I recently visited Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, OR. See what I saw via my story at Standardatl.com

Troy Polamalu gives defensive advice to eager ears.

Nike 7ON is a two-day tournament event that pits teams made up of a quarterback, wide receiver and running back on offense against line backers and defensive backs on defense –battling on a 50-yard field for football supremacy.

This year’s participating teams predominately featured teams from the south, such as Miami Northwestern Senior High School - 2009 and 2010 winners (Miami), HB Plant High School (Tampa, Fla.), David. W. Butler High School (Mathews, N.C.), Martin High School (Arlington, Texas), Guyer High School (Denton, Texas), Glenville High School (Cleveland), and Gardena High School (Gardena, Calif.).

It’s unreal to see how high-school athletic performance has advanced in the last few years and I wouldn’t have realized this dynamic change without experiencing this action. Check out some photos from the 2 days of competition through the lens of Joe Martinez.
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As a continuation of our coverage on Nike SPARQ Training (where I skinned my knee in May), we spent a few days last week covering the SPARQ Rating National Championship in Beaverton, Oregon on Nike’s campus. This national competition placed high school football players with top SPARQ ratings against each other.

Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos quarterback, was there to host the event and to crown the nation’s “Top Football Player”. See more after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »