Almost immediately after his senior season concluded, Troy wide receiver Damion Willis traveled to Orlando, Florida, to prepare for the NFL Draft.

Willis, a Southeast Lauderdale alumnus, began at the complex owned by renowned NFL Combine trainer Tom Shaw in order to improve some of his measurables. At Troy’s pro day Monday, Willis ran a 4.48 40-yard dash time, something he was excited about after finding out his official time.

“The first time I did the 40 I ran a 4.5 flat, and I was mad and said I wanted to strain more to pull it off,” Willis recalled. “I only clocked it once when I was training at Tom Shaw’s, and I knew when the scouts came (to pro day) and the adrenaline was pumping I would pull it out. I was pretty happy.”

Improving his 40-yard time was just one goal of Willis’ following the conclusion of his college career at Troy. At 6-foot-3, Willis has good height for a potential NFL wide receiver, but he felt like he needed to beef up a bit to help handle the physicality of professional football. Tom Shaw’s program gave Willis a nutrition program designed to help him gain muscle without sacrificing his speed.

“They really changed my diet and helped me start putting the right stuff in my body,” Willis said. “I weighed 193 to start with, and the weight lifting and nutrition program, that really changed me.”

Willis now weighs 204 pounds, and with the speed training he did alongside the strength training, he didn’t sacrifice speed for muscle.

“That was very exciting, because that was one of my biggest concerns when I packed on pounds,” Willis said. “My speed was still there, and I was actually surprised that I got faster.”

In addition to running the 40, Willis also had a broad jump of 9.2 inches and a 33.5-inch vertical jump at Troy’s pro day, numbers he said he hopes to improve in the future.

“I felt good overall,” Willis said of Monday’s pro day. “The vertical wasn’t what I wanted it to be at, but we did all of our testing drills outside first and did our vertical and broad last, so it was different than what I was practicing.”

With the NFL Draft just more than a month away — the first round begins Thursday, April 25 — Willis said he isn’t letting the anxiety of the wait get to him.

“I’m excited,” Willis said. “You only go through the process one time, so I’m happy to go through it and have a chance to be drafted and get on a team.”

As a senior, Willis caught 56 passes for 876 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Trojans this past season. A 2015 graduate of Southeast Lauderdale, Willis spent two years at East Mississippi Community College before transferring to Troy as an upperclassman. Making it all the way from Meridian to the NFL would be a dream come true, Willis said. 

“It would mean a lot,” Willis said. “Not too many people from our area make the NFL, so it would show that we had players down here, not just in Florida and Georgia.”

While he said he doesn’t have a specific pro wide receiver he tries to emulate, Willis always enjoyed watching six-time Pro Bowler Brandon Marshall during his playing career.

“He’s my height, but he weighs more than me,” Willis said. “I like how he played the game, how he was physical and was able to go up and attack the ball.”