Pembroke High's first football combine a big success for recruits and college coaches
PEMBROKE − Don’t be surprised to see a wave of South Shore football players flood college football rosters in New England in upcoming years.
For one, there's plenty of talent in the area. Duxbury (Division 4) and Hull (Div. 8) both won Super Bowls in 2022, and Milton reached the Div. 3 final. Hingham's Peter Bourque helped Catholic Memorial win the Div. 2 title when the then-freshman came on in relief at quarterback due to injury. In 2021, seven South Shore schools reached the state championships.
And on Saturday, some of the area's hopeful collegiate prospects received some extra exposure when the Pembroke High football team hosted a combine in front of a host of college coaches. At the event, which was run by Pembroke coach Steve Aborn, 115 athletes showcased their skills in front of coaches from Stonehill, St. Lawrence and Bridgewater State (to name a few).
“Honestly, I was hoping we’d get 75 kids and we ended up (with) substantially more than that,” said Aborn. “When I originally did this, I was hoping to have 15 schools and 75 kids and we did better than that. People were really receptive to it, the kids were receptive, the colleges were absolutely thrilled to get on the field and see the kids compete.”
College coaches were impressed
Saturday was the first rendition of a South Shore combine, but it might open the floodgates for more events like it. Not only was the turnout considered a success, the talent on display impressed a lot of scouts.
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“There’s a lot of good players on the South Shore,” said Bridgewater State University head coach Joe Verria. “There’s a lot of good colleges and there’s so many Division III colleges like us in the area it gets all squared out thin. But there’s some good players here, and we've got some good some players on our roster.”
There were several standouts from the combine. Weymouth High's Shawn Hogan tallied 33 reps while bench pressing 185 pounds. Hanover's Love'on Flowers ran the 5-10-5 agility drill in 4.34 seconds. Pembroke's Jayden Leonard ran the 40-yard dash in an electronically timed 4.6 seconds.
Spotlighting public school players
The results from the combine will be sent to all coaches in attendance along with the athlete's Twitter handle, email address and cellphone number.
The effort Aborn put into making sure not only kids on his team get to shine, but all the other athletes as well, is not taken for granted.
“Means a lot to us as a team, community,” said Pembroke senior Will Johnson. “A lot of the private schools and prep schools get a lot more attention than the public schools, so it’s really good for Coach Aborn to throw this for all the public school kids so we can get recognized as much as the prep and private school kids.”
More: Undefeated state champs and more: South Shore High School Football All-Scholastics
Pembroke’s Will McNamara finished first in the standing long jump (9-11) and vertical jump (34-0). He too is thankful for his coaches' efforts.
“It’s good, it’s good for everyone here, it’s good for everyone to show and see what they can do,” said McNamara.
What are the coaches looking for?
Although only four players finished at the top of each competition, coaches said they were looking for more than that. As the student-athletes did drills with weather in the mid-80s, coaches wanted to see how they handled the situation.
“Their athletic ability, their attitude,” said Verria. “You can tell their attitude if they drop the ball, how do they feel? Do they get up again and throw the ball back? And their work ethic, it’s hot as heck here.”
“I think you want to see competitiveness and how they react to when things are going bad at times,” said Curry College head coach Todd Parsons. "See if they can bounce right back up, are they always jumping out to the front of the line? Not afraid to go up against certain guys and stuff? That’s usually what stands out.”
Aborn said organizing the event did take a lot of work, but he received help from other South Shore high school coaches that day.
“Part of what we did on top of that, is ask (coaches) what we can do better next year,” said Aborn.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: First football combine at Pembroke High a big help in recruiting
