'He's the 40, combine guru': Pete Bommarito prepares NFL draft prospects for the combine in South Florida

David Furones, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Feb 21, 2025

Published in Football

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AVENTURA, Fla. — Pete Bommarito sits in his chair at the 40-yard marker away from a football player about to turn track sprinter for the next few seconds. He’s locked in on more details than a quarterback at the line of scrimmage reading a defense, calling an audible, adjusting protection and signaling hot routes.

Bommarito has cameras positioned every 10 yards on the track set up on a football turf sideline. He’s got trainers and employees positioned at the starting line and another one taking video on a tablet opposite his post on the track.

A group of 20-plus NFL draft hopefuls line up to run either a 40-yard dash or the first 20 yards of it, depending on what their focus is ahead of next week’s scouting combine. They’re all hyper-focused on presenting the best version of themselves to NFL teams, starting Monday in Indianapolis.

Every few runs at his facility, Bommarito pinches some blades of grass off the turf and sprinkles them to gauge the wind. As the athletes he’s training get in position, he analyzes everything from their stance to their explosion at take-off, how they stride and use their arms during the sprint, the finish, the slowdown after crossing the finish line and probably tons of other minute details many wouldn’t even consider. He holds his stopwatch up to get as accurate a time as possible on the run.

There’s much more that goes into it than simply running as hard and fast as one can.

He even has to remind someone who trips on his get-off to just stop and walk back to the starting line slowly. That goes against a football mindset. Once the ball is snapped on the field, there is no stopping mid-play. But these prospects have to understand that pushing through a bad start only makes a run not representative of one’s best official in the testing.

With each passing prospect, he scribbles what he noticed into his notebook. Once everyone has done the first round, he gathers them to go over their times and highlights some pointers from his observations. They go through a second round of sprints.

This is what the mock combine looks like at Bommarito Performance Systems for maybe about half of Bommarito’s draft hopefuls going through testing on this given day.

Bommarito, as he’s done for two decades in South Florida, helps convert these football players into athletes proficient in track and field for the most important job interview they’ll have in their career.

“We’re preparing for a track and field event that just happens to have football drills, jumps and bench (press) and everything else on top of it, including medical exams and interviews,” Bommarito said. “We got to make sure we peak up like we’re going to the Olympic finals.”

“You turn into real track athletes,” said University of Miami offensive lineman Jalen Rivers, one of those prospects who went through a second mock combine Tuesday before the real thing next week at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Bommarito isn’t just laying some cones on a field and conducting drills. He has high-tech equipment, cameras, resistance bands, sleds and more all over his fields, one in the Aventura/North Miami Beach area and another in Davie.

Beyond the on-field work and weight training, there’s an emphasis on medical evaluation and treatment and analysis of nutrition and sleep cycles for the athletes.

“We’re the full package,” Bommarito said. “Everything we do is comprehensive. So it’s not just about speed training; it’s about the medical joint prep. It’s not just about the football training; it’s the recovery, the regeneration.”

Bommarito’s trainees in the past have seen results. NFL players like Braden Fiske, Will Mallory, Tyler Smith, Chris Lindstrom and countless others had impressive combines that boosted their draft stock.

“He’s the best. He’s the 40, combine guru,” said Notre Dame defensive tackle Howard Cross, one of the prospects working out separately from the mock combine. “I’ve seen the statistics, like 98 percent of his guys do everything above average, with technique. That’s why I came here. Trust him fully, and so far, I’ve learned so much.”

Word of mouth gets passed down from football players in every draft class, and then many of them come back for offseason training. Like in every aspect of his training, Bommarito has the data to back him up in terms of combine results.

“Really, just great reviews from most people,” Boston College center Drew Kendall said. “The biggest thing in this business is results, and they were always happy with their results at the end of the day. Talking with them, they felt like they got the most out of it.”

Added Texas guard Hayden Conner, upon listing examples of Bommarito’s offensive linemen to have big combines: “Just trying to be my own version of that type of success story.”

When you listen to analysts marvel over which draft prospects proved to be the greatest athletic freaks at the combine in a little more than a week, odds are you’ll be hearing the names of at least a few players who benefitted from the behind-the-scenes work of Bommarito.