ShaVarez Smith definitely passes the eye test.
He is a solid 6-foot-1 and looks to be around 195 pounds. He worked at safety and wide receiver Tuesday night in a passing league at Lovejoy and I saw a lot of athleticism immediately.
Smith has no film from his junior year because he missed most of the season because of a broken toe in game two. He did not play football as a sophomore because he focused on baseball that season, so the first few games in 2009 will be big for this athlete at Henry County.
Moving over to Henry County is only going to help Smith. He will line up across from Scout100 wide receiver Markeith Ambles and they play in the spread offense. He will be many opportunities to make plays each game as defenses concentrate on slowing down Ambles.
On Tuesday at Lovejoy, Smith showed good acceleration. He has a very nice burst and he was a competitor, but he did not catch the ball as well as he would have liked. One of the Henry County coaches said, “it must be an off night because he caught everything a week ago.”
Maybe so, but either way, the athleticism showed. He has a nice frame, he is a hard worker, and he has put up some nice combine numbers recently. He ran a 4.56 in the 40 yard dash and he leaped 38 inches when tested in the vertical.
One school has definitely taken notice and many more will as we go through the summer.
South Carolina got Smith up on their campus recently and he worked out at wide receiver. Smith felt good about his performance and South Carolina coaches told Henry County coaches to send them film of the first two games in September.
Smith will definitely be recruited this fall. He is fluid, he has solid academics, and he could play on either side of the ball. He is going to focus on wide receiver, but he will need to work on running his routes, catching the ball, and how to read coverages. He played running back a year ago at Eagles Landing before going down with the toe injury, so receiver is new to him.
Keep an eye on Smith because he definitely showed enough athleticism to go with his frame to be on the list of many ACC and SEC programs as we inch closer to Signing Day 2010.
He mentioned Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and Florida State as schools of interest at this time.
Get an exclusive look at Smith here in this video presentation. He catches a few passes, shows good acceleration, and drops a couple of balls as well. This is just quick look at Smith and you will see a lot more of him on Scout.com in the coming months.
Chad Simmons is the Recruiting Analyst for the South Region and he can be reached at ChadSimmons@Scout.com.
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