How JuniorRank.com would rate football talent

Shaon Berry, a youth football coach and former University of Pittsburgh football player, has joined forces with former NFL player and coach Martin Bayless to run Juniorrank.com's first youth football combine for players sixth through ninth grade. It will take place June 27 at the new Lake Barrington Fieldhouse.

Berry, the CEO of JuniorRank.com, talked with the Daily Herald about his new endeavor.

Q: Are you the only company doing this?

Berry: There are a number of scouting services - rivals.com, scout.com - looking at young athletes probably as young as ninth grade, but what we're doing is looking at young athletes in seventh, eighth and ninth grade and evaluating their athletic ability and then adding the academic and social component to it.

Q: Talk about how you rank players.

Berry: Our subscription service, which will launch in August, will allow parents to upload a highlight video of a young athlete. We'll evaluate that video, offer coaching tips and instruction and then rank that athlete up to four diamonds. If that athlete is exceptional on film and we think he's a four-diamond athlete, we'll go out and verify it in person.

At that point, if we think they are a four-diamond athlete, they will then be nominated for a fifth diamond. That fifth diamond component will be academics and then any type of volunteer or community service.

Q: What's the ultimate goal for you?

Berry: If I can shift the paradigm for how we value athletes, that to me will be a success. I think it shifts what's wrong today - looking at 14 and 15-year-old kids to find out if all they can do is put a ball through a hole, etc.

Q: Why did you choose Lake Barrington to serve as host site of the combine?

Berry: I chose Lake Barrington because it's a brand new fieldhouse, it's a beautiful indoor facility and it's conducive to the parents who are there with the athletes.