GILROY
– Cameron Shutts played almost nine football games last season.
This year, if everything falls into place, the former San Benito
High stand-out should have an 11-game experience.
GILROY – Cameron Shutts played almost nine football games last season. This year, if everything falls into place, the former San Benito High stand-out should have an 11-game experience.
The Gavilan College Rams went through a 4-6 record last season, including a 2-2 Coast Conference mark. Shutts, as a freshman free safety for the Rams, hustled to an all-conference honor despite missing the final game of the year. Shutts broke his left leg in the fourth quarter of the 39-32 Gavilan victory over the Monterey Peninsula College Lobos.
“I’m still battling shin splints every day,” said Shutts of his post-injury recovery. “That’s something that I’ll have to live with. I am in the best physical and mental shape I’ve ever been in for a season, though. I worked hard in the off-season, rehabbing my leg. I’m at about 90 per cent right now.”
Coach John Lango had no trouble naming Shutts as one of the team’s two defensive co-captains.
“What I like about Cameron is his football savvy. He’s like a general out there, making all our coverages and checks. He’s really battled to get himself back ready to go.”
Shutts came up with two interceptions in his freshman campaign, including a 23-yard return for a touchdown against College of Sequoias.
“Last year was a good step for us,” Shutts said of the 2002 season. “That was definitely something we expect to build on with the talent we have this year.”
Just as Lango credits Shutts for his mental prowess directing the defensive unit, the 6-2, 180-pounder adds that his strength as a player is his “mental awareness. That’s how I mentally prepare myself for certain teams we play, for what they do. When I’m in the game, when I’m feeling the moment, having fun, it doesn’t matter what they do. I feel unstoppable.”
“Cameron’s a real smart player, he knows what he’s doing and what the secondary needs to do,” said linebacker Brian Hernandez of his fellow co-captain. “He’s not afraid to step up and get his nose dirty on the run, and he plays the pass well.”
A general education student with a possible business major with a marketing emphasis in his future, Shutts is focused on the present, on the 10 (and with a bowl makes 11) teams he wants to play as he helps the Gavilan Rams return to winning ways.
