By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
WILLIAMSTON — Cameron Price may have played only one year of varsity football, but it was one heck of a season.
After starting out his varsity athletic career playing soccer for the first two seasons, Price decided to join his brother Nate on the football field as a junior.
For Price, it was his first time back on a football field since middle school and he could not have been more excited. However, his enthusiasm didn’t last long as he broke his collar bone during the first scrimmage of the preseason. The injury sidelined the 6-2, 170 pound linebacker for the entire year.
Fast forward to spring of 2010. Price is nervous to don the pads again but determined to overcome it. It didn’t take long for him to master his fear, and once he did it was everyone else’s turn to be scared.
The Knight’s senior made the most of his final season as he led the team with five sacks and 120 tackles en route to being named the Washington Daily News Defensive Player of the Year.
“Going into the year I was scared because I had broken my collar bone last year and that was the only thing I had in my mind at the start of this year,” Price said. “Then I made it through the first few scrimmages … It took about three or four practices with contact before I felt comfortable being able to put pressure on it.”
Pretty soon it didn’t take Price long to put the pressure on opposing defenses as his speed and athleticism made him a perfect fit in coach Asim McGill’s blitz-heavy defense.
“I had him in weight training class and could see he was a strong athletic kid who could run. The first time we timed him in the 40 (yard dash) and he ran a 4.6,” McGill said. “We thought about putting him at wide receiver but his mentality was ‘Coach I don’t want to play offense I wanna hit somebody,’ so I thought he would work well at middle linebacker.
“If you are playing inside you have to be aggressive and have speed and he was. … Cameron is good because he wants to be good. He plays hard. If you play hard it will make up for some of the things you don’t have and in our scheme it was perfect. We gave him a lot of freedom to make plays.”
Price’s speed and agility on the field helped his status quickly rise in the locker room.
“Cameron was a team leader for us,” McGill said. “He actually won our team MVP. Most times it goes to an offensive player. I have been coaching since 2001 and I don’t remember defensive player winning it whether it was at this school or other schools I have worked at. He did a good job of quarterbacking the defense and leading by example.
“A lot of times this year we asked a lot of our defense. I think it was our game against North Pitt we had like five turnovers by halftime and we were down 12-0. The defense had short fields but it did a good job holding the offense and playing the next play and won the game.”
Price not only battled back from a broken collarbone last season, but also recovered from a hairline fracture to his ankle the previous year when he was playing soccer.
Despite all the injuries, Price said he wouldn’t change a thing, except for one small detail.
“I’m happy I came back and played my senior year, I just wish I would have played football all four years,” Price said.
Though he will graduate this summer, Price’s playing days may not be over as he currently pursuing colleges that might give a raw linebacker a roster spot. After witnessing Price’s determination, there is little doubt he will find one.