VA natives Kai Hodge and Kaden Beatty impress at The SHOW

Here are a few athletes from Virginia that had solid performances at The SHOW by NextGen this past weekend. <strong>Kai Hodge/5-10/190/Running Back/2022/Atlantic Shores</strong> <img class="size-medium wp-image-164533 alignright" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/redzone/uploads/2021/06/kai-hodge-crop-820x538-1625048166-300x197.jpeg" alt="Kai Hodge" width="300" height="197" />Class of 2022 athlete Kai Hodge put on a show at The SHOW by NextGen this past weekend. Hodge competed in the Diamond Division’s 7v7 tournament as a part of Team Mamba. The Diamond Division had a majority of athletes in the 2022 and 2023 classes. Hodge and his teammates played over ten 7v7 games over 48 hours. Hodge is a 5-10, 190-pound, running back prospect. I first saw him at the NextGen All America Camp in New Jersey back in May. <blockquote>Kai Hodge rushed 66 times for 660 yards and eight touchdowns and caught eight passes for 141 yards. I confirmed a few things that I watched on film after watching him in person. He’s not a fast-twitch guy, he runs with a stride and can run past and around the first and second wave of defenders. Hodge impressed me with his ability to make people miss during the “cat and mouse” drill. Hodge also caught a lot of passes during 1v1’s against the linebackers. He’s a north-south runner. He will need to work on being a little faster off the ball. - Ed O’Brien live evaluation of Kai Hodge back in May 2021.</blockquote> Hudl Link – <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/15120036/5fdce943f56a28175c553dd4">https://www.hudl.com/video/3/15120036/5fdce943f56a28175c553dd4</a> Hodge was one standout on Team Mamba because of his performance on both sides of the football. It’s hard for running backs to stand out during 7v7 but Hodge could do just that over the weekend. He was a clear mismatch for any linebackers that tried to cover him downfield. In fact, there weren’t too many defensive backs that could contain him, either. Hodge also put in a lot of work on the defensive side of the football.  He is just a superb athlete that deserves more attention from college coaches. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="127629" first="Kaden" last="Beatty"]/6-2/265/Defensive Tackle/2022/Atlantic Shores</strong> Beatty, an offensive guard, finished as one of the Top 15 defensive linemen at the event. In fact, Beatty ended up being recognized as one of the Top 6 defensive linemen at The SHOW. It impressed me with how he used different pass-rush moves during the 1v1’s against the offensive linemen. Beatty used the long-arm approach which involved him extending his arms and getting into the offensive linemen’s chest. That allowed him to keep the offensive linemen’s hands away from his chest and get past him to make the would-be sack. Beatty showed he had an arsenal up his sleeve as he used his spin and his under-and-over moves to beat offensive linemen during the 1v1 period. He also showed a lot of effort and hustle during the individual drill session that i could watch on Day 1 of the event. &nbsp; &nbsp;