Speaker 1: Drafted is a production of tree Fork Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. You're going to Minnesota. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Drafted. I'm Steven Johnson and this is episode eight
Speaker 1: of season three. Last episode, quarterback Kellen Man got drafted
Speaker 1: by the Minnesota Vikings at the top of the third round.
Speaker 1: Everyone went crazy, So, I mean, it was a phenomenal
Speaker 1: feeling in I tell a lot of people that was
Speaker 1: probably one of the best feelings that I've ever had. Now,
Speaker 1: the third round continues at the Fitzpatrick draft party in Pontiac, Michigan.
Speaker 1: Receiver Des Fitzpatrick, his parents, Greg and Wendy, and his
Speaker 1: friends and family all watch as the third round continues,
Speaker 1: and although ten receivers were drafted in the first two rounds,
Speaker 1: none have been selected thus far in round three. Des
Speaker 1: his mom Wendy, describes the mood as the third round
Speaker 1: winds down. So Thursday, we knew it was going to
Speaker 1: be round one or two, you know, we expected that again.
Speaker 1: We were hoping for a third and fourth. Third round came.
Speaker 1: Nothing transpired from that. We were getting a little nervous
Speaker 1: at that point. By the end of the third round,
Speaker 1: five more receivers hear their names called. That means five
Speaker 1: more players get vel growed up on Greg Fitzpatrick's draft
Speaker 1: board at the party, and with the draft almost halfway over,
Speaker 1: exactly fifteen of the thirty receiver names death and his
Speaker 1: dad originally laid out are now assigned to teams, while
Speaker 1: does his name plate still looms large on the adjacent table.
Speaker 1: Here's does his dad Greg on the situation. So after
Speaker 1: day two at night, I was a little worried. That
Speaker 1: could be honest, I was a little worried. Fifteen guys
Speaker 1: have went and I said, Okay, Jesus, I'm getting worried
Speaker 1: because you know, when day three happens, it's like he
Speaker 1: could just start sliding, Like you just never know what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. So that night I couldn't sleep that night,
Speaker 1: and before I went to bed, I said, you okay, man,
Speaker 1: he goes, yeah, dah. I knew it wasn't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And that was the night he invited everyone over. But
Speaker 1: you know, I gave a speech at the end of
Speaker 1: the night and say, hey and everybody and morning, welcome
Speaker 1: to come back tomorrow. There'll be plenty of food and
Speaker 1: spirits tomorrow. So so you guys everybody come on. Back.
Speaker 1: Rounds four through seven will take place on the third
Speaker 1: and final day of the draft, and if Daz is
Speaker 1: feeling any stress or pressure about falling into the later rounds,
Speaker 1: were possibly even going undrafted, he isn't showing it. However,
Speaker 1: his parents, Wendy and Greg, can see right through their sons.
Speaker 1: Composed is the facade. I'll say this dance sometimes comes
Speaker 1: across as a robot because he kind of protects his
Speaker 1: emotions when it comes to the stuff, because he's been
Speaker 1: on like this crazy roller coaster, right, so he's been
Speaker 1: on this incredible roller coaster. So he just tries to
Speaker 1: stay kind of even, not too high, not too low,
Speaker 1: no expectations. He's just like, I didn't think it's gonna
Speaker 1: happen anyway. But I'm laying up staring at the selling
Speaker 1: all night man three o'clock at Moore, I'm like, jeez,
Speaker 1: please don't let this thing just go left. He worked
Speaker 1: so hard. I can't imagine it just going left. What
Speaker 1: Desmond does and he's always done this every since he
Speaker 1: was little. He tries to to protect his heart. He'll say,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. I don't it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And then we were constantly no, Desmond, it's okay. It's
Speaker 1: like he didn't want to have feelings because now if
Speaker 1: I have, if I show some type of feelings, now
Speaker 1: I have my feeling as will be affected by either
Speaker 1: hurt or mad or sad, And now I don't want
Speaker 1: to have those feelings, So let me just try to
Speaker 1: block it out like it doesn't exist. Of course, his
Speaker 1: feelings do exist, and he does care deeply. He just
Speaker 1: tries to hide it all. Only now that it's Saturday,
Speaker 1: May one and Day three of the NFL Draft is
Speaker 1: about to begin, his friends and family do wonder will
Speaker 1: he be able to maintain this stoic demeanor throughout the
