Senior football captain Cooper Sandhas is in the ENN recording studio, waiting for senior basketball star Cameron Williams to arrive. Cooper is filled with excitement as the long awaited photo shoot is about to take place.
When Cam walks into the dark room where the shoot is about to occur, he joyfully says, “Let’s do this thing!”
The young superstars have both proven this year that they are the leader of the pack in their respected sports. Their great talents have helped their teams turn into contenders the past couple seasons.
As Cam approaches the scene with his jersey, Cooper is already ready for the jersey swap to happen. When Cam sees Cooper pull out his number 29 jersey, he laughs, questioning whether or not it will fit him. The jersey turns out to be a perfect fit, and their soon to be “iconic” photo shoot begins.
“You gotta put those lights on yellow…that would be sick.” Cooper firmly says, as journalism student, Jacob Schlachter is making sure the lights are ready to take the perfect photo.
As the photo shoot proceeded, the lights were changed many times, and the camera angle was forced to be adjusted, to accomodate Cam Williams 6 ‘-“3 build.
When the photo shoot is finished, Coop and Cam sit down at the podcast studio, unaware of the thrilling debate that is about to happen.
The dispute starts off when the two phenoms were asked who would be better at each others sports. Cam answered quickly with, “Yes, I could play football. Not only do I think I could play football, I think I would be a stud at football.” Cam played football throughout grade school for the Our Lady of Lourdes Tigers. He then continued his football career for the Elder Panthers during his freshman year. However, that would be his last year, as he would choose to focus his talents on his true passion, basketball.
Cooper fulfills Cam’s answer by saying, “Yes I think he could still play,” nodding his head in agreement. However, Cooper rapidly follows his response with, “I think I could be better at basketball, than you would be at football.”
Cooper, who played point guard for his grade school basketball team, The Our Lady of the Visitation Vikings, was one of the leaders of his team. The team however, would not be very efficient and would be bottom of the barrel in the Western Basketball Conference (WBC). Despite the team not being successful, Cooper’s talent shined high amongst everyone else’s.
Cam took offense to Cooper’s remarks, as he believed his glory days back on Oskamp Field would carry over to his current self. “Realistically, if I didn’t quit football my freshman year, I think I would’ve been solid.” Cam told Cooper, “I wasn’t really good my freshman year, but I think if you gave it four years…I would’ve been really nice with it.”
Cooper agrees, and then truthfully tells Cam that he doesn’t think he would be any good at basketball himself anymore, “I don’t think I could play basketball.” Cam agrees with Cooper and tells him that his height would probably be his biggest concern. Cooper currently sits at 5 feet 8 inches, while most high school basketball players are above six feet.
Cooper then begins to ask Cameron how the upcoming basketball season is looking. Cam tells him, “It will be different for sure, we lost a lot. I think we will play a lot faster. We’ll have a lot more guys get involved and we’ll see a lot of new faces with young guys playing some of the bigger roles. It’ll be fun though.” Cam briefly informs us that players such as Kaden Estep and Mason Chumbley will get their opportunity to show that they can play at a high level.
Last year Varsity basketball showed impressive growth as they finished their season 21-5, with a regional-semi final loss to the Moeller Crusaders. During that season they were led by seniors Tyler Johnson, Drew Murphy, and Ryan Brass. However, with their absence this season, Cam understands he has some big shoes to fill.
Shifting the attention, Cam questions Cooper on whether or not the football team will be ready for the playoffs. Cooper confidently says, “We’re gonna see a lot of intensity, we’re gonna go out there and play our game mistake free, and we’re gonna run around and play football.”
“Kids are gonna get after it,” Cam says, chiming in.
“Exactly, we’re gonna play like we haven’t been playing and we’re gonna be completely prepared from our coaches, and we’re gonna go get a win on Friday.”
Over the past 10 years, Elder has shown its dominance through the sports of basketball and football. With the football team being state runner-up the 2019 season, accompanied by multiple division 1 recruits. As well as Coach Schoenfeld leading the basketball team to a winning record every year throughout the past decade. Both these teams have had one factor in common, the players. Elder has had multiple standout players come through their walls the past years. But once Cam and Coop are gone, who is going to lead their programs?
Cooper strongly states, “I think Pete Fortkamp is going to be a freak, I think Derek Uran is going to have a monster senior season. Um…don’t sleep on him. I think Aidan Sullivan is gonna be really good next year and Major Kittles is going to progress a lot.” Cam agrees, and he proceeds to tell Coop that Mason Chumley will have a sneaky good season, if he sticks with it and doesn’t go to baseball. Cam also believes that Alex Dugan will also help make an impact for the Panthers.
Throughout these two seniors’ careers at Elder they have made an everlasting impact. Coop finishes the interview off by saying, “I remember when I was young, and I looked up to all the Elder football players. Now, it’s my time and I hope to have left the same mark on this school as the athletes before me.”
