By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The excited minds of Jack D’Amato and Troy Spiker helped spark the Chagrin Valley Conference’s first-ever college showcase.

The event, which will hosted at Painesville Harvey’s Jack Britt Stadium, will be on Tuesday from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

And it likely would not have materialized without Crestwood football coach D’Amato and Crestwood athletic director Spiker.

“We started the process of putting the showcase together on April 25,” D’Amato said. “I sent an email to Troy, seeing if he thought we could make something like this happen and if we would get any interest inside our conference. We figured what better way to draw interest from colleges than to put upcoming juniors and seniors from all 24 (league) member schools at one location at one time.”

From there, Spiker went to work.

He sent an email to the rest of the athletic directors in the CVC to jumpstart the conversation to not only gauge interest, but also how to coordinate.

“We took from a random idea to reality in four days and since then we’ve been working nonstop trying to make this the best event possible for our players and the college coaches that will be in attendance,” D’Amato said.

The showcase have 174 players from 20 different CVC schools committed to attend, with three recruiting services scheduled to attend, including Mark Porter from Scouting Ohio, John McAllister from McAllister Scouting Report and Bryan Ault from Catapult Recruits. Additionally, coaches from Hiram College, St. Vincent University, Kenyon college, John Carroll, Baldwin Wallace, Wheeling University, Case Western Reserve, Alfred University and Allegheny College will also be in attendance.

“I am very excited about the showcase,” D’Amato said. “It is an opportunity for our conference to pull our resources together and show off our student-athletes to college coaches and for them to see where they stand in regards to the other players in the league,” D’Amato said.

The initial idea for the showcase stemmed by the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s announcement to extend summer practice dates to 13 days, beginning May 15.

Shortly after that news was released by the OHSAA, many larger school conferences began announcing showcases, which sparked D’Amato’s mind to do something similar. Initially, D’Amato reached out to more than 200 college contacts.

The showcase will allow players the opportunity to workout in a combine-style showcase.