Brendan Chambers BILL FOLEY, OCVARSITY.COM |
Playing in All-Star game is dream-come-true for SVC's Brendan Chambers
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The quarterback will play wide receiver for the matchup.
For most of the players who will take the field Friday night in the Brea Lions Orange County North-South Prep All-Star Football game it will be their first experience at the celebrated event.
For Brendan Chambers, it will be his fourth visit.
For the past three summers, Chambers has made the trip from San Juan Capistrano to attend the annual All-Star football game. He has watched each year as the star players from Orange County have come together to play and compete, promising himself that one day he would be the one on the field.
After a senior season in which the 6-foot, 175-pound Mr. Everything player passed for 2,757 yards and 32 touchdowns while also leading his Saddleback Valley Christian team in rushing with 1,146 yards and 22 touchdowns, Chambers will finally have the chance to fulfill his promise.
"It's really a dream come true for me to get to play in this game," said Chambers. "Coming down and watching the all-stars play each year, it was my goal to get to play one day. I felt like I could compete with them and now I get the chance to prove it."
Strange to think that a kid who amassed 54 touchdowns in one season would have to wonder if he could compete on one of high school football's biggest stage, but having played for Saddleback Valley Christian, Chambers is burdened with the label of a "small school" player.
South head coach Jason Negro, who has seen first hand what Chambers can do against top level talent in the practices leading up to Friday's game, laughs at the notion of such a label.
"Unless you know what school he played for coming in, you'd have no way of knowing he comes from a small school based on his play," said Negro. "Brendan is a kid that has great leaping ability, is very fast and is just a fantastic football player."
And this is coming from a coach who has only watched him play out of position.
Despite his video game like statistics from the 2007-08 season, when Chambers was notified of his invitation to play in the All-Star game he was told that he would need to play wide receiver.
The guy who had completed 64 percent of his passes - 155 for 242 - and compiled a QB rating of 136 was being asked to play a position he hadn't played since his freshman year of high school.
"We didn't have a whole lot of options at wide receiver, so we asked him to play the position for us and he was all for it," said Negro.
"He was up for whatever we needed him to do and he's stepped into the role wonderfully."
And yet nothing else should be expected from the kid who spent four years dreaming of this opportunity.
After helping Saddleback Valley Christian improve it's record each year, from 3-8 his freshman year to 12-1 and San Joaquin league champs his senior year, and increasing his touchdowns and QB rating with each passing year, Chambers has shown he can rise to the occasion.
With college on the horizon and Chambers looking to attend junior college before transferring to Georgetown University to play football for the Hoyas, challenges abound.
But for a guy who spent years watching and will now be playing, it's simply a matter of setting a goal and accomplishing it.
Contact the writer: preps@ocregister.com
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