Rivals.com
By the end of Monday's Black and Gold camp (JFK Stadium, Springfield, Mo), Springfield-Hillcrest wide receiver Dorial Green's performance caused laughter.
That's the only emotion Green's string of "Did you just see that?" moments could induce after nearly four hours of work outs.
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| Dorial Green at Mizzou Football Camp in Springfield Summer 2009 |
At 6-foot-5, 206 pounds, Green already has the build of a college athlete. And he just recently turned 16. Over the next few hours, Green dropped jaws throughout the camp.
The coaches probably held their breath for a second when Green ran his first forty-yard dash on Monday. About 10 yards into the spring, Green's left foot clipped his right heel. He stumbled, but quickly regained his balance, and finished.
His time? 4.57.
"His fastest time is a 4.43," McFarland said. Green proved his coach's boast the next time, running a 4.50. One coach had him timed at 4.48.
Green runs track and plays basketball as well. On the track, he runs the 100 and 200, and is a long jumper as well. Currently, his personal record in the 100 is 10.84 seconds and he jumped 23.2 feet earlier this year. Green qualified for the state meet in the long jump, but suffered a pulled groin leading up the meet.
While he excels in those two sports, Green said he believes his future is on the gridiron. His coaches said Kansas and Oklahoma, along with Missouri, are in constant contact with them, and Green is receiving mail from just about every team in the nation.
The only thing Green couldn't do on Monday was consistently catch six straight passes in a quarterback guantlet drill. Receivers lined up in between two quarterbacks. At the whistle, the receiver would have to catch one pass, then turn around and catch another. After that, he would run straight into the endzone, catching four more passes from quarterbacks lined up 10-yards apart.
Green made it to six catches once. But, on his other times, his speed was too much:
The quarterbacks couldn't keep up with him.
It will still be another year before Green starts to pull in verbal offers. But, he already knows in what area he needs to improve.
"I'll say my speed," Green said, drawing laughs from those around. "I need to get a little faster."
Big O Sports - Scott Puryear
Dorial Green admits to being just a bit skittish when he made the transition from junior high legend to Hillcrest High School varsity football standout as a freshman last season.
“I thought it was going to be a lot harder…in middle school, I was always just bigger than everybody else,” Green says.
Of course, it didn’t take Green long to figure out that, even at the high school level, he was still bigger than most everybody else. And, in fact, still better than most everybody else.
The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Green caught 37 passes for 801 yards and scored 13 touchdowns as a freshman wide receiver for the Hornets last season. As a result, Green has quickly transformed from simply being big to becoming a big-time talent.
It’s a catch-phrase used by the media, by his teammates and opposing coaches…and mostly by NCAA Division I football coaches, who can’t wait til September of 2010, when Green is officially a high school junior and they can truly begin what should be a very spirited and entertaining pursuit of his services.
Some have already fired their early shots – Missouri’s coaching staff already has offered Green a scholarship after seeing him in their summer camp, says Hillcrest coach John Beckham, who is also Green’s legal guardian as the latter has become one of several foster children the Beckham family has so graciously taken in over the past 20 years.
“I’ve been to Mizzou’s camp every year since they’ve come down here, so they pretty much know who I am,” Green says with a smile. “I’m just keeping all of my options open now.”
Oklahoma’s coaching staff has also contacted Beckham with inquiries about Green, causing Beckham to chuckle because “I’ve got two assistants who are big-time OU fans and two who are big Mizzou fans on my staff, so it’s a constant battle between the two of them.”
In fact, interest is beginning to flow in from most of the Big 12 Conference and other schools in the Midwest region. And all this fuss over a “kid” who just turned 16 years old.
Did we say kid? OK, try a soft-spoken, humble man-child with a warm smile who not only is already bigger and stronger than most receivers at the prep level, but has been timed in the 4.45 range in the 40-yard dash (and was a track standout in the 100, 200 and long jump for the Hornets last spring), would rather run over a defensive back than away from him, and has hands that defy his ripe age as well.
“He’s a big-time talent,” says Bolivar coach Lance Roweton, whose Liberators got their first look at Green last season in district play, when BHS broke away in the final period to shake the Hornets 47-28.
“I went to the (Missouri) Spring Game, and he looked just like the Missouri receivers do right now and he’s just (15) years old. Not only is he faster than everyone, but he’s 6-5, 210 pounds and can out-jump everybody.
"He’s just extremely scary because he can score a touchdown at just about any point in the game.”
“I couldn’t be any more thankful than to have a situation with a guy like Dorial to look to,” said Jenkins, who hopes to play college ball himself and to feed off the added exposure he might draw from Green’s presence. “I’ve never seen anybody like him, talent-wise…he’s such a big target to throw to, and his speed…he knows how to use it to get open, too. And I can’t imagine him not being able to go to a large Division I school and make it.
“He’s a great kid, too. A lot of guys that have all that talent might be a little hot-headed or stuck up. But he’s not that way. He’s just a regular guy and a lot of fun to be around.”
Green, who will play cornerback this season for the Hornets as well, says for now he’s simply enjoying the attention he gets in the form of camp brochures and word from Beckham on who’s called about him just about every day, with the likes of UCLA and Iowa also among those now trying to get a foot in the door. Of course, both parties realize the heat will truly intensify when Green officially becomes eligible to be recruited early next season.
Throw in that Green is one of the top basketball talents in the Ozarks and it should make for a lot of phone calls to the Beckham household in the very near future.
Green says football and basketball are “about equal” in regards to his love for both sports, but hints that even he realizes his skill-set is more conducive to big-time offers from the football powers. The MaxPreps article on Green states “He’s already on the radar of many BCS schools. Green is in the mold of Randy Moss—big, fast, athletic and physical. He will undoubtedly be playing on Saturdays.”
Beckham’s job is not only to coach his budding star, but to make sure Green doesn’t become overwhelmed with his new status.
“We’ve had several discussions about it already,” Beckham says.“It’s the hardest thing for people to understand that he’s just a kid. Even though he looks like he’s 25, he’s just a kid. I’m not really sure if he understands yet what it all means.
“Honestly, he’s still learning to be a football player. He’s still learning when the play’s not called to him, he still has a responsibility to get downfield and block, do things like that. He’s got a ways to go…but he’s getting better all the time.”
In the meantime, Green’s goals include working hard to get bigger, stronger and faster his next three seasons at HHS, where he should finish his career playing alongside younger brother Darnell Green – a 6-1, 195-pound quarterback/wide receiver for the eighth grade team at Pleasant View Middle School.
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