The high school game is his! It was made for him.
Kam Wells is getting himself physically ready for early PT. The 5’9,” 230-pounder doesn’t look a biscuit over 215, and that is “good weight.” Wells is squatting 375, pulling five (5)-bills (500), pressing 255, and looks destined to play at both NG and OG. Either way, his only shortcoming thus far is his being short. That can change, literally, any day or it may not. His being 5’9″ will not change the chances he will be a tremendous high school player.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Hopkinsville, KY: Sam Harp and I wrote a book together. The title is Football 101: Boo-Boo’s a Quarterback and there is a link where you can purchase it both here and at the bottom of this feature.
Chapter 16, “Football, the Greatest Game Ever Conceived,” is among the finest pieces of writing in the history of the KHSAA and high school football in Kentucky. Both Sam and I have heard this numerous places.
The following is an excerpt from the chapter: “Here’s something fans struggle with understanding: the high school game will always be the last stand and best footing for the 5’9,” 235-pound, high school pulling guard. You will never eliminate ‘that guy’ from the high school game. Matter of fact, the high school game is his! It was made for him.” Long and Harp, Id. at 137.
Now, when Sam Harp and I wrote that passage, we weren’t thinking of Hopkinsville’s Kam Wells. We could have easily been. Wells fits the profile very well.
First of all, we have no idea how Wells’ frame finishes out. He could shoot up to 6’5″ or stay in the neighborhood of where he is presently.
Wells’ dad is built just like him. However, I am 6’3,” and neither of my sons have gotten my height. Both of them are built way more like Kam and his dad.
I guess the point is, who cares? There are programs looking for short, stocky, impossible to root out of a gap, type noses all over the place. That is why God made the Southern Conference. That is why God made service academies.
There are programs who will be attracted to a kid who was weighing 230-pounds the spring of his 8th-grade year while pressing 255, squatting 375, and pulling (deadlifting) a quarter ton (500-pounds). Believe me, I have before been down this road. Getting a kid like that recruited is easier than one might think.
The guy on the upper-right, on the left side of the photograph is former KHSAA great, William Long. William was a class of ’21 in high school and a class of ’25 in college. Long is wearing No. 9 (Black Jersey).
Long was about Wells’ size when he was coming out of eighth (8th) grade. Long started every game he ever played in high school. Will Wells do likewise? Early appearances seem to suggest he may.
There are programs looking for short, stocky, impossible to root out of a gap, type noses all over the country
Friday Night Fletch
Long made three (3) All-State, first teams. Long won three (3) powerlifting high school championships. Long made, first team, all-state in football, his senior year, on both sides of the scrimmage line.
Long was 5’9″ coming out of middle school. Long was 5’10,” his senior year in college.
It didn’t prevent him from being a star at the HS level. It didn’t prevent him from playing four (4) years of college football at the school’s expense.
It won’t stop Wells either. Mark my words, I have traveled this pathway before now.
If Wells continues to work at the pace he’s been working, he will find a college roster. He will also find a school’s check book.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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