Word travels fast in college football recruiting circles, as Kenny Stills was reminded recently.

Within 20 minutes of running a scorching time of 4.36 seconds in the 40-yard dash en route to being named MVP of a scouting combine in Los Angeles last Saturday, the La Costa Canyon High receiver got a congratulatory text message from former El Camino star Nelson Rosario, now at UCLA.

And it wasn't just old gridiron rivals who noticed Stills' eye-popping performance. Two days later, the coaching staff of defending national champion Florida ---- which had barely communicated with Stills to that point ---- called him to say a scholarship offer was in the mail.

If it wasn't apparent before, it is now: North County's finest football player has gone national. Or, to use recruiting parlance, Kenny Stills has "blown up."

"It hasn't sunk in yet. I feel like I'm living a dream," Stills said. "Every day I wake up and ask myself, ‘Is this all real?' "

Stills wasn't exactly flying under the radar last fall, of course. As a junior, he caught 64 passes for 1,270 yards and 16 touchdowns to lead La Costa Canyon to the CIF San Diego Section Division I championship and earned first-team all-state recognition among underclassmen from CalHiSports.com.

But in a sign of the never-ending nature of the football recruiting cycle, Stills has taken full advantage of the offseason before his final high school campaign to significantly raise his profile.

Stills' spring tour started in March in Las Vegas, where was named to the all-camp team at a seven-on-seven passing tournament. Then, in late April, he earned MVP honors for his position at a Nike-sponsored camp on USC's campus, a showing that helped him secure a scholarship offer from the Trojans a few weeks later.

For the capper, he returned to L.A. last weekend and, despite a sore hamstring, posted that laser-timed 4.36 ---- the fastest 40 he has ever run ---- and looked silky smooth in receiving drills to emerge as the cream of the crop at the combine organized by recruiting service Scout.com. The ensuing offer from the Gators was followed this week by ones from traditional powers Tennessee, Nebraska and Oklahoma ---- giving Stills 17 offers total.

"I've been working real hard, and people are finally noticing it in the recruiting world," Stills said. "I'm playing like I have a chip on my shoulder."

Based on what Stills showed during the spring evaluation period, Scout elevated him to the No. 6-ranked receiver and the No. 41 overall player in the country. Rivals.com, the other main recruiting network, is only slightly less bullish on Stills, ranking him 21st among wideouts and 135th in the nation.

Both in terms of guru ratings and quality and quantity of scholarship offers, Stills has become the most highly regarded North County football player in quite some time. During the nine years that Scout and Rivals have maintained online databases of prospects, only Oceanside quarterback Derek Shaw (class of 2005) and Vista cornerback Leon Hall (2003) are in the same neighborhood as Stills.

"I think he's the best prospect in San Diego County, hands down," said Brandon Huffman, the West regional manager for Scout, referring to a star-studded class that includes top running backs Dillon Baxter of Mission Bay (a USC commitment), Brennan Clay of Scripps Ranch and Ricky Seale of Escondido. "And he's the best kid from North County that I can remember.

"The question about Kenny was always his speed, and then he ran that 40 and it's like: All questions answered."

The questions may have been answered, and positively, but Stills isn't done trying to showcase himself. He plans to attend the elite Rising Stars camp at USC at the end of this month and has been invited to an ESPN-run, seven-on-seven competition in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., in July.

He's also mulling competing invitations from two postseason all-star games: one in Florida and the other in San Antonio.

"He doesn't have anything else to prove," La Costa Canyon coach Darrin Brown said. "He's talked about focusing on the team and on his senior season, but he's a competitor and he likes to compete."

Before he returns to the camp circuit, Stills will attend three weeks of summer school so he can achieve his goal of graduating after the fall semester and enrolling in college for the spring. At the end of his packed summer, he and his father ---- former NFL safety Ken Stills Sr. ---- might drive north to tour some of the California schools that have offered him scholarships, and Kenny also hopes to check out Florida's campus during his trip east for the ESPN event.

He plans to take all five of his allotted official visits and not commit to a school until after the Mavericks' season, but the only visit he has decided on is Penn State.

"I'm excited about talking to schools on the East Coast and possibly getting away from California," Stills said. "I enjoy the recruiting process. Not every kid gets to go through it. I'm going to ride it out."

