Thanks Guy: Duval put it all together as a senior

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories that will be appearing about the unsung heroes who take the football field every week, the guys who coaches couldn't get by without. At this time of year, it's time to say "Thanks Guy."

Football is a complex sport, and while some guys get it, many others never do.

For Cam Duval, it took until this year to have the light bulb go on.

A senior at Nashua High School North, Duval didn’t start playing the sport until his freshman year. It was admittedly tough to master, and as a junior, Duval played mostly on special teams on varsity and rarely saw the field any other time.

But somewhere between the end of last season and the end of the school year, the switch was flicked.

“We call it the light-bulb factor,” North coach Jason Robie said. “Some kids never have it go off and some kids have it go off later in their playing career. For me, the light bulb went off the day I graduated college. He saw the big picture. He saw the pieces that made the whole.”

Duval went from junior varsity and special teams player to not just a starter on defense at linebacker, but to a captain of the team. Not bad for a guy who claims he didn’t know what to do on the field as a freshman.

“It’s a lot more than people expect,” Duval said. “It’s tough. I didn’t pick up everything until this year. This was the year where everything clicked. It took me three years to realize that. There’s a lot of stuff you have to understand. It’s really helped me be who I am today.”

Robie couldn’t be happier, not just for Duval, but for himself as the Titans’ coach.

“We needed him to get it,” Robie said. “There were times in the middle of the year, we were in a couple of bad games, and I was starting to wonder if people had found where our weaknesses were. But Cam and the rest of the defense just kind of responded to that and chipped in and played well. They just demanded more of themselves.”

Going into the season, Duval was a bit of an unknown for the North coaching staff. They knew what type of personality he was, but they weren’t sure how that would translate onto the field.

“We didn’t know what to expect from Cam coming in,” Robie said. “He worked very hard during the summer and really took a leadership role and earned a spot. The spot was up for grabs because we lost a couple of good linebackers. The position was up for grabs and he told me ‘I’m taking that spot.’ It was his for the taking.”

While Duval hoped he would have a shot at being a captain, he didn’t think it would actually happen.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” he said. “I remember the day we voted for captains and I said to my Mom and Dad, I don’t think I made it. It is what it is. The next day they told me I got voted almost unanimously. It was nice that all these people looked up to me like that.”

When it came time to be the person or player to step up, Duval just applied the things he had watched the captains do the season before. That included when the injury bug bit him mid-season.

In the Titans’ regular-season loss to Nashua South on Oct. 8, Duval suffered a broken wrist. Despite the injury, he managed to not miss a game, instead getting the proper padding for his cast so he could continue playing.

After watching one of last year’s captains, Kevin Rosenberg, play through back pain, Duval knew what he needed to do.

“When our captain Kevin Rosenberg had that back injury and thought he wasn’t going to be able to play football again, he came out and played again,” Duval said. “He knew his back was bad and he decided to play again.

“There was no question (of him playing). You have to really be a role model. It’s fun and it’s a great feeling. I love being a leader, knowing that they are looking to me for guidance.”

To hear that one captain was drawing inspiration from a previous captain was music to Robie’s ears.

“There was nothing that was going to keep him off the field,” he said of Duval. “We actually threw him the ball and he caught it. He caught the two-point conversion against South (in the semifinals).

“There is some trickle down. Senior leadership is so important for a team. The impact, they might not see it now, but down the road, something they did this year will have an impact moving forward. The fact that he saw Kevin work to play his last season, to get a second chance, there was no way he was going to miss out. It’s nice to see that those kids learn from the older kids.”

Maybe there’s a freshman or a sophomore, just trying to learn the game, who saw what Duval, who was named Division I honorable mention all-state, accomplished this season. Maybe that player will also be a captain when the light turns on for him.

Maybe he’ll go so far as to keep dissecting the game until he can’t any more.

“Cam texted me the night before the championship game to ask a question about something he saw on film,” Robie said. “I was like ‘can you please just go to bed?’ The hay is in the barn, we’re good.”

“It was a fun year,” Duval said. “We made it to the championship game again. There isn’t more we could as for than to get that W at the end, but we just didn’t get it done. Football has really helped turn me into a great leader. It shapes and builds character. Defeat adds on to that.”