3 former football players in North Colorado work on the professional day for professional football scouts

Football players and conditioned athletes David Afari, Caden Meis and Sam Iongi-Amituanai took everyone strongly on Wednesday afternoon after a demanding training at the University of Northern Colorado.

The young men are former UNC players and took part in a well-known event in the game entitled “Pro Day”. Professionals that take place on Campus sites take place across the country and give players the opportunity to meet and train for professional football scouts. It is a step to “pursue your dreams”, as Meis, as Meis said, before the NFL design next month.

The annual NFL combination in Indianapolis is a similar event that was also developed for the players and can get to know the teams better. The combine is only an event for invitations for players who are viewed as top prospects.

“Players in schools who have talent who have not been given a shot, and this is their chance to prove it,” said Meis. “From here it is everything for you and how you do it, what they see out here and how you do.”

Scout from five National Football League teams and a Canadian football league team came to UNC: Denver Broncos, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Las Vegas Raiders, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The professional day was arranged by Bear's assistant head coach, defensive -line trainer and NFL Liaison Aaron Fernandez. As a NFL connection connection for the UNC employees, Fernandez 'task is to communicate with pro-scouts, inform you about practical data and to make information about the program accessible to industry-related websites.

Fernandez said that only two teams took part in UNC that day last year. The increase in the interest of the pro-scout is a memory that the path of a player to professional football and especially the global known NFL can begin from any place-and not just top-class football schools.

“You will find the NFL when you are a prospect and are serious about football and adhesive tape. You will find you, ”said Fernandez. “I think it says a lot about where our program is.”

Fernandez has been with UNC since December 2022 when he was hired as an employee by head coach Ed Lamb. The program remains in progress on the division of the Football Championship of Division I. UNC has never won more than six games as Division I program, and Lamb and his employees have only one win in the first two seasons.

The scouts met in private meetings with Abari, Meis and Iongi-Amititanai and then observed how the players walk through a variety of exercises such as bench presses, vertical jump, 40 yard fittings board, agility runs and position-specific drills.

Afari and Meis races back. Iongi-Amituanai is a defender. Avari and Meis, for example, caught passes. Iongi-Amititanai worked on a tackling dummy.

The scouts and three players were not the only ones during training. Former teammates and UNC coaches were accompanied by the players, who observed the almost two-hour event both in the Empower Center of UNC and on an adjacent practice area.

“I was a bit nervous today,” said Iongi-Amituanai. “But it felt great to do the exercises. I was a bit tired, but I was confident that I could go through these exercises. “

Fernandez said the Packers showed interest in Iongi-Amituanai, which means that they may have additional discussions. Afari said he spoke to teams and had a try with Cincinnati Bengals next month. He comes from Cincinnati and played near Miami (Ohio) before switching to UNC. Afari has trained at home in December since its completion of UNC.

“The routes that showed exercises that I can play a lot more than in the backfield,” he said. “I can go into the slot position, so that's a plus.”

Fernandez said that the results of the training sessions of the players, their physical measurements and times are checked by the scouts and distributed to all teams in the NFL. The NFL design is April 24th to 26th in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“If you were not here today, we probably spoke to you and you will get through in autumn,” said Fernandez. “These teams have the opportunity to make their decisions like in normal scouting departments.”