GPA Combine Prep Clinic Comes to Hilo

File photo by Josh Pacheco.

Young Big Island football players will get an opportunity to learn what it takes to excel at combine drills that are made famous at the professional level.

Chad Ikei and the Gridiron Performance Academy will host the Big Island Football Combine Prep Clinic on Sunday at Kamehameha-Hawai’i’s Paiea Stadium in Kea’au. It runs from 9 a.m. to noon.

“We’re going to have a little modified combine so that the student-athletes can get a taste of what it’s like to run the 40-yard dash, the shuttle, the L-drill, and the broad jump, some of the events that they may participate in, whether they go to the Nike combine or next week’s Hawai’i Kai combine that Coach Kenny Patton is running out here,” Ikei said.

There may not be anyone that knows more about what works when preparing football players to excel in front of scouts and coaches than Ikei, who has trained over 150 NFL draft prospects and prepared them for major combines across the country. His work with professional football players goes beyond combines, too, as former New England Patriots reserve Joey Iosefa and others continue to work with him.

“We want the players to be ready. A lot of them don’t understand that there is technique to help them improve their scores, so we’re going to go out there, get some numbers on them, kinda see where they are at,” Ikei explained.

Ikei has held similar camps around the state, including Moloka’i, Oahu, Kaua’i, and Maui.

Registration for the event begins at 8 a.m., with a donation fee of $5.