Article by: Brian Hiro of the North County Times

It seems like everybody has heard about social media, referring to sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and much more. Social media websites allow people to connect, share content (videos, pictures, etc.), and enter into a conversation about whatever they want to talk about. Social media is not only transforming how people of all ages communicate and share information; social media is now revolutionizing how high school athletes are getting noticed and recruited by college programs, both big and small.

If you you're a stud athlete with dreams of playing college athletics, learn how to leverage these social media platforms to help increase your exposure. Here's three strategies to get started...

1. Upload your highlight videos to YouTube, Vimeo, Yahoo Video, Myspace Video, and Facebook.

Anybody who has ever been through the college recruiting process knows that sending out countless highlight tapes in the mail is a complete pain in the butt. While you still want to continue to do this, you can compliment your efforts by also uploading all of your game clips, highlight tapes, or even a personal player video interview to these video sharing sites. Make sure you label, tag, and fill in the descriptions of the videos with you personal information. Search engines like Google and Yahoo will "crawl," pick up, all of this content and start pulling it up in results when somebody does a search for your name.

Below is an example of a player that has uploaded his game videos and clips. Every time a coach does a search on YouTube for his name, his video clips will immediately pop up.

2. Build relationships with coaches on Facebook

Leverage Facebook as a powerful communication tool. First, identify the names of the head coaches and recruiting coaches for your specific region. You can do this by simply going to a college team's webpage and looking at their list of coaches.

On Facebook, do a search for these coaches and befriend them. Introduce yourself with a nice message explaining how excited you are about their program and how you're interested in playing for them. It's vital you provide your school name, jersey number, contact information, and even a couple links to your video highlights on the video sharing sites.

Develop a relationship with this coach via Facebook, and later on the phone and through email. If you do this consistently, and you are a good fit for their program, you will begin to create top-of-mind awareness. Assuming you are physically and academically a fit for a program, developing a strong relationship with your recruiting coach will significantly increase your chances of getting a scholarship.

Think of it this way.... there are potentially hundreds of players from around the country that are competing against your for scholarships and and a limited number of acceptance letters. Stand out from the pack by developing strong relationships with coaches.

WARNING: Make sure you if you follow this strategy, that you remove any pictures, videos, comments, or anything on your Facebook profile that can get you in trouble. You can adjust your privacy setting so that only certain people can view your videos, pictures, etc. Tell all of your friends that you are trying to get recruited and not to post any risky content on your profile.

3. Use Twitter to share your game stats, athletic stats, game scores, articles, etc.

Twitter is a "micro-messaging" service that allows you to update your daily status. Essentially people can "follow" your status updates and follow your life. This can be perfect for recruiting. Note that Twitter is relatively new and majority of coaches are not necessarily on twitter yet. I think this will be a very powerful strategy for getting exposure as Twitter becomes more popular and accepted by coaches around the country over the next couple of months and years.

Like with strategy #2, identify heads coaches and recruiting coaches. Do a search for them on Twitter and begin "following" them. You may even want to call them, introduce yourself, and tell them you are on Twitter and would like them to follow you.

During your season, update your twitter status at least once per day with information about YOU. You can tweet about your statistics from your last game, weight rooms stats, or even your fastest forty yard dash time. Talk about combines and camps you plan on attending. I also recommend posting links to articles that were written about you in the local papers, and from recruiting websites, like Rivals. Again, the goal is to develop relationships and create top-of-mind awareness for you as a good college athlete prospect.

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These strategies can increase your exposure and increase your chances of getting recruited. However, in order for them to help, you must stay disciplined and take consistent action. A one-time effort with any of these strategies won't help you at all.

Note that sending emails, making phone calls, and meeting coaches directly in person, are always the most powerful ways to develop and build relationships.

In this video, he’s battling a nagging hamstring, which has limited him to light jogging and an exercise bike recently.

Kenny said he will not be able to take part in this year’s Rising Stars Camp at USC. But he will be at the B2G camp, which runs from June 25-28.

Stills has high hopes for his La Costa Canyon team this season. He said with five senior linemen, the offense should be clicking. He also added that if the passing game bogs down (there are no quarterbacks with any experience) his coach has talked about moving him to quarterback and letting him run some zone-read plays.

In terms of recent recruiting news, Stills said nothing much has changed. He said that Michigan was supposed to send a written offer (after already extending a verbal offer), but that hasn’t come yet. Other than that, he’s just letting everything play out.

