THE DISTINXION COMBINE
Measure yourself against the pros. Then aim higher.
Four Sundays in September and October — Underwood, Spencer, Evansville, Washington. Eight sessions, grades 8–12, 32 athletes each. All of it right here.
THE NBA COMBINE DOESN'T COME TO YOU. NOBODY WAS BRINGING IT HERE. SO WE DID.
Every spring, a few dozen of the best basketball players alive get flown to Chicago and measured to the quarter inch — timed, tested, and evaluated by people who do this for a living. That invitation doesn't come to Evansville. It doesn't come to Spencer either.
So we brought it here. Not a version of it. The real thing — run by Clif Marshall, NBA Draft Combine and NFL Combine trainer and eight seasons as Director of Athletic Performance for Indiana men's basketball, with every number verified.
Nobody was bringing this home. Not the shoe circuits, not the showcases, not anyone with a logo and a mailing list — they run their events where the airports are and wait for you to drive to them. For us this isn't an outreach trip. DistinXion was founded here in 2010 and never left. Luke Zeller grew up here. Clif Marshall has been in Bloomington almost a decade — it's his home now too. Every year we bring a little more of it back to where we live. This year it's the combine. It won't be the last thing.
The same five performance tests they run at the NBA Draft Combine — and an evaluation from someone who came out of a town like yours and made it all the way to the floor.
You'll get a written report within one week: every measurable, every testing result, an evaluation from watching you play and compete, and a clear breakdown of your strengths and what to work on next.
You don't need an invitation. You need a Sunday afternoon.
THE DATES
Sunday, September 13 — Country Lake Retreat Center, Underwood
Sunday, September 20 — Owen Valley High School, Spencer
Sunday, October 4 — Evansville North High School, Evansville
Sunday, October 11 — Washington High School, Washington
Check in 30 minutes before your session. 32 athletes per session — when a session is full, it's full.
We're from here. We know what Sunday morning means in Southern Indiana, and we know what it means to be a multi-sport athlete in the 33 counties we serve — Friday night is claimed, Saturday is claimed, and a family shouldn't have to choose between church and a combine. So we moved to Sunday afternoons.
Running late coming from church? Email Luke Zeller at LZeller@DXNChampions.org and we'll sort it out.
Church in the morning. Basketball all afternoon. That's about as good as a Sunday gets around here.
PRICING
$99 per athlete.
Early Bird: $49 — register by 11:59 PM the Saturday of the week prior.
Sept 13, Country Lake — early bird ends Saturday, Sept 5, 11:59 PM
Sept 20, Owen Valley — early bird ends Saturday, Sept 12, 11:59 PM
Oct 4, Evansville North — early bird ends Saturday, Sept 26, 11:59 PM
Oct 11, Washington HS — early bird ends Saturday, Oct 3, 11:59 PM
Applying to DistinXion CHAMPIONS? Your first combine is $20. Every athlete who applies for our 2027 teams can attend one combine at the applicant rate, and may also submit up to 2 full games of film. Either one gets you evaluated. Doing both tells our coaches the most. A second combine is regular price — $99, or $49 early bird.
We could field more teams. Adding rosters is the easiest kind of growth there is. We'd rather go deeper than wider — faith, character, and basketball are things you teach a person, not a roster count. Every athlete who walks through our door, laces up, and looks up wondering what they could become gets our full attention. That isn't a slogan, it's arithmetic. Our rosters are eight, sometimes nine when a group makes it impossible to say no. Small enough that nobody gets lost, and small enough that we can actually keep the promise.
So the spots are genuinely limited, and we'd still love for you to apply. Either way, the combine is yours. Your numbers, your evaluation, and your report come to you regardless of what a roster looks like in the spring.
SCHOLARSHIPS
DistinXion is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Since 2010 we've awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships, and we've yet to turn a family away over what something cost.
If your athlete qualifies for free or reduced-price school lunch, apply for a combine scholarship — it covers the $49 combine or the $20 applicant fee. If your situation doesn't fit neatly in that box, ask anyway. We don't want cost standing between an athlete and a set of verified numbers, and nobody on the floor will know who came on scholarship.
