The best-of-the-best in high school football are making the long trek to Beaverton, Oregon today to compete in “The Opening” at the Nike headquarters.
Tuesday is the official start of the competition as each prospect will go through the Sparq challenge, which will test them in the forty-yard dash, vertical jump, cone drills and the power ball throw.
Starting Wednesday and running through Thursday will be the 7-on-7 tournament, as well as the linemen challenge as the prospects will be broken up into six different teams.
Competing in the event will be over 100 prospects from the Classes of 2015 and 2016 and three Gator commits will be in attendance.
Receiver Derrick Dillon, quarterback Sheriron Jones and cornerback Marcus Lewis will all be representing the orange and blue as well as recruiting the other top Florida targets in attendance.
Jones arrived in Oregon on Saturday as he’s competing in the Elite 11 Challenge where the top quarterbacks in the country compete to be named the winner of the camp. Jones is being coached up by former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer and other highly thought of NFL quarterbacks like Johnny Manziel and Blake Bortles.
As we previewed last week Jones and the other two Gator commits will have several prospects to recruit from the likes of CeCe Jefferson, Ray-Ray McCloud, Byron Cowart and dozens of others.
While those guys will be recruiting they will also be enjoying their time on the Nike Headquarters campus as they will receive top of the line Nike gear, a lot of which has not been released to the general public and some items are made strictly for the prospects that attend the camp.
Last year players walked away with new cleats, backpacks, several articles of clothing and other items that haven’t been released to the public.
The Elite 11 will not air on TV until August but you can watch three nights worth of the Opening on ESPNU starting on Tuesday.
Tuesday night ESPNU will televise the Sparq challenge from 8-10 p.m. eastern time.
Wednesday night ESPNU will televise the first part of the 7-on-7 tournament from 8-10:30 eastern time.
Thursday night ESPNU will televise this semifinal and championship portion of the 7-on-7 tournament from 8-11 eastern time.