Photo by Brian Schoenhals.
All three of the Fighting Tigers that were recognized for their stellar season played in new positions under first year head coach DeShon Burney. Junior offensive lineman Terrell Garrett was named first team All-state while Cameron Duncan was named honorable mention athlete and Trent Swain was named honorable mention as a linebacker.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Burney said Wednesday. ”They are three well-deserving young men from Cameron, Terrell and Trent. They really bought in with everything that we asked them to do and I couldn’t be any more proud of them.”
Terrell Garrett anchored the Fighting Tigers’ offensive line. This season was Garrett’s first on the offensive line. Burney believes that Garrett has the potential to play college ball if he continues to work hard and improve.
“I keep telling him that he can be as good as he wants to be,” Burney said. “He has the size, the frame; the only thing that he needs to do to get to that next level to play on Saturdays is just get a little stronger.
“I found out a lot of times during the season if their was a blocking assignment that somebody on the line was not sure about on the field he would tell them what to do.
“He is just fun to be around off the field and I can’t say enough about him as well. The good thing about Terrell is that I have him for another year, so I am looking forward to us doing better as a team next year and I’m looking forward to coaching him again.”
Garrett thought he was getting tricked when he received the calls telling him that he made All-State.
“Some of my friends were calling and sending me messages that I made first team All-State,” Garrett said. “I thought it was a prank until I called coach and he told me that I made it.”
Trent Swain showed opposing offenses that big things come in a small package. Swain is a 5-6, 152-pound linebacker that passed out some devastating hits this season.
“Trent Swain, I was joking with him when he came in that he has to be the smallest linebacker to make the All-State team,” Burney said. “This kid is 5-foot-6, 152 pounds maybe, but I tell you what that kid is a football player. People are probably thinking that is a misprint when they saw him as linebacker. He’s got the size of a DB, but you can’t measure heart and that kid has great heart.
“He is a football player; I just wish he was another five inches taller and another 50 pounds heavier and you have you a major D-I prospect. But they don’t measure the heart. If they did he is everything that they are looking for.”
Swain led the Fighting Tigers with over 150 tackles this season. Coming into the season Swain stepped up and filled the void the Fighting Tigers had at the linebacker position.
“At first I didn’t want to play linebacker, but I was a senior and we didn’t have anybody else,” Swain said. ”So I told coach that I would play it. I was the smallest one out there and I hit the hardest out there.”
This season the Fighting Tigers went as far as Cameron Duncan could carry them. The do-it-all senior made game-changing plays in all three phrases of the game.
This season Duncan stepped into the starting quarterback role and created havoc for opposing defenses. Duncan threw for 1,297 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also rushed for 687 yards and six touchdowns. As a defensive back Duncan recorded 23 tackles, six-pass break ups and two interceptions. On special teams the senior was a big play waiting to happen.
He averaged 65.6 yards on kick off returns. Duncan said playing against players like Reggie Virges (who graduated from TC Central in 2008) helped him be the playmaker that he is today.
“When I was in ninth and tenth grade I was just practicing hard on the scout team,” Duncan said. “I had to go against Reggie (Virges) and them, getting ran over because we couldn’t cut them, so it made me better. Then I had to quarterback against the defense. That year (2007) we had a real good defense, so that made me better at what I was doing.”
Burney believes that Duncan’s stats document what he meant to the Fighting Tigers team this season.
“It has been documented what Cameron Duncan meant to this program,” Burney said.
The Fighting Tigers finished the season with a record of 6-5 after falling in the first round of the Class 1A state playoffs.
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