Chatfield senior Cameron Pearson. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
Six-foot-1 shooting guard Cameron Pearson has Chatfield basketball in its first Final 4 since 1996.
“There weren’t many other people that believed that we could make it this far,” Pearson, a senior, said this week. “It’s been pretty cool to see that us believing has turned into something so special.”
Belief is something that Pearson has always been big on. Heading into his freshman year, Pearson was 5-foot-1. Throughout his life, he was always the smallest kid on the court, so he dedicated his time to developing his skills with the belief that height would come.
“He never lost hope,” Chatfield coach Steve Schimpeler said. “He just continued to work and had faith that he would one day grow.”
Before his freshman year, Pearson was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. The medical term, pituitary dwarfism, is a condition in which the pituitary gland does not make enough growth hormone. This results in a slow growth pattern and below average height.
Pearson had 18 points in a Great 8 win against Cherry Creek. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
“Knowing that I could find a way to get to an average height was an incredible relief,” Pearson said. He had grown accustomed to “always being the smallest guy, always thinking I’m going to have to be so much better skilled than everyone else just to have a shot to make the team.”
Pearson was prescribed growth hormones to get him to the height that he should be at without the deficiency.
“He has an unbelievable work ethic. Probably a greater work ethic than anyone I’ve ever had at Chatfield,” Schimpeler said. “We’ve had a lot of great players at Chatfield, and Cameron is right up there with them if not at the top.”
The height might have come late, but the work ethic that Pearson possesses has been around since middle school.
“In seventh grade, I started to realize that other kids were getting bigger and faster, more athletic so I just decided one January to make a New Year’s resolution to go to the gym at least five days a week, and it turned out that I happened to go every day,” Pearson said. “I went every single day for over 1,400 days.”
His mom, Jacquie Pearson, recounted the resolution: “One day he came up to me and said, ‘Mom, when I was playing against this player, he said, Push him right. Push him right, he can’t dribble right. I don’t want anyone to ever say that. I want to be so good that it doesn’t matter if they push me left or push me right.'”
Pearson was so dedicated with the resolution that he has brought a basketball on family trips everywhere from Lake Powell to Costa Rica.
“He has shot in some of the weirdest, unconventional, crazy places to make sure that he got his shots up and his dribbling in,” Jacquie Pearson said.
Pearson remembered times of her son getting his shots in, no matter what. In eighth grade, Pearson was skiing and got a concussion. On the way home from the hospital, the family stopped at the gym so he could get his shots in.
The Pearsons structured their life schedule around Cameron getting his work in.
“Christmas morning, 6 a.m. It’s snowing outside,” Jacquie Pearson said. “He’s in our backyard shooting before we start Christmas.”
All the extra practice has paid off for Pearson this year. According to coach Schimpeler, Pearson is shooting 65 percent from two-point range and above 50 percent from 3-point range during league play.
“That’s amazing. That’s better stats from what the bigs are shooting from two-point range,” Schimpeler said. “And to shoot above 50 percent from 3-point range? Unreal.”
Pearson’s 13.6 points per game lead his team. He is also averaging 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
His mom attributes his play to the adversity that he has overcome.
“Since he was always so short, he had to learn to overcome that,” Jacquie Pearson said. “He learned the game from a different perspective. He has a new view of the game now, but he has all the advantages of the things that he learned from being short.”
(Matt Minton/JacksActionShots.com)
Schimpeler said that Pearson didn’t have much impact in his early seasons. That, like everything else, has changed. According to Schimpeler, Pearson is leading the team in almost every category.
“Now he’s able to completely take over games and at times dominate,” Schimpeler said.
Take, for example, the Great 8 round in which Pearson had 18 points and nine rebounds in a 63-55 overtime win against Cherry Creek last Saturday. Included was a clutch free throw with three seconds left that sent the game to overtime.
Pearson chalks that ability to trust. Team chemistry is founded on trust, and Pearson noted the fact that anyone on the team has the ability to score and score in bunches.
“We know that if we have to help, then someone is going to help us, and if we pass to the open guy, he’s going to make the shot,” Cameron Pearson said. “We trust each other, we trust our system, and it’s helped us out and it’s gotten us to where we are. We’re all really a family on the team.”
The hard work and drive that Pearson has branches out into the whole team.
“All of our team knows how much and how hard he’s worked. I think a lot of our players think, ‘You know what? This guy has worked so hard, we have to do our part,'” Schimpeler said. “He pulls guys in and gets them to the gym and things like that. He’s one of those leaders.”
Pearson currently doesn’t have any offers from colleges, but is drawing interest. Instead of attending college next year, Pearson will serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Chile Antofagasta Mission.
“This year, it’s just been more than I could have ever asked for. I’ve grown so much physically, I’m average-sized on the court, I’m shooting a percentage that’s way better than I ever could have asked for, I’m rebounding the ball better than I ever would have thought possible,” Pearson said. “It’s really humbling to me that something I decided to do kind of casually in seventh grade brought me to the Final 4 in the 5A state playoffs.
“No matter how grim things look for you and how bad things are going, that hard work will eventually pay off.”
For now, the goal is to make it to Saturday’s championship game. To do that, Pearson and Chatfield have to get by No. 1-seeded Overland Friday night at 8:30 p.m. in the Coors Events Center.
“It’s going to be a monumental task,” Schimpeler said. “David vs. Goliath.”
You can bet Pearson won’t shy away from the challenge.
“The kid never rests,” Schimpeler said. “We have to tell him to take days off. He is a true gym rat.”
(Matt Minton/JacksActionShots.com)