Stills is also loading up on summer coursework and hopes to have the opportunity to graduate early and enroll early at his college of choice. He said that idea isn’t yet set in stone, but it’s something he’s certainly giving thought to.

He hasn’t finalized any plans yet, but Stills said he’s thinking about taking official visits to Tennessee, Florida, LSU and Penn State. He said he would also unofficially visit USC, UCLA and California, and that Stanford was still in the mix as well. In the end, it would be surprising if Stills chose to leave the west coast for college.

Article Written by Erik McKinney of WeAreSC.com

Wide receiver Kenny Stills (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon) has landed scholarship offers in the past two months from Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nebraska. He already had offers from Penn State, USC, Cal, Washington, Colorado, UCLA, Stanford and Boise State, among others.

"I somewhat have a top ten," Stills said. "It's Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, USC, UCLA, Cal, Washington, Penn State, Colorado and Nebraska."

Stills is trying to get everything taken care of academically, so he can graduate early if he chooses to. However, he also plays on the La Costa Canyon basketball team and might not want to miss his senior hoops season.

"I'm really committed to our basketball team and I have a lot of other things going on too," Stills said. "So I'm not sure right now. I want to take my official visits early so I can graduate early if I want to."

Stills has decided on four of his official visits. He will take trips to Penn State, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Florida. His visit to Penn State will likely be the weekend the Nittany Lions play Ohio State.

"I'll save one other spot and see what happens," he said. "I'm definitely going to take all of my official visits and go from there."

The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder caught 42 passes during his sophomore season. He caught 68 his junior season for almost 1,400 yards and 16 touchdowns.

*****Written by Bill Kurelic of ESPN

Former Boise State tailback Ian Johnson and former Boise State wide receiver Vinny Perretta reached free-agent agreements with the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday evening.

Johnson's wife, Chrissy, and agent, Bruce Tollner, confirmed his contract. Perretta and his agent, Buddy Baker, confirmed his.

Tollner said Johnson chose among 12-15 suitors after the draft concluded. The deciding factor: the best situation for earning a roster spot. The Vikings have two veteran tailbacks — Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor — and a third tailback with no game experience (Albert Young).

The recruiting war included head coaches, position coaches and general managers, Tollner said. That took some of the sting out of Johnson, the Broncos' top NFL prospect this year, not getting drafted.

"I think (Johnson) was excited to be able to choose among 12-15 teams," Tollner said. "At the end of it, he sounded very fired up, even though he went as a free agent."

Johnson will be reunited with Peterson, the opposing star running back in the Fiesta Bowl, and Perretta, a good friend whom he played with for five years at Boise State.

"That's sweet," Perretta said. "I love playing ball with Ian."

Perretta chose the Vikings over the New York Jets and Jacksonville, he said. The Vikings were the one team to fly him out for a pre-draft visit. He gives the Vikings at least nine receivers, but it's not a star-studded group.

"The receivers coach told me he would see me again," Perretta said. "The whole situation was right. It was the best opportunity to make a football team."

Wide receiver Jeremy Childs, who set a school single-season record with 82 catches in 2007, has reached a free-agent deal with the San Diego Chargers, he and his agent said.

Wide receiver Julian Hawkins has agreed to a deal with the Dallas Cowboys, he and his agent said.

"This is a total dream," Hawkins said. "It's a dream finally coming true — not just for me, but for my whole family."

And tight end Chris O'Neill is headed to Jacksonville this week for a free-agent workout. He had hoped to land a contract, but is determined to make this opportunity count.

"Boise State, we've always got to prove ourselves," O'Neill said. "Someone always thinks someone is better than us. They always pick us not to win the WAC, to finish second. We always go show them it's different — that we can play with the big boys, that we can win the WAC all the time. Now we've got to go do it in the pros."

Also, I talked to Idaho draft pick Eddie Williams a few minutes ago. Williams, who tore his right ACL against Boise State last season, says he will be ready for training camp.

"It put a big speed bump in my plans," he said of the injury, "but a lot of hard work went into it, I had a good trainer and a good doctor and I was able to come out of it."

•••

Boise State was shut out of the NFL Draft on Sunday for the first time in four years.

Tailback Ian Johnson and wide receiver Jeremy Childs, both of whom were invited to the NFL Scouting Combine, now will angle for the best free-agent situation possible and try to make a roster the hard way. Former Broncos who have made good careers as undrafted free agents include safety Quintin Mikell and defensive back/returner Chris Carr.

Article Written By: Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com