Scouting report on Cali ATH Shane Vereen

One of our favorite 7 on 7 passing tournaments to cover every year is the Huntington Beach (Calif.) Edison tournament that just took place this past weekend. One player we watched especially close was Valencia (Calif.) two way standout Shane Vereen who lived up to his billing as one of the state's top athletes.

Vereen, 5-10, 175 pounds has been making major noise for Valencia since his sophomore season. The athlete earned 1st team all-state underclass honors after rushing for 1,399 yards, to go with 55 catches for 727 yards. As a junior, he again earned all-state underclass honors after rushing for 1,638 yards and 28 touchdowns and caught 52 balls for 898 yards and seven more scores.

The athlete added 43 tackles and three interceptions on defense and after seeing him at the passing tournament, we definitely feel corner is where Vereen projects best at in college. For starters, he has tremendous speed and finished 7th in the state this past track season in the 100m with a 10.76 clocking.

More importantly than having good track speed, Vereen has football speed and very quick feet. He's not a long strider but is very quick and has the ability to turn and run with anyone but also has the ability to change direction and can really break on the ball.

We have no doubt Vereen could play running back in college and there isn't a school in the country who isn't looking for that home run hitter type at running back. It's just in our eyes, his size and skill level would be better off on the defensive side of the ball. We're not sure Vereen is big enough to be an every down back in college but he does have a chance to be a lock down corner that would never leave the field on defense.

On the recruiting front, Vereen has scholarship offers from a host of schools including USC, UCLA, Cal, Oregon, Stanford, Colorado, Arizona, Mississippi and BYU to name a few. We caught up with Viking coach Larry Muir to get his take on where Vereen's recruitment is going.

"To be honest, and I don't mean to be vague, I really don't think Shane is leaning in any direction right now," Muir said. "He's going to take his time with everything and is seriously looking at a lot of schools. I think Shane will take all his trips and really isn't in any hurry to make a decision."

According to many close to the situation, Vereen is leaning to the two L.A schools but wants to play running back and feels the Trojans and Bruins want him more for defense. It will be interesting to see how his recruitment plays out and one lukcy school will be getting a very talented player in Vereen come February.