D'ante Fleming caught the eyes of some coaches during today's VTO Sports Combine at York High School. Fleming plays defensive back, wide receiver and speciality teams for Greer High School. He will be a senior next season.
“Overall, I thought I held up well with everyone else,” Fleming said. Fleming, a rising senior, returns as a defensive back, wide receiver and special teams player for the Yellow Jackets. He also ran some pass routes today.
“I wanted to go out there and do my best and wanted to do the drills better than anybody else,” Fleming said. “It was a great experience to be out there for the scouts to see us.”
College coaches were invited to attend the combine but were prohibited making contact with the players. Fleming said there were times he and coaches made eye contact, suggesting favorable acknowledgement.
A seminar on the recruiting process and life skills and individual tests were part of the combine. “They talked about keeping our grades up, what things to watch out for and to not put anything on Facebook,” Fleming said. His Facebook account is well monitored. “My mom and her friends monitor my Facebook. She watches out for me.”
One of the highlights for Fleming was a passing drill with him running routes. The receivers would tell the quarterbacks the route they were running. “The quarterback came up with a play that was one of the best I had today,” Fleming said. “He told me to slant and he would pump fake and then for me to streak downfield. The DB locked in on the fake and I was wide open after that.”
Fleming said receiving drills also included working on getting out of the cuts and running through the ball. “We practiced that a lot last year.”
Combine testing included bench presses, vertical jumps and shuttle drills. Fleming, 5-foot-9, 185-pounds, bench pressed 185 pounds seven times. Fleming reportedly did five more while warming up, not realizing he would soon be called upon to press.
The shuttle drill consisted of three cones with players starting in the middle and sprinting to the left, all the way to the right and back to the center. Fleming didn’t receive his vertical results. His jumping ability with the Yellow Jackets basketball team is we documented with him leading the team in rebounds and earning put backs from underneath the basket.