Tipp football hosts MVL Showcase

For the fifth consecutive year, the Tippecanoe football team participated in the MVL Football Showcase, a full day where college football coaches around the region and beyond converged on Tipp Stadium to watch the Red Devils go through workouts, in the hopes of landing a future prospect. 

It was a little different this year. In the past, coaches would travel to almost every school in the league, watching their workouts for an hour. This year, to make things easier on them, Tipp and Butler both worked out at the Tipp Park from 8-10:15 a.m., then the coaches drove up to Piqua to see the Indians, Sidney, and Greenville. Later in the day, they headed to the southern schools.

Troy chose not to participate again this year, making it the only school not involved in this event.

“It is huge for us, and we have great athletes and kids, and I believe this day has propelled our kids to go play college football,” said Tipp coach Matt Burgbacher. “We started this in 2022 and had Liam Poronsky, who is still at Dayton, Stanley Clyne, who is now up at Youngstown State. This is a great chance for college coaches to see these kids do things in person.”

“It’s the eye test that is even more important now with the transfer portal and all of those things. It is a big day for our kids, and we have a lot who have that dream of playing college football.”

Tipp got good news from Mother Nature as the rain ended prior to the start of the workout.  Last year this had to move into the gym. It was a perfect day for the college coaches to see them in their natural environment… on the field.

“The coaches want to see these kids move, so we have altered some drills to show the athleticism these kids have,” Burgbacher said. “Also, for guys like Larkin Thomas, Cade Havill, Ryan Kolb, Cal Connors, and Raiden Nichols… this was a huge day for them. We had some D1 coaches come to see them. We wanted to show what they do well.”

Even with football still three months away, the kids began preparing for this event back in December and it helped build their confidence to put on a good showing.

“The kids knew May was going to be a big month for us, and they needed to be ready,” Burgbacher said. “They have been preparing for this and once you prepare to the best of your ability, the confidence is there.”

“Yes, this was a big day for them, but it wasn’t the end of the world.”

*Tipp will have a few camp days in early June, then prepare for a busy July of camp, practice, 7-on-7s and more to get ready for the first day of practice which starts August 3.