Speaker 1: final day of the draft. So Saturday, we're like, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So when we got over there, it started at no
Speaker 1: So Desmond leaves to go pick up some friends at
Speaker 1: the hotel. We're there, We're like, where is the dement
Speaker 1: needs to her and kid here does elaborates on how
Speaker 1: the morning got messed up and at that point the
Speaker 1: draft started I think at twelve on that Saturday, and
Speaker 1: I was going to pick up because a couple of
Speaker 1: my friends were at a nearby hotel, probably ten minutes away,
Speaker 1: and I was picking up three of my friends from
Speaker 1: the hotel, and I was about to run out of gas,
Speaker 1: and you know, one of the gas pumps said that
Speaker 1: the car didn't work. Obviously my car is working, so
Speaker 1: I had to go to another one. We had to
Speaker 1: stop like two different times to get gas. So this
Speaker 1: is we're we're starting to run a little late now
Speaker 1: and it was just a whole ordeal. And you know,
Speaker 1: my friends are in the car with me and my
Speaker 1: phone start drink game A hello, yeah, yes, sir, anybody
Speaker 1: John Robin the younger, we're doing well, of coach, how
Speaker 1: are you doing? I'm doing that manding congratulation were about
Speaker 1: to make you. I appreciate it so much. Course, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, coach. I don't think I don't you
Speaker 1: go to your question. Yes, sir, of course I appreciated
Speaker 1: so much. Coach, Thank you so much. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let you talk to our great and you know what
Speaker 1: kind of Dez Fitzpatrick may have just become the first
Speaker 1: person in NFL history to be drafted while driving a car.
Speaker 1: So as Daz tries to focus on the road, his
Speaker 1: new head coach, Mike Rabel, gets on the call, thank you.
Speaker 1: How are you doing, coach? I'm a great banking granulate.
Speaker 1: I work and John and I don't want to want
Speaker 1: up and got you. I want to you and branding coach.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it so much. Coach. You know I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do everything in my part of work car and make
Speaker 1: sure that's a really great decision. I know, I know
Speaker 1: you are man, I know you all love what you're about. Man.
Speaker 1: I worked hard to work pretty okay, but where a
Speaker 1: lot of people reaching indeed, and I'll be texting here.
Speaker 1: Of course. I appreciate it again, a coach, So thank
Speaker 1: you so much. The Titans general manager gets back on
Speaker 1: the call. Go celebrate what you say. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: we should. We finished the draft last night, and I'll
Speaker 1: look at your cars. Don't ever forget a point a
Speaker 1: way to get up to get that, um, coach, great
Speaker 1: about your work. Okay, that's what we're about here, Okay, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna live up to that. Okay, wait to being
Speaker 1: Because those were desert friends screaming as they got out
Speaker 1: of the car in front of his dad's house. Here's
Speaker 1: DEAs trying to make sense of being drafted by the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans in the fourth round while driving to his
Speaker 1: own draft party. When I hung up the phone before
Speaker 1: I pulled up to my house, I was thinking, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know what picked they're on on the TV,
Speaker 1: so I have to make it home fast. So I
Speaker 1: was going like seventy down the street trying to make
Speaker 1: it home fast everything because I'm trying to think. You know,
Speaker 1: nobody in the house knows, Like the other thirty people
Speaker 1: in the house don't know anything yet. His parents and
Speaker 1: all his other friends and family inside have no idea
Speaker 1: any of this has happened. So now Dez opens the
Speaker 1: door and enters his draft party with the biggest secret possible.
Speaker 1: Everybody on our technology somebody, they asked him, He said
Speaker 1: the same. That's dess Dad Greg in the background talking
Speaker 1: about how one of DES's former coaches might be getting
Speaker 1: some inside information about when and where Daz will be drafted.
Speaker 1: That's how will Oh, he said. He said, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: when I get the call already, don't know. I'm just
Speaker 1: saw coach I love I know, he just he just coach.
Speaker 1: Coach Ruce just said that's the word. I'm just selling.
