2012 State Champions to be honored on 10-year anniversary

Before the Homecoming game on Friday, the Cameron Yoemen football team will be honoring the 2012 State Championship team that went undefeated and beat the Daingerfield Tigers 38-20 in the title game. 

It was a tough year for the Yoemen the season before, going 6-5 and losing to the Tatum Eagles in their playoff opener. According to Coach Rick Rhoades, the road to the 2012 title began a year earlier when they lost the 2010 state title game to Daingerfield in a 33-27 heartbreaker.

“In 2010, we were a very senior led team,” Coach Rick Rhoades said. “So, a lot of our players from 2010, which went to the finals, got beat by Daingerfield in the last seconds. It was a very senior led team, so we lost a lot of players. The next year, 2011, we played with a lot of young kids. Our quarterback was a sophomore (Jason Kopriva). There was a lot of young kids on that 2011 team, and they took their lumps.”

“I think we went 0-4 in non-district, but we came back and ended up winning every district ball game to win the district championship,” he said. “Then we lost in the first round of the playoffs to Tatum in a close ball game, a ball game that we had a chance to win. The great thing about 2012 was that the majority of those kids came back from 2011, and they knew they had a chance to be pretty decent. They almost beat Tatum in the playoffs. Plus, there was a lot of really good leadership on that team. Edgar Luna was a great leader. There was a lot of good leadership, and a lot of those kids played a lot of football from the year before, and they came out every day and got better and better. They were a really fun group to coach.”

“The mindset after the disappointing season that we had in 2011 was we really felt like we could’ve done a lot better,” Edgar Luna, a member of the 2012 team and current Yoe coach said. “So, once we got done with 2011 and started 2012, our mindset was - we got a chance to compete for state, let’s go and compete for state.” 

The first game of the season, the Yoemen defeated the Waco Connally Cadets in a tough grueling match 35-34. It was at that point, that Luna felt that they could go very far that year, considering that Connally was a really tough team that year. Cameron proved that they had a special team. They went 10-0 in the regular season, which is when Coach Rhoades felt that this going to be a possible championship season.

“You got to take one game at a time when you get in the playoffs, but I think finishing the season (10-0), because we’ve always played a tough non-district schedule,” Rhoades said. “So, to be able to go through that, and go through district undefeated, I think they understood at that point that they had a chance to be really, really good.” 

The Yoemen had a first-round bye in the playoffs. After that, they defeated Marion in the next round, then Lago Vista in the regional round, then Hallettsville in the quarterfinals, and then Newton in the semifinal, which led to a rematch with Daingerfield. The fact that they would play Daingerfield again gave them some extra motivation considering how their last game with them went down.

“Me personally and those other couple of teammates that did play against them in 2010 felt like it’s great to play them again in a state championship and be able to beat them this time,” Luna said.

“They’d beat us two years before on a play late in the ball game,” Rhoades said. “We gave up a big pass play with I think 26 seconds left to get beat. And so absolutely there was extra motivation, we were glad that we were playing Daingerfield.” 

They certainly took that motivation to heart and defeated the Daingerfield Tigers 38-20 in a game where they got to a 21-0 start in the first quarter with big thanks to their great defense. 

“Our defense was very, very good, but keep in mind, we had an all-state nose guard in Edgar Luna, and an all-state linebacker in Somari Wright,” Rhoades said. “Somari really had a great year because everybody was doubling Edgar and he was getting to run free. The next year (2013), as a senior, it wasn’t quite as easy for Somari because Edgar wasn’t there. But we had a really good defensive front and some really good secondary guys and it was a fun game.” 

“Our defensive staff that year (2012) set up a great game plan for that week,” Luna said. “We studied that gameplan a lot, and basically whenever the game started, we were firing on all cylinders.” 

One of Luna’s best memories of that perfect season was coming from behind against Newton in the semifinal to advance to the title game. For Rhoades one memory that sticks with him was early in the championship game. The Tigers were deep in their own territory, and the ball was snapped and the punter missed the ball when he went to kick it; and Edgar picked it up for a touchdown, which he felt set the tone for the game. Another memory he has from that year was the proud feeling he had for that particular team, considering the hardships they went through the year before.

“Obviously it’s every coach’s dream to win a state championship, and we came so close in 2010,” Rhoades said. “And to be able to win it that year, it was really special. Especially with those kids, because they had taken their lumps in 2011, especially early in the year in our non-district schedule, and for those kids to come back and win a state championship, it was pretty neat.” 

The tribute to the team will begin around 7:05 p.m. and the game will start at 7:30 p.m.