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Preparing for college
Local one of more than 60 to take part in drills
Combine pic1
Preston Lewis, a former Tiger football player, leaps during a vertical jump skills test at the BSN/ASA football combine. - photo by Pam Jacobs Dawson Community News

On a sweltering Saturday morning 60 plus football players took to the field at Veterans Memorial Park in Dawsonville. They were there to participate in a joint effort by Beyond Sports Network and Atlanta Sports Academy to evaluate players for college and beyond.

The combine was structured as a National Football League type experience.

Each athlete was judged in several events, which included a laser-timed 40-yard dash, vertical jump, 3-cone agility course, bench press and broad jump.

Each player received a position evaluation and critique of their performance.

Participants also competed in 1-on-1 battles and a 7-on-7 offense versus defense game.

Beyond Sports Network is a premier online tool for coaches and scouts to utilize in evaluating talent across the nation. The online sports network offers technology and information to athletes, coaches, teams and leagues in a safe and secure environment where all members are held accountable for their profile information providing benefits such as saving time and money, according to its Web site.

The network helps individual athletes and coaches by providing a platform for advancement in their careers through the ever growing medium of social networking.

The network is simple to use, a comprehensive search engine allows for finding specific requirements fast, and is constantly upgraded and maintained by experienced sports staff.

Beyond Sports is based out of Leesburg, Va.

Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Beyond Sports Network Jimmy Kibble said his company is looking to achieve great results following this year's combine.

"The idea is to give these guys a chance to use modern technology. Beyond Sports is a sports networking platform very much like Facebook. Except it's exclusive to the athlete, it's exclusive to the sports demographic. It gives these players a place to be safer and a place to promote who they are on the field as athletes. The idea that we are trying to teach them is how to use Facebook and all the other networks to keep themselves safe. Taking advantage of all the networks that allows them to promote their stats, bios, in one place that [is] accessed by college coaches at every single level," Kibble said.

Recruiting is a big issue for aspiring high school athletes. The players at Atlanta Sports Academy have the dream of playing at the next level.

Kibble said this process will help student-athletes get the exposure they need to make it into a college.

"Too many athletes are sending film, too many parents are sending film that never gets opened by college coaches. Not that it is the college coaches fault. You got to imagine how many coaches receive how many tapes. With this we are finding more and more success where you can e-mail a link and everything is accessible. That the coach can see everything in one fell swoop. We have had a lot of success from the NFL down. We started at the pro levels and we are the only platform that can help athletes go from high to college, college to pro, pro into a job," Kibble said.