Speaker 1: Don't mess me mind for that. Greg received a text
Speaker 1: message from the former coach that claims Dez is about
Speaker 1: to be drafted soon. So Des counters that he would
Speaker 1: have gotten a call from a team by now if
Speaker 1: that were true, so the rumor can't be real. Okay,
Speaker 1: standing guard there towards from one, the pick is announced
Speaker 1: and everyone in the litterm He leaps up off the
Speaker 1: couches in shock, everyone except Das and his friends who
Speaker 1: were in the car earlier. Of course, here are Daz
Speaker 1: and his parents on that moment. My dad said, I
Speaker 1: had a great poker face, like he didn't know at
Speaker 1: all this was coming up, and you know, they said,
Speaker 1: you know, the pick is in and with the one
Speaker 1: on ninth picks, you know, the Tennessee Titans select does
Speaker 1: fit Patrick? And everybody was like, oh my sides going crazy,
Speaker 1: started screaming, jumping up and down, and they're like, did
Speaker 1: ain't here to call you? And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they called me like ten minutes ago. I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 1: it can't be the Titans because he was gotten a
Speaker 1: call by now and they're on the clock and they
Speaker 1: only got you know, a few minutes, and the next
Speaker 1: thing you know, they picked Das and the whole house
Speaker 1: just erbs. There's tears everywhere. We just all jumped up,
Speaker 1: all of the family and friends at the time, still
Speaker 1: not knowing that Desmond and his friends already knew, but
Speaker 1: we all jumped up and we just tears just started
Speaker 1: just flowing. We're all just started hugging. We're all just
Speaker 1: kind of boll Garden just pounced on Desmond and just
Speaker 1: giving a home hugs and kisses and crying at the
Speaker 1: same time all of us, and it was just there
Speaker 1: wasn't a dry eye in the room. It was just awesome.
Speaker 1: It was just awesome. That was a moment I won't
Speaker 1: ever forget. We'll be right back. Ye. Kellen Mond and
Speaker 1: Desmond Fitzpatrick are officially professional football players. They were drafted
Speaker 1: in the third and fourth rounds by the Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: and the Tennessee Titans. That leaves us with our final
Speaker 1: two players and this season of drafting linebacker Hammaka Rashid Jr.
Speaker 1: And cornerback Cameron by Him, who was currently on his
Speaker 1: way to a cabin in Big Bear, California, so for
Speaker 1: the draft, will be in Big Bear, California. We rent
Speaker 1: a cabin right off the late. This is cam by
Speaker 1: him had a lot of family from the Bay Area
Speaker 1: in southern California, family and then a bunch of my teammates.
Speaker 1: Cam is a Southern California native. So he and his
Speaker 1: family arrived at the rented lake house in just under
Speaker 1: two hours and the party starts almost immediately. So we
Speaker 1: just got to the cabin. We're unloading everything and now
Speaker 1: now we're star stuck. Is this place, this cabin matsion
Speaker 1: is crazy? My mic alright, So I'm in here with
Speaker 1: my all my city wings off, five of whom we
Speaker 1: have a noisy house here, three dogs, five kids, two parents.
Speaker 1: My aunt is over. This is where Cameron's come here, Kay.
Speaker 1: Just like des Kellen Davante and most other players in
Speaker 1: the draft, making it to the NFL has been a
Speaker 1: lifelong dream for Cam. The differences is that his dream
Speaker 1: always seemed more like a fantasy than a real possibility,
Speaker 1: even since I was a kid. Obviously a super cliche
Speaker 1: when people talk about Yeah, people ask me what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. I said NFL, and they said, well,
Speaker 1: you gotta have a backup plan. That's the story for
Speaker 1: all of us. But now it's it's it's way sweeter
Speaker 1: knowing that at a point I wasn't super good at football.
Speaker 1: That's what makes Cam's journey especially unique. For most of
Speaker 1: his childhood and even as a young adult, he was
Speaker 1: actually pretty bad at football. Here's his trainer, coach Anthony Brown,
Speaker 1: describing the first time he saw Cam play. He was
Speaker 1: a sophomore going in towards junior season. Where was at
Speaker 1: one of our tournaments and he had a very very
Speaker 1: bad day that day. I want to say he gave
Speaker 1: about five touchdowns that day. Yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a long day for the kid. Cam was getting beat
Speaker 1: on the field for a number of reasons. He hadn't
Speaker 1: been taught the technique needed to play his position. He
Speaker 1: didn't have a dad like Greg Fitzpatrick drilling him on
Speaker 1: the finer points of play and receiver when he was
Speaker 1: a little kid. And that's normal because most dads aren't
Speaker 1: able to teach their nine year olds what they learned
Speaker 1: from practicing with Jerry Rice. However, there was another reason
Speaker 1: Cam kept getting beat over and over again for touchdowns.
