HOWELL’S COVE - Patience is said to be a virtue and it has paid off for Talladega County Central senior Cameron Duncan.

In his first 10 starts as the Fighting Tigers quarterback he has passed and rushed for over a 1,000 yards. TC Central head coach DeShon Burney wishes he could find away to keep Duncan around for another season.

“I wish he was a seed, that way I can plant him and grow more of him,” Burney said. “I wish I could redshirt him; he has been a pleasure to coach. He is fun to be around off the field; on the field he is another coach.

“He is all you want in a student athlete and particularly at the position of quarterback. The success that we have had this year is because of the leadership of Cameron Duncan. These kids follow him; he’s not a big verbal rah-rah guy, but he leads by example.

“The perfect example of his toughness was on Thursday night when he got hit and to be honest with you I thought he broke his wrist. He was down on the ground and he said ‘I’ll be back on the field the next play.’ So we are on defense and I see somebody getting tackled in the backfield and it is Cameron getting off the ground. The kid is tough and I don’t want to think were we would have been this season without him.”

Burney, who is in his first season at TC Central, likes the intangibles that Duncan brings to the playing field.

“He brings that mental toughness and he is always prepared,” Burney said. “He even stays after practice and works with some of the defensive backs with their foot work. He is the type of kid that he has played long enough that if a coach needs to be late for practice I can tell him to go with the DB’s (defensive backs) to work on the footwork drills and he knows exactly what to do so we are good to go.”

This season the Fighting Tigers’ quarterback has turned a broken play into a huge gain.

“It is one of the type things you are like no, no, no don’t do it and then when he breaks it, you’ll be like good job,” Burney said. “That’s all athletic ability and God given talent. You see kids like that often, but I guaranteed you that there is nobody with that amount of talent that is that humble.”

This season’s Fighting Tigers have a very inexperienced team as majority of their players are seeing their first significant varsity action of their career. Duncan said the season has been fun even though it hasn’t turned out like he wanted it to.

“It took us a while,” Duncan said. “Then with the new plays and all that we had to figure out schemes and how we were going to work them. It’s been pretty tough, but it has been fun. Even though we are 6-4 it has been a fun year. Every game has been fun; we haven’t had a game that was boring. They have all been fun.”

After having a break-out game in his first varsity start as quarterback against Ranburne, Duncan started receiving more attention than what he is use to.

“It’s been tough,” Duncan said. “Reading the coverages and since after the first game of the year they have all been gunning for me. There is stuff under the pile that never happened to me before be happening. They poke me in my eye and they try to twist my ankle, but that is how the game goes.”

Duncan’s most memorial moment of the season so far occurred against Munford in Week 5. With less than a minute left in the game Duncan broke what looked to be a 35-yard touchdown, which would have given the Fighting Tigers a chance to tie the game, but the officials made conflicting calls which caused them to replay the down and lose the ball game.

“The one thing that sticks out to me is in a game that we lost, the Munford game,” Duncan said. ”I won’t forget that moment I thought I scored, the referee was just trying to do his job. They made a split decision and that is how the game goes. The Ranburne game was a memorable one. You can’t lose that one or you might lose your fan base at TC. It might be a long season for you.”

The Fighting Tigers are currently on a two-game losing streak as they enter Friday night’s game against Maplesville. Duncan believes going into the playoffs with a losing streak will either help them or hurt them.

“It might help us or it might hurt us,” Duncan said. “We don’t want to lose three in a row. If you lose this one you are going home. Most people won’t be playing football any more. They will be hanging up their pads for good.”

Duncan looks up to his older brother Joe Duncan. The elder Duncan played for the Fighting Tigers in the late 1990’s and Cameron believes playing with his sibling made him a better player.

“Me and my brother used to play football in the yard all the time,” Duncan said. “He didn’t take it easy on me. If I was to miss a ball he told me that I sucked and he would tell me to do it again. He was real hard on me, but it helped me out though. He tries to come to all my games and he stays in Montgomery - he used to live in Hillcrest, Evergreen which is four hours away to come to my game.”

Duncan will lead TC Central into the first round of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Class 1A playoffs on Friday as the Fighting Tigers travel to face Maplesville.