WS Chronicle

The Parkland High School varsity football team is having a dream season, currently sitting at 8-0 and one of the best teams in the state.  Their perfect record was nearly wiped away in their Homecoming game against Ben L. Smth (Greensboro), but quarterback Camian Shell would not let that happen.

Coming into the game, Shell was not scheduled to play because of a bone bruise he suffered in his knee the week earlier.  Seeing his team down 17-0 at the half, he decided to suit of for the second half and led the Mustangs to a 34-20 victory, tossing three touchdowns along the way.

“I was planning on resting the whole week because I thought this game was going to be a cakewalk,” said Shell.  “I knew my team needed me, they had their heads down, people were crying and I was trying to talk to them on the sidelines, so I asked my coach could I suit up, and he said yes.”

Shell suffered his knee injury during Parkland’s game against Southwest Guilford.  Parkland head coach Martin Samek says they had every intention of just going with the backup quarterback for the Homecoming game.  Samek said he was reluctant to put Shell in the game, but relented after Shell was so adamant about going in.

“My thoughts were that we were in trouble, but around the beginning of the second quarter, Camian came up to me and was like ‘Coach, I can go, put me in’ and I thought ‘No’ because I did not want to chance him getting hurt even more and losing him for later on,” said Samek. 

“By the end of the second quarter, he was a little more adamant about what he was saying about coming in, so I just looked around at our team and I said ‘Yeah, let’s get him in.”

According to multiple sources, the crowd reaction when Shell came out of the locker room suited up early in the third quarter was something they have never heard or seen before.  It was said that the entire Mustang crowd stood up and cheered when Shell was seen in uniform.

“It was something out of a movie, honestly, it was crazy,” said Samek.  “He came in after he warmed up and it was weird because it seemed as though after he went in, everyone just got on the same wavelength.  They just started making plays and they just started playing football like we have been playing all year.”

Shell said he did not even hear the volume of the crowd as he was running out of the locker room. 

“I really did not hear it, I really didn’t,” said Shell about how loud the crowd was as he was coming out.  “Until my mom told me when I got home, I was really shocked that it happened.”

For Shell, he said his goal was to give some life to his team because they were not playing up to their potential.  He felt if they could put some points on the board, the momentum of the game would swing back in their favor.

Ameer Watkins, Parkland’s quarterback coach, said he had never seen a crowd react to a player the way they reacted to Shell.  He said all Shell needed was six warm up passes and he knew he was ready to go.

Samek was somewhat happy for a game like this.  He says it shows his team what can happen if they do not play well.  He says it also shows how close their team is as a unit.

“Every team needs a game like this to kind of wake them up, and this was kind of a wake up call for us,” Samek continued. 

To sum up the game, Samek simply said, “I was on a Tabor team that had O.C. Wardlow and he was arguably one of the top quarterbacks to ever play in Forsyth County.  I never saw that at Tabor when O.C. Wardlow was there, so that should tell you something.”