Preseason Football Begins

Cade Apsay from Canyon of Canyon Country was at last year’s Elite 11 Quarterback Regional for Northern California and throws here under the watchful eye of ESPN’s Trent Dilfer. Photo: Willie Eashman.

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It’s less than one week removed from the release of the 34th annual Cal-Hi Sports All-State Girls Basketball Teams, but it’s already time to pivot quickly and start focusing in on spring football with thoughts of the 2014 season not far behind.

This weekend in the Bay Area, top players from the Class of 2015 and beyond will be taking part in three major events – the Elite 11 Quarterback Regional on Friday at Chabot College, the Nike Football Sparq Combine on Saturday at Laney College and the Nike Football Training Camp on Friday back at Chabot College.

In Friday’s Elite 11 Regional, ESPN’s Trent Dilfer will work out many of the state top signal callers – as well as others coming from other states – who will all be trying to get better, compete against their peers and perhaps earn an invite to the Elite 11 Finals coming up in the summer at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.

The Saturday event is the same format in which more than 1,700 athletes in Texas tested themselves two weeks ago at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. One of the highlights of the combine always is if there are a handful of athletes who impress enough and test strongly enough so they earn an invite to the Sunday NFTC.

At the NFTC, several players may be handed out invitations to Nike’s The Opening – which also will be held later in the summer in Oregon. MVPs for each position also are awarded. It was only four years ago at Stanford when the wide receivers MVP was Lincoln of Stockton’s Brandin Cooks, who immediately began getting major college offers afterward. Cooks was just picked 20th in the first round of last week’s NFL Draft.

After looking over a roster of the players invited and confirmed for Sunday’s NFTC, here is a sample of some of the ones that many in the recruiting media are eager to see:

Antoine Custer was a sophomore standout for De La Salle of Concord last season who had to miss the CIF Open Division state bowl game due to an ankle injury. He’s listed on the roster for Sunday’s Nike Football Training Camp at Chabot College. Photo: Mark Tennis.

Running Backs
Kava Cassidy (Serra, San Mateo)
Antoine Custer (De La Salle, Concord) Jr.
Miles Harrison (Clayton Valley, Concord)
Nate Jones (Tracy)
Hakeem Mays (Willow Glen, San Jose)
Malik Roberson (Serra, Gardena)
Melquise Stovall (Paraclete, Lancaster)
Lavance Warren (McClymonds, Oakland)

Receivers
Trent Irwin (Hart, Newhall)
Collin Johnson (Valley Christian, San Jose) Jr.
Treyvon Sidney (Bishop Amat, La Puente) Jr.

Tight End
Ricky McCoy (Roosevelt, Fresno)

Offensive Line
Drew Sullivan (De La Salle, Concord)
Tyler Whisenhunt (California, San Ramon)

Defensive Line
Aaron Banks (El Cerrito) Soph.
Kahlil McKenzie (De La Salle, Concord)

Linebackers
Darius Lyles (Redwood, Visalia)
Jesse Osuna (Valley Christian, San Jose)
Simba Short (De La Salle, Concord)
Cameron Smith (Granite Bay)
Kyahua Tezino (Salesian, Los Angeles)
Nick Tomasin (Enterprise, Redding)

Defensive Backs
Frank Buncom (St. Augustine, San Diego)
Shaunard Harts (Elk Grove)
Isaiah Langley (Foothill, Pleasanton)
Dakari Monroe (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose)
Justice Shelton-Mosley (Capital Christian, Sacramento)
Marvell Tell (Crespi, Encino)
Shurod Thompson (Pittsburg) Jr.

Note: These happen to be some players we saw last season and are very interested to see in the camp setting. It’s hard to see everybody even this weekend, but we’ll do our best. We’ll be doing tweets throughout all three events and will have recaps at the end of each day. The only bummer is that Folsom’s Jake Browning and the talents that have helped him throw for over 10,000 yards once again will not be present.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports