Williamson County to hold ‘Workout’ for college football recruiters

Williamson County Schools will hold what it is calling the “WILLCO Workout,” an event where it will invite about 90 football players from its nine high schools to participate in various drills in front of college recruiters.

The event will be from 9 a.m. to noon on April 29 at Centennial High and has received approval by the TSSAA and the NCAA. The event will be used as one of each schools’ spring football practice dates. It is being held at no cost to the athletes.

The Workout is believed to be a first of its kind in Tennessee by a public school system. All the drills are not yet known. While it won’t be labeled a combine, there will be drills similar to what are done at them. Williamson County Schools athletics director Darrin Joines said high school coaches are working on different types of drills that can benefit the different football positions.

“What happens a lot of times that no one really knows about is when students go to some of these is who can and can’t attend,” Joines said. “If you have a third-party event, for example, and I’m not saying these aren’t legitimate, but if you have a third-party group that has a combine let me tell you who can’t go — NCAA FBS. They cannot do it.”

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Every Williamson County Schools high school team can send about 10 players. Joines acknowledged that some schools may send less, while a couple send a couple more than 10. It will be primarily for athletes graduating in 2024 and 2025, but some 2026 athletes may attend if they are already garnering college attention.

Joines said discussion of holding such an event have been going on since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I want people that move to Middle Tennessee to say, ‘I want to go to those schools,'” Joines said. “This is just one of those events.

“I would tell you this: If I’m a guy that just wants to go to a school, or I want to be involved in the fine arts, if (people) see we’re doing things in athletics, it helps everybody. Anything you do in a school system that is good or big time, it helps every facet of the school.”

Joines said by using this as a spring practice the TSSAA approved Williamson County Schools to hold it. That also helped led the NCAA to approve it because it will be more of a workout.

“It’s one-stop shop,” Joines said. “What’s going to happen is those college coaches at all levels will want to come to this because they don’t want to come to nine different places. It’s one place to stop.”

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.