by coaches. We want to be on a big stage and this gives us the opportunity.”
The schedule leads with three-time defending 6A champion Chandler at 7 a.m.
Arizona College Prep will follow at 9 a.m. ACP is located about a mile away from Chandler High.
Hamilton then follows at 11 a.m., with Perry (1:30 p.m.), Basha (3:30) and Casteel (5:30) finishing the day. The times are based on geography and the fastest way to get from one school to the next.
Chandler Principal Larry Rother calls these showcases “win-win for both college recruiters and high schools.”
“Colleges want to see as many student-athletes as they can in the most efficient manner as possible and we want our kids to have an opportunity to showcase their skills,” Rother said. “At Chandler High, we view this as just another way to ensure our students-athletes have as many opportunities as possible to compete at the next level.”
