Servon Hinton carries the ball into the end zone as the Skyline Eagles extend their lead over the Adrian Maples: 41-12 with little over a minute to play. This was the junior’s first touchdown in his high school career, and he has worked hard to get there.
Like many high school athletes around the country, Servon Hinton strives to play college football and he knows that it will take work. To play college football at the Division One level, it is necessary to get recruited by scouts and coaches.
Early exposure is important in the recruiting process, and for those who are not varsity starters by their sophomore year, the best way to get your name out there is through exposure camps. These camps are technique and fundamentals-based and typically run by colleges: they get to see and evaluate unknown players.
Hinton has been attending these camps since his freshman year.
“What we do at the camps like Eastern Michigan is we will do 1-on-1’s, 7-on-7’s, and agility drills so they know what our speed is and how we play,” Hinton said. “Those are the main things I do at camps.”
At these camps, players get the opportunity to show off their talents in all parts of the country. They also get to see the other players they are competing against for recruitment, getting to practice and run drills with them.
Occasionally, you can develop relationships with certain coaches and agree to work more with them. Hinton has been lucky enough to have these types of relationships with some of his coaches. In particular, he has worked with Sound Mind Sound Body, a sports academy operating in Detroit, to help players train in the offseason. These trainers are typically networked with recruiters, so they know what the scouts are looking for.
Hinton has also worked with another sports program called Rising Stars. More recently, he has been in contact with the U.S. Army recruiter, and they have agreed to start working together once a week in Flint once the offseason begins.
As a result of all of this, Hinton is currently getting recruited by several schools — mostly local, a few being more major programs — including Eastern Michigan. Hinton greatly attributes this to the opportunities he has received at these exposure camps.