Photo courtesy of Hudson County.
It’s 10 a.m. on a Wednesday in April. Instead of getting ready for a day at the classroom, hundreds of students laced up their sneakers, threw on breathable t-shirts and shorts and packed some frozen bottles of Gatorade in preparation for the Hudson County Combine.
Ruston Bissoo was happy to “get away” from school, play sports and meet new people. And even though he had to compete on a slippery floor, it wasn’t enough to throw him off for the games.
Bissoo is one of the 600 students who participated in the second annual Hudson County Sports in Education Combine at High Tech High School on April 15, which marked the culmination of an 18-week Sports in Education program (SiEP) that focused on sports fundamentals, leadership building, wellness and overall sports learning throughout 26 schools in Hudson County. The initiative was funded by Hudson County in partnership with local organizations, Prime Athletic Development and the Rashawn Jackson Endowment Fund.
When Bissoo realized how far he’s come, he smiled.
“You gotta care about your education because that plays a huge part here in your future, especially if you wanna do sports or any career that you want to do. So that really stood out to me [today] because I used to be a slacker,” Bisso, a junior at Ferris High School, told Slice of Culture.
“And now getting older, as I want to do volleyball in college, I gotta focus on my education [too].”
The 2026-2027 SiEP grant is currently open for organizations to apply for and provide opportunities like the Combine. The application closes this coming Sunday, April 26 at 12 p.m. local time.
The grant aims to invest in sports instruction and education for students in grades 3-12 throughout Hudson County. If you’re an organization and interested in applying, you can read the guidelines here. Then, you can apply here.
The grant will then open up from Monday, May 4 to Sunday, May 24 for Hudson County schools and school districts to apply for.
A Day Of Fun, Competition And ‘Memories’
The Combine was a two-day event held at High Tech in Secaucus, which left an open gym for 600 students to compete in and show off what they’ve learned and developed within the 18 weeks. Those schools included:
Students were sectioned off to test their speed, agility, strength and jump through technical drills plus quick basketball and soccer games, which were all run by coaches they had throughout the program.
In between the cheers, hard breaths and sneakers rubbing against the court, you could hear students laughing or dancing.
“These two days are the best part of this program because [the students] get to feel the energy and everything that they’ve worked up to for these past 18 weeks… it requires dedication and passion and they have to be just as involved with it as we are…,” Gina Hulings, the Hudson County director of culture and heritage affairs, explained.
“It makes me so proud and so honored to be a part of this program, be a part of the county to offer this to all of our public and charter schools throughout the county.”
The Combine wrapped up with an award ceremony where each school was recognized for their most improved and most valuable players among the boys and girls.
Bissoo was named the most improved player among the boys for Ferris High School, which made the Bulldogs’ side of the bleachers roar.
On the other side of the stands, Gertie Cantos, a senior at Union City High School, was recognized as the most improved player among the girls at UCHS. The crowd of students gave her the same energy.
Cantos told Slice of Culture that while she felt so happy during the day, she was also sad.
“This is my last year being in this opportunity, experiencing new things and creating memories [here]. I’m officially going through adulthood now, so this is something that I had to be more aware of and I’m gonna miss being [here],” she said.
“… I believe the purpose of this [program] is to actually give a lot of potential and a message to every single student, including that no matter where you go through, no matter where you come from, the point of it is to at least go through the path that you want to be in by working really hard, by achieving that goal that you really wanna pursue. And it’s a message to all of us that no matter how hard life gets, you have to find a way to make it the best out of it.”
– Gertie Cantos
The Bigger Meaning Behind Accessible Sports Recreation For The Youth
Mark Johnson and his sports performance company, Prime Athletic Development, was one of the driving forces behind the Combine and overall program. His team helped put the students to the test, emulating an NFL Combine, which puts football prospects through physical and mental tests for a week.
“They put the time in, they put the effort in, and now they get to display their performance here today and get them a gauge on where they are athletic wise,” Johnson told Slice of Culture.
“… We want our kids to persevere, get through any hardship that they may go through at a young age or even later on in life. So it’s a program that prepares them physically, mentally and emotionally.”
Prime Athletic Development started in 2020 to offer a space for recreation, which gathered kids from Union City to Bayonne. In September 2025, they opened up their first gym at 690 Broadway in Bayonne. They’re an “open door policy,” meaning anyone is welcome to get training and/or mentorship.
Additionally, Jersey City native Rashawn Jackson and his team at the Rashawn Jackson Endowment Fund (RJEF) helped round out the wellness piece of the program. The fund focuses on health and wellness, community engagement, parental engagement, mental health assistance and character development for students and their families.
Jackson—who’s a former NFL player with the Carolina Panthers and Oakland Raiders—told Slice of Culture about his time in the professional league and what it meant to him as a kid from Jersey City.
“It started with going to the University of Virginia. I used to wear ‘201’ on my eye patch. So wherever we played, wherever I went, I always had ‘201’ on my eye patch…,” he reminisced.
“It was my outward expression of pride for where I’m from… it felt great to see people respect, honor and appreciate our culture.”
Ira Guilford and Dominic Fermin, as part of RJEF, helped give out a Cognitive Skills Assessment, which emulated one that Jackson received when he went through the NFL Combine. Both Guilford and Fermin echoed that recreation offers a safe, productive space that kids might not always have access to.
“Sometimes you can show up in ways for kids that they’re not able to receive at home, and in addition to that, you can help connect them to relationships that they can still foster later on into their years,” Fermin added.
As part of the Combine, the county also brought in motivational speakers including Coach Bob Hurley, Coach Alex Calaoui, Coach James Turner, Alberico De Pierro, Corey Stokes, Eamonn Matthews and Sophia Barresi.
At the end of the day, the overarching message for the kids was: you can do it.
“You may not think it because you’re watching television, you see these high level superstars and you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s, that’s such a big thing.’ But if you put your head down, if you focus, if you grind every single day, get into a routine. It could happen a lot sooner than you think,” Johnson said.
“So if you leave today learning one thing, it’s persistence. Stay on top of this. Stay consistent, keep working hard and things will happen.”
Jackson added, “Ultimately I want them to see me here in this moment giving back and imagine themselves being in the same position. Because I see future NFL players here. I see future NBA players here, I see future MLB players and there’s also a lot of smart students here.
It’s not just athletes here. We have some engineers here, we have some mathematicians here, we have some scientists here. And those guys are gonna be very successful. So I’m hoping that with that success they are able to understand the responsibility that giving back is the most important thing and hopefully they can appreciate it as much as I do.”
Hudson County will also soon be opening their Arts in Education program. You can check out more information about that here.