Speaker 1: All the other players were a lot bigger than him.
Speaker 1: Here's coach Brown on what he saw that day. Now,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for years you know, Decenci backs
Speaker 1: are looking like they're about six ft, you know, one
Speaker 1: ninety So I had this kid going into his junior
Speaker 1: season at Corona Centennial, like, well, how are we going
Speaker 1: to get the job done? Cam was going into his
Speaker 1: junior year at Corona Centennial High School and he still
Speaker 1: hadn't hit a Grosberg or learned the finer points of
Speaker 1: playing cornerback. It was at that moment his childhood dream
Speaker 1: of becoming an NFL player looked utterly impossible. But growth
Speaker 1: often comes from life's toughest struggles and failures, and that
Speaker 1: day where Cam gave up touchdown after touchdown changed everything
Speaker 1: for him. Now, as he waits for the NFL Draft
Speaker 1: to begin, Cam talks about this exact moment with some
Speaker 1: friends and family. Would you say, what's my what was
Speaker 1: my well? Yeah, what was your the turning point here?
Speaker 1: Where would like made you realize you were soft? And
Speaker 1: now my catchup moment was I was already on ground zero.
Speaker 1: Did a couple of tournaments, I was, I was surviving.
Speaker 1: I just at the surviving always worked, but that training
Speaker 1: was and it was just busy where just getting tired,
Speaker 1: getting the shape and not doing actual DV ware. Cam
Speaker 1: was lifting weights and running, but no one was coaching
Speaker 1: him on the details of how to play defensive back.
Speaker 1: So once one tournament, may ten remember stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I remember that stuff may ten Long Beach City College Tournament,
Speaker 1: Gridiron tournament. I'm gonna hear getting I'm getting popped for
Speaker 1: six at least three touchdowns a game and Brown will
Speaker 1: not take me out the game. And then I was
Speaker 1: just looking at him like you know that look you
Speaker 1: just like I can't do anything about this. Coach. They
Speaker 1: take me deep every play. Brown is coach Anthony Brown,
Speaker 1: who we heard from a minute ago. He was coaching
Speaker 1: Cam's team in that weekend tournament, and despite the fact
Speaker 1: that Cam was getting beat deep over and over, Coach
Speaker 1: Brown wouldn't take him out of the game. I'm just
Speaker 1: looking at him. He would not take me out, and
Speaker 1: he's like, no, you're gonna You're gonna figure this out.
Speaker 1: And then I don't even want to look at him.
Speaker 1: He's calling me chicken. He's just calling me, like, just
Speaker 1: breaking me down mentally, and he was like, I need
Speaker 1: to see you this week. Monday, five am, Vanola Park
Speaker 1: said that went up to Dad and Dad was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's there and I was sick in my head, but
Speaker 1: I knew I needed it and I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: I gotta really work with this dude. So I went
Speaker 1: and there was that was history, and yeah, Brown believed
Speaker 1: in me. After that brutal weekend in the seven on
Speaker 1: seven tournament, Cam signed up to train with coach Brown
Speaker 1: every morning at five am. It was a commitment the
Speaker 1: whole family would be making. Cam's father, Curtis, explains their decision.
Speaker 1: You know, you hear a lot of stories for parents
Speaker 1: kind of drunk their kids and say we want you
Speaker 1: to do this. This was always what he wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and not once where I remember we had to pull
Speaker 1: him out of bed or force him to go. He
Speaker 1: wanted to go. And those times where you know, I
Speaker 1: was working so much of the time to my wife
Speaker 1: and a lot of transporting back and forth and think
Speaker 1: like that, but not wants to shiver. Tell me, hey,
Speaker 1: he didn't want to go today. You know, he didn't
Speaker 1: feel like training. This was all this was his dream,
Speaker 1: This was all him. Cam loved football and was willing
Speaker 1: to work incredibly hard, which made his struggles even more puzzling.