DistinXion is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. If your athlete qualifies for free or reduced-price school lunch, apply for a combine scholarship — it covers the $49 combine or the $20 applicant fee. We don't want cost standing between an athlete and a set of verified numbers.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE TESTING
The worst thing we could do is test a gym full of athletes, collect the sheets, put them in a binder, and never do anything meaningful with the numbers. So here's what happens instead.
Every athlete gets a written report within a week — all of their measurables, all of their testing results, an evaluation from watching them play and compete, and an honest breakdown of what they do well and what to work on next. Not a score. A starting point.
When all four combines are finished, we'll publish Top 10 leaderboards for men and women — standing vertical, max vertical, three-quarter court sprint, lane agility, and the shooting competition. The athletes at the top get recognized by name. Everyone else sees exactly where they stand privately, in their own report.
Those five performance tests are the same ones run at the NBA Draft Combine. Same measurements, same standards, same numbers a scout would look at — in a gym in Southern Indiana, on a Sunday afternoon.
A number you never look at again isn't worth anything. This is meant to be something to chase.
THE HATCHET HOUSE HAS MORE SEATS THAN THE NBA HAS EVER HAD PLAYERS
The Hatchet House seats 7,090. In nearly eighty years, roughly 4,900 men have played a single minute in the NBA. Put every one of them in that gym at the same time and you'd still be staring at two thousand empty seats.
Three of those 4,900 grew up playing in that building — Luke, Tyler, and Cody Zeller, three brothers out of Washington, Indiana. Nobody would call that likely. On October 11 we're running a combine in that gym.
This doesn't happen. Clif Marshall does not spend his Sundays in high school gyms in Southern Indiana — he has spent his career with professional athletes and first-round picks, preparing them for the week that decides their careers. Luke Zeller doesn't have to be in a gym on a Sunday afternoon either. They'll be at all four together: Underwood, Spencer, Evansville, and on October 11 the Hatchet House — Luke back on the floor he grew up on, Clif running the testing beside him. That combination has never been available to an athlete from here at any price, let alone this one.
Coming back to that building to measure the next kid out of an Indiana town is the entire reason this exists.
THE TRUTH OF WHERE YOU ARE
We live in an age of highlight reels, rankings, follower counts, and everybody's opinion of everybody else. None of that has changed the physical truth of this game. A tape can be edited. A ranking is somebody's guess. A vertical is a number, and it is the same number whether anyone is watching or not.
You can't develop from a perception. You can only develop from the truth.
The greatest coach the game has ever produced was from right here in Indiana. John Wooden grew up in Martinsville, played guard for the Artesians, and won a state championship in 1927 before he ever left the state. He went on to win ten national titles in twelve years at UCLA — seven of them in a row, a record nobody has approached since. ESPN named him the coach of the twentieth century. He belongs to Indiana first.
And nowhere in Indiana does this game run deeper than down here. Bird came out of Springs Valley in French Lick. The Zellers came out of the Hatchet House. This is small gyms with big banners, towns that empty out on Friday night, and gyms that seat more people than the town has. DistinXion is THE Southern Indiana program, and we take that history seriously — it's the reason any of this matters.
But we're not running a combine about the past. We respect where this game has been. This is about where you are right now, today, measured honestly — because the present is the only place anybody has ever built a future from.
And he spent his life insisting that success isn't the scoreboard and isn't anybody's ranking of you. He defined it as the quiet certainty that you did everything within your power to become as good as you were capable of being. That's not a standard you can measure against somebody else's highlight reel. You measure it against where you actually started.
He also said this: "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." Of everything we put on your sheet, exactly two numbers are fixed. We'll let Clif tell you which two.
caption: Clif Marshall on the only two numbers you can't change
Everything else moves. Every other number on that page moves for the athletes who go to work on it.
So that's what a day with us is. Where you are, measured honestly. Where you could get to, assessed honestly. And the distance between the two, written down and handed to you — because that gap is the only thing anybody has ever been able to train.
This is Indiana. This is basketball. Come find out where you are.
Open to every athlete, grades 8–12. 32 athletes per session — when a session is full, it's full.
Be Positively Different. Pound The Rock!
C.H.A.M.P.I.O.N.S.
The same nine words since 2010 — taught here before a single athlete on our floor this fall ever started kindergarten. Nothing rebranded, nothing updated for the times.
C — Character
H — Honesty
A — Attitude
M — Motivation
P — Perseverance
I — I am responsible
O — Optimism
N — Network of friends
S — Serve others