Zack Tawatari visited Cam Ward’s hometown of West Columbia to speak with Earnest Peña about Ward’s rise from zero-star recruit to potential No. 1 NFL Draft pick.
HOUSTON — Every journey has its roots, and it was in West Columbia where Cam Ward laid the foundation to become a top pick in the NFL Draft.
“Hard working, blue collar people, and they love athletics,” said Columbia High School Athletic Director Earnest Peña, about the City of West Columbia.
And at Columbia High School, Ward’s path to the NFL draft was laid.
Peña was the defensive coordinator when Ward starred as a four-year basketball letterman, but he knew football would be Ward’s path.
“When he puts his mind or something. You know, he’s going to excel in it. And he decided early in high school that football was going to be what he wanted to do,” Peña said.
Even though Columbia ran a run-heavy Wing-T offense at the time, where Ward didn’t throw many more than 10 times a game, it only took one particular throw between Ward’s junior and senior years for Peña to recognize that Ward was elite.
“We’re on the short side of the field, and we’re running flood to the wide side of the field, a true flood with three receivers, and he throws a 15 yard out on a dime as a junior going into his senior year, and making it look easy was impressive,” Peña said.
Ward led the Roughnecks to a district title in 2019, but his college offers were limited. Eric Morris, who’s now the head coach for North Texas, was then the head coach at Incarnate Word.
Peña said Morris was able to see then what others are seeing now.
“Right away, he compared them to Patrick Mahomes. And I know there’s, I know there’s coaches now that compared to Mahomes, but more saw it early,” Peña said.
Ward’s incredible rise took shape over the next several years at Incarnate Word, Washington State and Miami.
“You just need one guy. You need one person to give you opportunity to have faith in you, to believe in you. And what camp did with that opportunity is amazing,” he said.
Ward has wowed with his talent, something he proved to NFL scouts and teams on his pro day in March. They finally got to see me throw in person.
“You know, that should be all they need to see. But then they, you know, the way they want to give the pick or not I’m gonna be happy with every team I go to, and something Pena believes will also serve ward at the next level,” Ward said his days back in the Wing-T,” Peña said. “It was a brand new system that we put in, so it was the first year in the system, and he was able to get everybody lined up, and that speaks volumes to his intelligence and his ability to learn something.”
But it’s Ward’s fortitude on his course from Columbia to his name being called at the draft that Peña knows will make him an NFL star.
“You don’t see a kid zero-star from a small town West Columbia, where he’s at right now, potential No. 1 pick. That’s amazing. It’s a great story,” he said.