Speaker 1: By the time he made it to a sophomore year.
Speaker 1: He just hadn't improved as much as he should have.
Speaker 1: Sophomore year of high school, I was trash of football
Speaker 1: fifth training on JV. A lot of my friends obviously
Speaker 1: once starting on varsity getting offers already. Most people that
Speaker 1: are getting drafted, that's that's their story about when they're
Speaker 1: in high school. They're always the guys since freshman year,
Speaker 1: always the best one of the same. But for me,
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case. If you listen to season one
Speaker 1: of Drafted, you might remember Ohio State star cornerback Jeff Okuda.
Speaker 1: He plays the same position as Cam, and by the
Speaker 1: end of his sophomore year in high school, he had
Speaker 1: received dozens of scholarship offers from almost every top program
Speaker 1: in the country. At that same point, Cam was backing
Speaker 1: up the backup for the third stringer on the junior
Speaker 1: varsity team. When I was twisting on JV, the first
Speaker 1: thing I did was like, Okay, I need to I
Speaker 1: need to work and get my way, get my way
Speaker 1: out this whole. And so the best thing I did
Speaker 1: was find a coach that really put the time into me,
Speaker 1: really invested into my future, trying to teach me that
Speaker 1: the real details of football, not just a coach out
Speaker 1: there doing busy work. He's getting me tired of stuff.
Speaker 1: You really taught me the game, just being becoming a technician.
Speaker 1: Never was the most athletic, biggest, fastest, or strong, especially
Speaker 1: back then I was tiny, like super undersized. But as
Speaker 1: soon as I started learning the game, becoming the technician
Speaker 1: and putting that time and knowing that I put more
Speaker 1: time and and separate myself with the amount of work
Speaker 1: I put it and I somehow get better than somebody.
Speaker 1: So that that kept going throughout the whole year, my
Speaker 1: whole career, even when I got to college, still doing
Speaker 1: those crazy hours, still putting in an extra hours more
Speaker 1: than anybody went a whole year without missing a dave
Speaker 1: doing extra work. So that's that's really been the whole
Speaker 1: story of my entire career, just putting the extra work.
Speaker 1: Know that, Okay, I might be behind some things, but
Speaker 1: I'm setting for myself with the details and just how
Speaker 1: much extra work is cam talking about throughout the week?
Speaker 1: It was before school go there, We're start workout starts
Speaker 1: at five so because we had to start school it
Speaker 1: was seven thirty back then, so we have to do
Speaker 1: that right before school. Obviously, I've practice lifting during school
Speaker 1: at the right after school, another practice on the field
Speaker 1: at the high school, then right back at five o'clock
Speaker 1: we're back with the facility doing our speed work, doing
Speaker 1: our lifting, and one more GB workout. So it was
Speaker 1: at least fourteen hours a day just from the time
Speaker 1: you wake up at five am and I'm not getting
Speaker 1: home until seven at night. After my last workout, then
Speaker 1: I had to do homework and then right back and
Speaker 1: now that was basically my whole routine. Even with Cam
Speaker 1: working fourteen hours a day on football, Coach Brown knew
Speaker 1: the daunting odds that they faced. Basically, I'm scratching my
Speaker 1: head like wild. We mentioned NFL, but at the time
Speaker 1: we're just mentioned and trying to just get him on
Speaker 1: track to be a football player, you know, because he
Speaker 1: had the ambition, he had the motivation, he had the
Speaker 1: heart in the work ethic, but looking at him, the
Speaker 1: skills set by eyes wasn't there and everything else. So
Speaker 1: the first few sessions would count it was two left feet,
Speaker 1: two left feet, you know, he couldn't do the drills.
Speaker 1: It was really a no rhythm at all. And the
Speaker 1: daughters in the car watching us and asked, I'm finishing
Speaker 1: up the session with you, so we're getting the car
Speaker 1: and she's first things that my daughter in mouth was
Speaker 1: like that, why are you training this kid camp? You know, Dad,
Speaker 1: he's not a football player. I have to tell my daughter,
Speaker 1: I say, baby, as long as he keeps showing up
Speaker 1: to his training sessions, we're gonna keep showing him to
Speaker 1: the training session. When you get a kid that believes
Speaker 1: in itself, I couldn't tell the kid no. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be that that guy saying kid, football, it's
Speaker 1: not your sport. So as he showed up, I showed up.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Coach Brown needed to figure out
Speaker 1: how to turn his sophomore cornerback giving up multiple touchdowns
Speaker 1: a game into a high school starter, and he needed
Speaker 1: to build a foundation where Cam could continue to grow
Speaker 1: into a college player and maybe even one day into
Speaker 1: an NFL defensive back. But the million dollar question was
Speaker 1: how So One of the things was we never had
Speaker 1: a football. I never trying to account with a football.
