Palmetto Proving Grounds

Scholarship offers add up for Hill
Published: April 22nd, 2012 at 12:23 a.m.

Among more than 150 top football players in the Upstate who participated in the Shrine Bowl combine Saturday at Spartanburg High School, few, if any, have been as heavily recruited by college programs as Michael Hill of Pendleton High.

The 6-foot-3, 315-pound defensive tackle has scholarship offers from about a dozen schools – Ohio State, Clemson, South Carolina and Alabama among them – and he impressed the coaches on hand Saturday in Spartanburg.

Coaches from the Shrine Bowl and North-South All-Star Game measured, tested and drilled high school seniors in advance of making roster selections in the fall, and as he usually does on Friday nights, Hill stood out.

“He’s an explosive kid that plays very hard,” South Carolina Shrine Bowl coach Ray Stackley of Stratford High told TigersNow.com. “We’re going to continue to look at him on film through the summer and then get the senior film. We were kind of looking more at some unknown kids today.”

It’s those lesser-known prospects just emerging onto the scene that are the most important to spot for the Shrine Bowl staff, Stackley said. He remembers that being the case for a player at James Island in 2000, when Stackley was an assistant at the Shrine Bowl.

Union’s Roscoe Crosby ruled the headlines then, but it was another Shrine Bowl receiver, one who went on to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, then the Atlanta Falcons, who proved to be the most productive player – Roddy White, a three-time All-Pro selection.

“There’s a lot of hidden talent in our state that people don’t know,” Stackley said. “You’ve got guys from smaller, rural areas that may not have the exposure media-wise that guys in bigger cities have got.

“If you look at the history of our state, some of the greatest NFL players we’ve got played at the Single-A and Double-A schools. Some of those small towns don’t have the access to that media coverage. We’re going to try to uncover every rock we can to find a player.”

Two small-school players turned in the fastest times in the 40-yard dash Saturday, Emerald’s Oshamar Abercrombie and Blue Ridge’s Corey Dogan. Abercrombie (5-foot-10, 175 pounds), a running back and defensive back, was timed in two runs at a blistering 4.29 seconds and 4.49 seconds. Dogan (5-11, 170), a defensive back, ran a 4.39 and a 4.54.

The pro shuttle times, which include changes of direction, are a more significant measure to Stackley, but he said the measures and tests merely compliment what coaches learn from film and live performances in competition.

“You can’t just test well,” Stackley said. “You’ve got to be tough, and you’ve got to be able to play the game.”

Full, official results from the combine will be posted this week at TigersNow.com.

The Shrine Bowl staffs from South Carolina and North Carolina will announce 44 selections apiece in the fall.

“We’ve already met six times as a staff,” said Stackley. “We’re already gathering film, and we’ve already looked at a lot of film, but we want to put our eyeballs on them. We want to watch them test.

“Really, in this combine, what’s important to us is to watch them compete. If they’re not willing to compete in these combines, we don’t think they’ll be willing to compete against somebody from North Carolina. We want to see if they’ll compete. We want kids that will really get after it.”

In the meantime, for established and emerging prospects, college recruiting will play out.

In North Carolina Saturday, at a Shrine Bowl combine at Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane, N.C., tight end Josh McNeil (6-5, 235) of Hillside High and offensive lineman Tyrone Crowder (6-2, 315) of Richmond County High were among prospects participating. Each of them has offers from Clemson, South Carolina and others.

Hill has offers from Clemson, South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss. Ohio State is his favorite.

michael hill photos
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