Another year, another league title.
Another undefeated regular season.
Another player of the year honor.
That’s the Camas way these days.
Football stars graduate, making room for other players to become football stars on their own.
Gabe Lopes does not seek the spotlight. He keeps quiet and tries to do his assignment. As a senior linebacker at Camas, he performed so well that the spotlight found him. Last week, it was announced that the Class 4A Greater St. Helens League coaches voted Lopes as the defensive player of the year.
“It just felt really great that people actually acknowledged all the work I put in,” Lopes said.
It was a Camas sweep, too. Wide receiver James Price and quarterback Liam Fitzgerald were voted co-players of the year on offense. Price was already a known name in the football community. Fitzgerald plays the sport’s glamour position.
Lopes, though, pretty much played his way out of obscurity and into the limelight.
“It feels great when you’re out there and you’re doing your job, and your whole team is working together and you’re actually playing like it’s designed,” he said.
That design starts with practice, with studying video, and getting some valuable experience. Lopes started roughly half of the games last year, filling in for injured players. That is when he knew he could do this football stuff at a high level.
“It made me more confident. I felt like I knew what I was doing,” Lopes said. “I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing at the beginning. Last year was all a learning process. This year I know all the plays ahead of time.”
Camas coach Jon Eagle is not surprised by Lopes’ development as a player, because Lopes is so gifted as a student. The two things do go hand in hand. A linebacker must know how to study, must know how to read a play, must be able to comprehend, in a split second, and then react.
“Smart combined, obviously, with a lot of ability,” Eagle said.
That is the winning formula.
“A great defense always has to have great linebackers,” Eagle said. “I think we have a pretty good defense. He’s the Boss Hogg linebacker.”
This is the fourth consecutive season a Camas linebacker has been the league’s defensive player of the year. Another Camas linebacker this season, Reid Conlee, also could have been the POY, Eagle said. It’s a good problem for the Papermakers to have, having so much talent.
A 4.0 student, Lopes enrolled in the magnet program as a freshman, focusing on math, science and technology with college-level courses. He said he has an A-minus right now in advanced placement physics, but he is working on it.
School has always been important to him.
“I always wanted to have academic opportunities later in life,” Lopes said.
Football and studies take up a lot of his time. He says he cannot think of any hobbies other than hanging out with friends.
“I’m such a boring guy,” said Lopes, adding that he never talks trash on a football field. Heck, other than calling out the plays, he barely talks on the field at all.
But he does have good listening skills, and a good memory. He recalls all the talk at the beginning of the season that said this Camas team could have a down year. Last year’s team had so much talent, so many seniors.
“I heard it everywhere,” Lopes said. “Behind me in math class. I just kept my mouth shut.”
Then he and the Papermakers let their play speak volumes.
For the third year in a row, the Papermakers are 10-0 heading into the first round of the state football playoffs.
“It’s great doing something people say you can’t,” Lopes said. “There’s a lot of motivation behind that. It drove us to be better.”
This team, just like its quiet player-of-the-year linebacker, did not have as much hype as last season’s squad. But the results are the same.
Another undefeated regular season.
Another guy from Camas stepped up, took over a position, and ruled a defense.