Speaker 1: So it's one of these things. As the parents, you're
Speaker 1: looking like, Okay, who is this man and what is
Speaker 1: he really doing? Because none of the things where we're
Speaker 1: doing look like it was football related. You know, we
Speaker 1: started from the ground up, so we had to actually
Speaker 1: built the coordination, I placement, you know, built the Rivermnis
Speaker 1: feed and things like that. You know, the big total
Speaker 1: power inside arts so he can move with you know, consistently,
Speaker 1: would have would have smoved rhythm. Scouts often say the
Speaker 1: best cornerbacks never look out of control or out of position.
Speaker 1: They described them as smooth and fluid. They can turn
Speaker 1: and run with receivers without losing any speed. They always
Speaker 1: know where the ball is. They anticipate where the receiver's going.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of work Cam and Coach Brown put
Speaker 1: in morning after morning, week after week, without ever touching
Speaker 1: a football. It was reminiscent of Daniel LaRusso learning karate
Speaker 1: by waxing Mr Mayagi's car and painting his fence over
Speaker 1: and over again instead of sparring with the kids in
Speaker 1: Cobra Kai and like the karate kid, Cam and his
Speaker 1: parents couldn't help but question the process at times, But
Speaker 1: as the weeks went by, Cam's parents began to know
Speaker 1: it's a difference in their son. Over time, you saw
Speaker 1: the progression he was making, like he was getting better.
Speaker 1: So now I was like, Okay, let's continue to do this.
Speaker 1: That hard work and that discipline no matter whether it's
Speaker 1: pro football or anything in life, that translates everywhere, and
Speaker 1: everyone respects hard work. Whatever Coach Brown sawing Cam over
Speaker 1: those weeks, whatever progress he made or bond they built,
Speaker 1: he also felt that he couldn't let the young cornerback down.
Speaker 1: I've been in coaching twenty five years plus, started at
Speaker 1: To You Love with Dead High School, but it was
Speaker 1: it was morrisover, resident of intervention, loving the kids. I've
Speaker 1: been officer for twenty years, so my background is serving
Speaker 1: the people who need to be served. Coach Brown is
Speaker 1: also a veteran police officer in southern California in addition
Speaker 1: to working as a football coach and trainer. I understood
Speaker 1: that camp came first, So it wasn't about me playing
Speaker 1: in the NFL. It wasn't about my college career, it
Speaker 1: wasn't about my high school career. It was about putting
Speaker 1: everything I could put into this kid to where he
Speaker 1: can have what I didn't have. And even though Cam
Speaker 1: still hadn't started game for the varsity team at his
Speaker 1: high school, he was already working towards his next goal,
Speaker 1: getting an offer to play in college. Cam and his
Speaker 1: parents explained, I've always wanted to go to Bury and
Speaker 1: my families out there, so Stanford and Cal as my
Speaker 1: two main ones. UM. Stanford was my dream school. We
Speaker 1: went up to their junior days and this was before
Speaker 1: they even weren't even thinking about Cam. We would just
Speaker 1: go to their junior days. That's Cam's mom, Jennifer. I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to get their name out there, filling out
Speaker 1: the little questionnaire things UM before they actually acknowledged them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty. And every coach of DM sit up the
Speaker 1: Gratus district, like, what's up, coach? Is everything I can
Speaker 1: do to gradars? Yeah, sitting my links, sending workout videos,
Speaker 1: sending me We made a seven on seven highlights tape
Speaker 1: just for something because I was like, I need a
Speaker 1: need to get see an episode two. We heard about
Speaker 1: how Alabama coach Nick Saban flew to Pensacola, Florida, and
Speaker 1: personally showed up at Alex Leatherwood's high school to recruit him. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: entire teams of coaches will make recruiting trips to convince
Speaker 1: a player to come to their school. By the time
Speaker 1: Cam's junior year started, he was the one recruiting college
Speaker 1: coaches instead of the other way around. He would text
Speaker 1: and email them, sending highlights from seven on seven tournaments
