Racking Up Yards (Cameron Pudwill)

October 25, 2010 6:02 PM


Our Taco John's Athlete of the Week will take the field in the high school football playoffs on Tuesday.  Jason Anschutz introduces us to Cameron Pudwill, whose Redfield/Doland team faces Groton.  The same team he ran for 210 yards against earlier this season.

Before home games, the Redfield/Doland football team takes the field behind the Pheasants mascot.  But when the whistle blows, the team gets behind it's star.  Senior running back Cameron Pudwill.

"Over the years he's turned into a good leader," said Redfield/Doland Head Coach Keith Gall.  "I can't say enough about him.  All I can say is, I wouldn't want to tackle him."

Based on his statistics, you might think opposing teams don't want to tackle him either.  Pudwill has had some of the best rushing performances in the state this year, including a 50 carry, 290 yard effort against Aberdeen Roncalli.

"The motto of that night was, 'If it wasn't broke, don't fix it,'" said Pudwill.  So it was working with us, and as long as I just kept doing what I was doing, then the yards and the carries tallied up real quick."

"Towards the end of the game he was getting 10 yards a carry," said Gall.  "I think he wore the defense out."

Pudwill gives every defense headaches.  This year he has rushed for 1500 yards, an average of almost 190 yards per game.  Last year, including the playoffs, he ran for more than 1800 yards.

"It's quite fun to watch because he's usually on a roll and he usually gets at least four to five yards per carry every time, and it's great to just see the defenses quit at the end of every game," said teammate Luke Holt.

"I'd say 95 percent of it is adrenaline when you're playing in a game, so it's not like I don't get tired, but it's mental and it's not feeling tired more than anything," said Pudwill.

It would be one thing if Pudwill ran for all those yards while playing half the game.  But the senior also takes the field on defense as a linebacker.

"There's nothing better than getting a big hit on defense," Pudwill said.  "But offense, it's pretty rewarding when you can control a game and make the opposing players hurt a little more I guess you could say."

Pudwill has put the hurt on a whole bunch of teams while starting for the Pheasants the past three years.  No matter what position he was playing.