Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

high school sports:

Centennial football learns from the best at Alabama camp

Centennial-Alabama

Special to the Sun

Centennial High football players Jamaal Evans (left) and Greg Rogers pose for with Mark Ingram, Jr.’s 2009 Heisman Trophy inside the Alabama football complex.

Centennial’s Greg Rogers, a four-star defensive lineman for the class of 2017, has attracted recruiters from a who’s who of college programs.

When Alabama’s recruiters arrived this spring, they took a liking to some of Centennial’s coaches and asked them to work the Alabama youth football camp this week.

Centennial coach Leon Evans, defensive coordinator Devan Jones and offensive coordinator Stan Stanifer spent the week helping Alabama’s Nick Saban and his coaches work with 600 campers.

Two of the campers were Rogers and Evans’ son, junior quarterback Jamaal Evans. Both were named to the all-Saban camp team, completing a great experience for the locals.

“We saw how they do things here, and got some drills and terminology we can take back to our program,” coach Evans said.

Alabama is a perennial national power and has won three national championships since 2009. The Centennial contingent got an intimate look at how the Alabama program operates — everything from being in the football facility to taking pictures with the national championship trophy. There’s also a hallway with pictures documenting the school’s first-round selections into the NFL.

“We saw Nick Saban every day. He was at every session,” coach Evans said. “They coach from the first whistle to the last whistle.”

Most of the players at the camp hoped to impress to land a scholarship offer. While Jamaal Evans and Rogers weren’t offered, they impressed enough to make the all-camp team.

“That was huge, especially since they were out there competing against some of the top kids across the country,” coach Evans said of his players making the all-camp team.

The Centennial coaches weren’t paid but received Alabama gear. They stayed in dorms built in the 1920s.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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