SST to host testing combine in Rocklin

Rocklin's Sports Specific Training will host a SPARQ testing clinic for basketball, baseball or softball players on Aug. 25 at California Family Fitness Sport Complex in Rocklin.The clinic, intended for boys and girls ages 10-and-up, will run from 9 a.m. to noon at the complex located at 2511 Warren Drive. The fee is $20 for anyone who registers by Aug. 22 and $25 on the day of the event. Participants should show up at 8 a.m. for the clinic.Former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dan Bunz and Steve Kenyon run SST. They have put on SPARQ testing clinics for football in the past at Whitney High. "We do it to promote the kids," Bunz said. "SPARQ is now for each sport and kids grading can compare with each other. It's 10-year-olds against 10-year-olds and it's apples to apples. And kids can email coaches these SPARQ results, put your SAT scores on there and grades in school and a comment that someone said about you. We did a football (SPARQ clinic) earlier this year and college coaches were looking at kids based on the results."Bunz encourages anyone to come out and participate so that they can get used to the testing used by colleges all over the country."The idea is to get more kids out there to test them," Bunz said. "You get out there as a freshman and sophomore and then by your junior year you are used to it. The tests (for different sports) are similar but there are slight changes. In basketball it's a one-step vertical and in baseball (or softball) it's flat foot. One has a 30-yard dash and one has as 20-yard dash while in football it's 40."Bunz is trying to get former Del Campo star and current Golden State Warriors forward Matt Barnes to participate in the camp. Barnes is familiar with this kind of testing and Kenyon was his high school football coach in the mid-1990s."He really wants to be a part of it," Bunz said. Call (916) 435-4045 or visit www.sportsspeciftraining.net for more information.