William Penn University Coach Miller watches as prospective players fill out forms to become part of his team.

Find more coverage of this event with a story by Richard Justice, a columnist for Houston Chronicle. Read the article by clicking here..

A high school football coach’s concern for his players never ends, and that passion has found a new foothold in Houston, Texas. About 60 to 70 coaches from Houston Independent School District joined forces Feb. 20 with the members of the National Football Foundation Touchdown Club of Houston Chapter to stage the 2nd Annual Houston Football Showcase, which allowed high school seniors a unique opportunity at academic and participation scholarships from smaller colleges at the Division II, III and the NAIA levels.

“I don’t think it could have been any better. We had 398 kids who were all out there trying to get a better situation for their lives, and I thought that was awesome,” said Daryl Wade, the athletics director for the Houston Independent School District (HISD) who has been a driving force behind the event with Milby High School coach Philip Camp. “Three years ago we only had 32 kids signing [letters of intent], and I thought for a school district our size, that’s unacceptable. This year we had 82 on national signing day, and we would love to see over 100 kids offered scholarships.”

Staged at the NFL’s Houston Texans’ Practice Facility and free of charge to participants and coaches, the event attracted recruiters from 18 different schools with some coming from as far away as Minnesota, Ohio, Maryland and Kansas. Participants, who all had to meet minimum academic standards, showcased their athletic skills in a series of events designed to let the college coaches assess each player’s potential, including a 40-yard dash, a bench press, and several agility tests. Academically, participants had to meet at least one of the following: a 1,000 on the SAT, a 17 on the ACT, a 2.5 GPA or be ranked in the top half of his senior class.

“We want to put kids in college,” said Chris Vaughan, a former president and a current board member of the NFF Touchdown Club of Houston Chapter since 1991. “We’re not here for just athletes, we’re here for kids who want to pursue a college degree, and those in attendance proved it in high school because of their grades. We have put in place the academic threshold that allows us to weed out the kids that are not students. What’s the point of bringing a kid to the event if they’re not qualified to go to the colleges?”

The Houston Football Showcase distinguishes itself from other camps and combines because it’s entirely free for the participants and colleges, and academic binders are the only information distributed. Organizers do not create a database based on athletic performance of a participant at the event. Coaches must make their own athletic assessments, subsequently inviting a participant to the sidelines for a face-to-face meeting.

“The event went really well, and we met a lot of good kids,” said Coach Chase Hansen from Bethel College (Kan.) of the NAIA. “We’ll invite about 20 up for a visit. We definitely saw some good talent and we’re going to try to get as many as we can. A lot of these kids get overlooked, and you can find some good talent down there.”

In the time of tight budgets, the event allows smaller colleges to see 400 kids at one time while minimizing their travel costs. The cost of the event was offset through sponsors, which included Frenchy's Chicken, the Houston Texans, Promaxima, and Varsity Insurance. Atiwa Computing also played a key role as a sponsor, providing laptop computers so participants could apply directly online at the event for admission to a school with coaches waiving the application fee for those who could not afford to pay.

“When it’s free for the kids, it really opens the doors no matter what their background is,” said Hansen. “If they can’t afford a camp, they’ll get overlooked, but with this some kids who might get overlooked will have a chance to play some college football. Hopefully we tie in with a few of the kids and start a pipeline [in Houston]. We’ll definitely be back next year.”

Organized by utilizing the local coaching network, letters to athletics directors, and web site postings, the event attracted 180 participants last year with nearly 400 attendees this year. Organizers had hoped for 25 offers last year and far exceeded their expectations with an astounding 103 scholarships, totaling more than $3 million. This year’s final numbers also promise to eclipse expectations.

“For a lot of the kids, they don’t known about schools like William Penn, Abilene Christian, or Dean College,” said Vaughan. “The kids don’t realize that there are other ways to play football at the next level without going to the Division I-A schools. And this is a way for them to be exposed to new opportunities to play at small colleges.”

The Play It Smart program, the NFF's youth mentoring program that has been in place for past six years in Houston, helped lay the foundation for the event. The 22 local Play It Smart academic coaches collected the SAT scores and transcripts for all of the participants, ensuring that each student-athlete met the minimum requirements. The academic coaches also helped the day of the event at the check-in desk and with the on-field drills.

“The best thing about the event is all of these scholarships are academic in nature,” said Coby Rhoden, the Play It Smart Academic Coach at Milby High School. “This helps us sell the point to our student-athletes throughout their high school career that you don’t have to be the biggest and the fastest to play football in college. But if you work hard in the classroom you can still play football in college.”

The morning session was only for student-athletes from the Houston Independent School District with the afternoon session open to any kid in the area who qualified, including several players who drove three to four hours from small towns like Somerset, Edinburg and Lovelady, Texas. If the afternoon session shows the same type of growth as the morning session, the 2012 Houston Showcase may become a two-day event. The event was not open to student-athletes who had already signed Division I letters of intent.

Participating colleges included Baker University, Bethel College, Concordia Nebraska, East Texas Baptist University, Henderson State University, Howard Payne University, Louisiana College, Southwestern Assemblies of God University, Tabor College, Texas Lutheran University, William Penn University, Avila University, Tyler Junior College, Missouri Valley College, and Southern Nazarene University.

One of the more active NFF chapters in the nation, the NFF Touchdown Club of Houston distributes more than $15,000 a year in scholarships and $20,000 a year in weight room equipment. The groups other activities include a robust speakers series and a wide range of events designed to honor the major contributors to the game of football in the region and the local student-athletes who excel on and off the gridiron.

NFF