Long gone are the days when college coaches were permitted to attend high school football combines, but that hasn’t diminished the wow factor locally.

Of more than 250 participants in Saturday’s Pacific Islands Athletic Alliance Football Combine, many popped out with impressive numbers on the new synthetic turf at Castle High School. Saint Louis wide receiver Devan Stubblefield was one of them. The speedster, recently offered a chance to play football and baseball at UH, registered a time of 6.86 seconds in the L-drill — one of the top times of the day — and posted a vertical leap of about 35 inches, he said. As an explosive playmaker on the field at roughly 6-foot-2, and a clutch player on the diamond — he possesses a strong arm in the outfield — he’s among the most interesting athletes to watch in the coming year.

"We did a combine last week at Saint Louis just to see where we were," Stubblefield said. "We’ve been doing both combine training and football training. Once baseball season is done, it’s football season. I want to play both in college."

He likes the prospect of playing for Warriors coach Norm Chow — assistant coach Chris Naeole is the point man on the prospect — but he’s "keeping his options open."

He will have an opportunity to step into a bigger role now that premier receiver Jeremy Tabuyo (Texas A&M) has graduated. He’ll also have a strong-armed slinger (Ryder Kuhns) in the pocket.

"I’m ready. I’m training hard and hopefully it pays off in the end," Stubblefield said. "Ryder Kuhns, that’s a big name. He’s got the starting job."

His L-drill time was a bit of a stunner, considering the freshness of the field, with its pristine, mint-condition rubber granules. Every so often, an athlete slipped on the surface.

"This reminds me of the time we did the combine on Saint Louis’ new (synthetic) field," PIAA executive director Doris Sullivan said.

With Punahou defensive end Canton Kaumatule, the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the class of 2015 according to one recruiting site, sitting out with an ankle injury, it wasn’t hard for other underclassmen to step up.

Kaiser lineman Marcus Mafi, a 6-5, 250-pound sophomore-to-be, ran a 4.9 40-yard dash.

"I play every position on the line," said Mafi, who recently moved into the Kaiser district and transferred from Damien. "At Kaiser, it’s so positive. I’m striving to do better in my grades, a lot better at school. When we train at Kaiser, we did all of this."

The switch to Kaiser felt natural, he said.

All my cousins played there and they told me how good the school was. They can help me because I’m dyslexic and I have ADHD," he said.

Mafi plans to keep playing basketball. He played on Damien’s varsity team last winter.

"That helps me with my conditioning," he said. "Punahou’s returning all-state left tackle, Semisi Uluave (6-5, 306) wasn’t happy with his performance. But the junior-to-be had already run a 4.7 40 at the SPARQ Combine in California recently.

"It’s a little bit slippery, not that bad. I really wanted to get my agility and 40 good," he said.