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SPARQ Championship at Nike's The Opening

The SPARQ Rating National Championship was held at Nike world headquarters Tuesday night. Landon Collins of Dutchtown (Geismar, La.) earned top honors.Tags: ESPNHS, High School football, Nike The Opening, football, football recruiting

SPARQ Championship at Nike's The Opening

The 2012 Nike Football SPARQ Combine tour will run from January to June. The schedule and online registration for the 2012 tour can be found here.

Last spring more than 14,000 of the nation's top prospects were tested and rated. The 2012 tour, the ninth year of the Nike combines, will once again showcase talent from all corners of the country.

Tour Information

Nike Football SPARQ Combines are free of charge and open to Class of 2013 graduates and top underclassmen high school football players looking to showcase their ability. Alumni of the combines include NFL stars Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals), Andre Johnson (Houston Texans), Clay Matthews (Green Bay Packers) and Haloti Ngata (Baltimore Ravens) as well as thousands who have gone on to play Division I college football.

Nike Football SPARQ Combines are one way to qualify for the second annual "The Opening" presented by Nike Football, to be held in early July at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. This competition includes the third annual SPARQ Rating National Championship.

Attending one of the Nike SPARQ Combines gives each athlete the opportunity to get professionally SPARQ tested. SPARQ stands for speed, power, agility, reaction and quickness. The rating comes from a series of sport-specific tests and gives athletes a chance to see their strengths and weaknesses. Athletes have a chance to measure themselves against other players in their class.

Registered athletes participating in the 2012 Nike SPARQ Combines will:

• Qualify for a chance to compete in the SPARQ Rating National Championship as part of "The Opening", to be held in July at the Nike World Headquarters.
• Receive a Nike Pro workout shirt. (Athletes still must bring appropriate workout gear: shorts, sweats, football cleats and training shoes.).
• Be measured by height and weight, and photographed.
• Receive a proper, supervised dynamic warm-up.
• Be tested in: the 40-yard dash (twice, fastest time kept), vertical jump (highest jump kept), the 20-yard shuttle (twice, fastest time kept) and the kneeling power ball throw (twice, farthest throw kept). If players are not satisfied with their results, they may scratch them so they are not reported.
• Receive a SPARQ rating based on a calculation of their testing scores.
• Be eligible for consideration for the next step in Nike's off-season plan, attending a Nike Football Training Camp, a top-tier national football camp tour. (Selection is based on overall performance and participation is free.).
• Get a chance to compete and be evaluated in a professional environment against others on your team, in your league, in your state and around the nation with the standardized SPARQ testing results and rating.
• Receive exposure across ESPN platforms, which includes ESPN.com and ESPNHS.com.

For more information and FAQs on the Nike Football SPARQ Combines, click here.

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