Speaker 1: since he didn't have high school game footage yet. Once
Speaker 1: I started training in that offseason after my sophomore season,
Speaker 1: that's when I started. I went in up going to
Speaker 1: the camps, and I got an offer from cow Poly
Speaker 1: Slow out of camp just because I bought out with
Speaker 1: that in the varsity tape. So that that's when I
Speaker 1: started reaching out. Okay, I can I can go to
Speaker 1: camps and I can do well. I'm now, and I
Speaker 1: can have something to vouch for me with some film
Speaker 1: from a camp or something. So that's when I started
Speaker 1: doing out those questionnaires. Hid him. Coaches, Uh say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just got my first offer, checked me out, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, all that stuff. Just in every single coaches
Speaker 1: d M sending emails begging players for coaching numbers. Cam
Speaker 1: would ask other players at camps for the coach of
Speaker 1: cell phone numbers, and then with text and cold call
Speaker 1: the coaches, he tell them all about his offer from
Speaker 1: cal Polly, using it as a part of his pitch
Speaker 1: on why they should consider him. Here are his parents,
Speaker 1: Curis and Jennifer. Once again, he was very proactive in
Speaker 1: reaching out coaches and then I kept a business card.
Speaker 1: We had spring showcases, and I always made it a
Speaker 1: point to work at the table where the coaches have
Speaker 1: to see me first, and then I would you know,
Speaker 1: network with them, tell him my sin is on the side,
Speaker 1: and get a business card. His mom was running an
Speaker 1: equally aggressive recruiting campaign, and then that helped. I just
Speaker 1: found that note. But it was a binder that I
Speaker 1: created and had it all organized, put all their business
Speaker 1: cards and had a little harpe who we reached out to.
Speaker 1: When Cam like messaged, um, what was the correspondence, you know,
Speaker 1: what was the feedback? And he just always make sure
Speaker 1: he followed up and reaching out to all those coaches. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was sent at the transcript table with if they
Speaker 1: they're interested in in a player, they got to go
Speaker 1: ask for the transcripts. So of course she would work
Speaker 1: at that table. But oh yeah, it take this. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of my transcripts in there. Just doing the
Speaker 1: ex that's just extra. With the coaches, they would always say, okay,
Speaker 1: can I have a player between three point five g
Speaker 1: P at a four point up? Yeah, I would, I
Speaker 1: would slide his, and then the g p A really
Speaker 1: made a huge difference to It was probably annoying to them,
Speaker 1: but at the end of at the end of my
Speaker 1: junior season, that's when they started coming around, and they
Speaker 1: ended up coming to one of my playoff games at
Speaker 1: the end of that year. So all that reaching out
Speaker 1: and all that stuff helped, especially once I was able
Speaker 1: to start my junior season. Cam's college pursuit turned into
Speaker 1: the family business. He would recruit coaches while his mom
Speaker 1: worked the relationship management angle, and almost all of this
Speaker 1: took place before he ever started a game for the
Speaker 1: high school varsity team. Then Cam's the next step was
Speaker 1: a social media marketing campaign. When I was going through
Speaker 1: the process, talking to Stanford a lot more than I
Speaker 1: was cal put all my eggs in that basket your Stanford.
Speaker 1: So added my two eight classes I needed, and trying
Speaker 1: to do everything just to be able to get into school.
Speaker 1: So one day my recruitment was picking up. One day
Speaker 1: I took a visit up to Stanford. I posted on
Speaker 1: social media and as soon as soon as I posted,
Speaker 1: cow coach cause and said, Okay, we're gonna offer you,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, Wow, and it's crazy how that works.
Speaker 1: I post posted I'm up at Stanford, and now you
Speaker 1: guys want to talk, so we started. I started talking
Speaker 1: to both of them and still ended up taking the
Speaker 1: st A T twice trying to get into Stanford because
Speaker 1: I have to actually get in as a regular student,
Speaker 1: and so you needed a certain amoun out and every
Speaker 1: section of your s A T. And I took it twice.
