By De’Issac House

South Panola’s Darrell Henderson was the most impressive man of the day and combine MVP with a 4.29— 40 as South and North Panola players gathered with top players from across the country for the Southern Elite Combine Wednesday at Lafayette High School. 

The camp consisted of approximately 120 athletes with some of the top colleges in the country including Ole Miss and Florida looking on. 

North Panola and South Panola had a combined eight players attending. From North Panola quarterback Jatavious Farmer, athlete Darius Thomas, wide receiver Robert Oliver and running back Justin Connor attended.

Connor could not participate because of a broken fibula acquired during the spring game. He did receive plenty of attention from scouts, coaches and the Clarion Ledger even though injured. 

Representing South Panola were running back Darrell Henderson, quarterback Tyler Pogue, middle linebacker Anfrenee “Buddy” Benson and slot receiver Roosevelt Jones. 

Starting off the day everyone did bench press reps, repping 185 pounds as many times as they could. 

Next, everyone did an elite group stretch before splitting into groups. Those groups broke off into the 40-yard dash, three cone drill, shuttle drill and broad jump. After lunch the participants did 1-on-1 drills and 7vs.7.

In the 40-yard dash, Farmer clocked 4.9, Oliver ran 4.8 and Thomas had the fastest time of the three with a 4.49, also the second fastest time of the Panolians.  

Benson clocked 4.9 in the 40, 4.5 in the shuttle drill, 21 reps on bench press, jumped 8’6” on the broad jump and had an 8.0 time on the three-cone drill. 

“I had a decent day in the combine,” Benson said,” but my day was better in 1-on-1’s and 7v7.”

Pogue ran a 4.89 in the 40, benched three reps on bench press, jumped 10’ on broad jump, timed a 4.34 on the shuttle drill and ran 7.32 on thethree-cone drill. 

“The combine testing was good,” Pogue said,”but I have a lot of room to improve.” 

Jones clocked a 4.5 in the 40, he jumped 10’5” on the broad jump, ran 6.92 in the shuttle drill and ran 4.1 in the three-cone drill. He did not participate in the bench press. 

“I had a great performance all around,” Jones said, “around some great players.” 

The most impressive man of the day and MVP of the combine was running back Darrell Henderson. 

He ran a 3.82 in the 3 cone drill, jumped 10’1”, 7.01 in the shuttle drill, and blazed the turf with a 40 time of 4.29

“I had to prove a point,” Henderson said,”that I’m still the fastest man in Mississippi.” 

He looked impressive and proved his point to be the fastest man aroundand was eventually earned MVP of the combine. 

He ran the 40 twice during the combine after running it the first time and messing up  his start, he ran a 4.36. 

The timers believed he could run faster if they gave him another chance so he ran again and showed everybody that he indeed is the fastest man around.

Henderson said he was disappointed in his 40 time because he wanted to run faster. 

He said that he was aiming for a time around 4.24 and would work harder to accomplish that time. 

He also said this is the usual for him and he expects nothing else from himself. 

Henderson also made it known that he plans on leading the charge for the Tigers this season and wants to be the All-Time leading rusher in the South Panola school history. 

“I am the fastest man in Mississippi and plan to hold on to my title,” Henderson said.