<p>In the portal era, it’s harder than ever for high school football players to get recruited.</p><p>The degree of difficulty increases for lower-profile programs that aren’t regular stops when college coaches make their rounds every spring. And affordability, an increasing real-world concern, also is an issue for players who have a hard time finding money for travel and entry fees to the traditional summer camps.</p><p>But the growing problem has a new solution: a series of combines that began in late April in southern Illinois and are continuing this month throughout the Chicago area.</p><p>The spring combines were spearheaded by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association, which secured IHSA sanctioning.</p><p>For programs like Muchin and players like Mountain Lions junior defensive back Izel Lumbreras, the combines are a way to level the playing field and get on colleges’ radar.</p><p>Muchin was one of 11 teams that participated Wednesday in the Hinsdale Central combine, which drew more than a hundred college coaches from FCS programs such as Western Illinois and Valparaiso to NAIA and Division III programs.</p><p>“It matters to me because we’re not just repping for us,” Lumbreras told the Sun-Times. “We’re repping for all Chicago public schools.