Speaker 1: Wasn't able to get it on one section. So I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, from Calf, I was super glad.
Speaker 1: I did it, cald best best decision I've ever made.
Speaker 1: Coach Brown watched as Cam used a cal Polly offer
Speaker 1: to leverage Stanford to then get cal Berkeley interested. You
Speaker 1: get a Kyle Polly offer, you know you better than that.
Speaker 1: The writers are are writing about you, So what do
Speaker 1: you have to do? He did to refer psychology. You know,
Speaker 1: he created his own recruiting bus between the schools that
Speaker 1: he thought was going to be attractive to him to
Speaker 1: actually go to. He used social media to wake up
Speaker 1: Cayl Berkeley to come over and take a good look
Speaker 1: at him. And when he's seen it, look they bid
Speaker 1: on it. They did on it, and it worked. It was.
Speaker 1: It was a genius move on his part. His parents
Speaker 1: were equally impressed with just how enterprising and zealous their
Speaker 1: son was at every step in his journey. Looking back,
Speaker 1: this is a story you can tell later, you know,
Speaker 1: years down the road to other people, like look what
Speaker 1: I did. Look at my struggle now, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean in the NFL. And you know he's like he said,
Speaker 1: he started off a fifth string JV player and the
Speaker 1: journey has just been great. So to me, it was
Speaker 1: all word. It all paid off, and it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, it taught him a lesson to like networking
Speaker 1: at an early age. You know, you know what, young
Speaker 1: kids don't like to do that these days. It's like
Speaker 1: now you need to follow up, follow through network. Whenever
Speaker 1: you meet someone, shake their hand to build a connection
Speaker 1: and build that network. And by him dm ng all
Speaker 1: these coaches and just reaching out and you know, just
Speaker 1: trying to get exposed. All that networking training, practice and
Speaker 1: hard work transformed Kim from fifth string JV to first
Speaker 1: team all packed twelve, he became the team captain at
Speaker 1: kel Berkeley and now he's sitting in a huge lake
Speaker 1: house with his friends and family watching NFL draft, waiting
Speaker 1: for his future coaches to finally call him. This time around,
Speaker 1: here's coach Brown once again. He wasn't a five star,
Speaker 1: he wasn't how to recruited, he didn't have multiple offers.
Speaker 1: So now guess what it does. It brings streams back
Speaker 1: to the normal kid that it's being looked over. Because
Speaker 1: you know, when you look at college, when you look
Speaker 1: at the NFL, there's always the University of is So
Speaker 1: kids ought to make these as something that you have
Speaker 1: to take this one particular route to get there. But
Speaker 1: it is a street called count Bindo that you can
Speaker 1: take and you can end up there also, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of kids an understanding
Speaker 1: it's a street with their name on it, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's the blessing of it all that sitting back
Speaker 1: that hey, this morning, one street to get to the NFL.
Speaker 1: Next I'm drafted. Now that it's like literally less than
Speaker 1: a day away, it's kind of starting to get surreal.
Speaker 1: I finally starting to get real for me to buckle
Speaker 1: down and get straight a's to qualified. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I know, you do it. I'm training my butt off home,
Speaker 1: working out with two coaches, going to two places just
Speaker 1: to be stayed. It was a trying time for all
Speaker 1: of us. We had just went through a family breakup,
Speaker 1: and you know, he would just had to be strong.
Speaker 1: It's like, you just popped for COVID, You're just positive.
Speaker 1: And I was like what, He's like, Yeah, you need
Speaker 1: to go home right now, like right now and walking
Speaker 1: home and didn't leave my house since then for fourteen days.
Speaker 1: So we just had to keep encouraging him and until
Speaker 1: you can figure this part out. Drafted is a production
Speaker 1: of tree Ford Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Kelly Gardner, Lisa Amerman, Eric Slot,
Speaker 1: Eric Weiner, and Shaun Titone. The series is produced and
Speaker 1: written by Eric Winer. Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer.
Speaker 1: Coral Silverberg is our associate producer. Tom Monahan is our
Speaker 1: senior audio engineer. The show is mixed, edited and hosted
Speaker 1: by Me Stephen Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower
Speaker 1: and Hailey Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more
Speaker 1: information Undrafted, go to tree for dot fm, and for
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,