Nine years ago, Penn State hosted its first Nike Camp for approximately 200 high school athletes. Since then, the camp has doubled in size. Over 400 athletes from 15 different states crammed into Holuba Hall on Penn State's campus last year to showcase their speed, strength and ability.

After the Penn State Nike Camp in 2005, Student Sports President Andy Bark said Penn State will probably finish as the second largest camp behind Stanford.

"We're 450 today, but that's invite only pretty much," Nike Camp quarterbacks coach Bob Johnson added. "If we left it open, there would be 700 kids here."

Student Sports teamed up with another sponsor about 12 years ago to start a combine oriented camp for high school football players. A few years later, Nike approached Student Sports about changing the focus of the camp.

"About eight years ago, Nike said 'hey we would really like to do something if you could even pick it up a little bit and better apply training' so we started doing the Nike version which we think is the best training camp and combine that is out there for high school athletes."

So how do high school players receive invitations to the camp?

"We identify them through our various networks, like Rivals and our Student Sports guys," Bark said. "Once we get that accomplished, we get them here, work them out, train them and hopefully move them out of here a better football player and person."

Each camp is broken down into four parts. First athletes have the option of participating in the combine phase of the camp where they can be tested in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle run, bench press (185 pounds) and vertical jump.

Then they go through SPARQ training which stands for speed, power, agility, reaction and quickness. In this phase of the camp, athletes perform cone and ladder drills among others to improve overall athletic ability.

The third section of the camp breaks everyone up into specific positions where they work on individual football skills. Finally athletes compete one-on-one in passing and non-contact line drills to showcase their talent.

"The idea is to really take the kids who are really the most committed, who work hard and are going to the next level and give them a chance to learn what many of the private schools get in terms of training and hopefully give them an advantage to go on," Bark said.

The Nike Camp not only draws hundreds of athletes, but dozens of college assistant coaches to get a glimpse of some potential recruits for the following year. Because of NCAA rules, coaches were not permitted to attend the camp until three years ago when the rules changed for evaluating recruits.

"The last two or three years when coaches have been able to come here that increases the importance of it as well," Jonhson said. "So all the college staffs you saw here, it's a great time for them to do that (evaluate)."

From the No. 1 recruit in the country with 50 scholarship offers to a player without any Division 1-A scholarship offers, every athlete has a different reason for showing up to these camps.

Although the Nike Camp continues to grow in popularity among high school football players, the maximum size of the camp will most likely stay below 500.

"There's not enough field space to train the kids and teach them and take care of them in a safe environment," Bark said. "You've got to limit it."