Bunz helps put athletes to test

Former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dan Bunz was physically tested countless times during his football career. Now he's in the business of physically testing others.Bunz and Steve Kenyon, who run Sports Specific Training (2161 Sunset Blvd.) in Rocklin, are helping put together a "Speed, Power and Development Combine Camp" at Whitney High on Saturday. All high-school aged boys and girls are welcome and several college football scouts will be on hand to put the athletes through tests. Although most of the athletes are expected to be football players, Bunz encourages other athletes to also come and test their abilities. Among the various exercises that athletes will be trained in and tested on are the bench press, vertical jump, standing broad jump, 10 and 40-yard dash, eye test and they will also answer some IQ type questions. "Kids can come to the camp and test and then they'll have a better idea of where they are at," said Bunz, who teaches physical education at Sutter Middle School in Sacramento. "That's a good start. It's, 'O.K., I tested here as a sophomore on my jump and I had a bad year and my scores were low.' So you know you have to work out harder than you did last year. Or if you had a good year, you know you should just keep doing what you're doing."Colleges sending football scouts and or coaches to the camp include the University of Nevada Reno, Washington University, Oregon University, Sacramento State, Fresno State, UC Davis and several junior colleges.According to Bunz, if the football scouts see a really good athlete in a non-football sport, they will go back to their school and tell that particular sport' staff to come scout that athlete.Bunz started to move forward on this camp when area football coaches like Max Miller of Cordova and Ed Lombardi of Sheldon told him it was necessary. These students (especially football players) will be put through these tests on various occasions if they hope to participate in athletics in college.The fee for Saturday's camp, which will run from 9 a.m. to noon, is $20. Athletes can sign up at the SST office before the camp or show up on Saturday at 8 a.m. to sign up and pay the fee. A T-shirt is included in the fee. Bunz says he "would love to have 100 participants but if we have 50 or 60" he would be happy.There will also be a seminar for teachers and coaches on Friday evening about speed, power and development. It is worth one unit of course work at UC San Diego.Bunz graduated form Oakmont High and won two Super Bowls while playing linebacker for the 49ers from 1978-84. He made a crucial tackle in the 49ers Super-Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in January of 1982. It was voted as the third greatest tackle in the 40-year history of the Super Bowl this year (http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5282582).Bunz, who spent time coaching linebackers at Sierra College and CSUS following his professional career, hopes this camp will be an annual event.More information about the camp can be found at sportsspecifictraining.net.