Classroom champions: Gholson's Cameron McCartney

Coach Keith Beverly of the Gholson Wildcats had a feeling football would turn this small city of 900 people upside down.

What he didn't know, when he helped start the program from scratch five years ago, was how it would change his players.

"When I started here, Gholson was a basketball town," Beverly said.

Senior quarterback Cameron McCartney had never played a down of football in his life.

He admits, things were rough ... at first.

"We didn't really know what we were doing," said senior Cameron McCartney.

But over the past few years, Cameron practiced so much and got so good that he led his team to the playoffs for the first time and was named all-district as a junior.

"I give all my praise to my coaches and my teammates. They're the only ones that can make me better," he said.

Cameron had just finished his breakout junior season when one of his coaches asked if he'd like to fill in as a volunteer with No Limitations Athletics, an organization for kids with disabilities.

Cameron obliged, if only for that one day.

"I didn't think it would be that serious of a thing," he said.

And it wasn't going to be. Until he met a boy named Aidan.

"I love that kid. He's changed my life forever," Cameron said.

Aidan has a disorder that affects his vision, but it was Cameron who was starting to see clearly: he was meant to be here.

"The kids have grown on me and I just want to be a part of their lives in every way I can," he said.

Since that first meeting, Cameron has gone back, almost every week, for the past two years.

And he says he's learned something valuable along the way.

"I need that kid way more than he needs me, no doubt."

Sometimes football makes great young men. But sometimes, great young men just happen to play football