The first episode of Zero Star: The Cam Ward Story finally dropped on Tubi recently. The series that chronicles Ward’s journey from growing up to high school to Incarnate Word to ultimately his draft day with the Tennessee Titans.
In episode one, the series takes everyone back to Ward’s childhood. One interesting thing was his love for basketball as a kid.
“I grew up with a basketball in my hand. That was the first thing I played...I had that dream to make it to the NBA and take basketball as far as I could.”
It’s interesting that Ward wanted to be a basketball player and thought he'd be in the NBA as a kid, only to discover his love for football in third grade. And what is also interesting is that people in the town he grew up in, West Columbia, Texas, thought that he was destined to be a basketball player, too. It was mentioned that he had a love for Kobe Bryant as a kid. With Kobe being his favorite basketball player and Ward liking his mindset, it would have been interesting to see what kind of basketball player he would have ultimately been over time and repetitions.
Speaking of repetitions, Cam ran a Wing-T offense and did not get many reps throwing the ball. So, to help continue his development, his dad would put him through drills after practice in his backyard with the three or four passing nets they had, and they would also get some work in on Saturdays. And of course, his dad also connected Cam with his first quarterback coach, Steve Van Meter, around his junior year of high school. Outside of his parents, he was the first person to notice Cam's exceptional talent with his arm.
And regarding Cam’s parents, his dad and mom were incredible in their support of his dreams. They would send him to football and basketball camps at IMG Academy in Florida every year since he was in third or fourth grade, investing in things he wanted to do. And while many were not looking at Ward during his time in high school as a quarterback, his dad was writing letters to anyone and everyone at any level of football, standing up for his son and what he believed he could do. You can see the love they had for Cam and, more importantly, the unwavering support they had for him.
That support, along with his mindset and belief in what he could do, ultimately got him the one offer to play college football: Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.
The episode would end there, with Cam heading off to Incarnate Word to begin the next step of his football journey.
The first episode was solid and gave us a background on his athletic journey, how he came to love football, his work ethic and how his journey from high school to college to the NFL started in the smallest of ways. And in Episode 2, that journey took another jump.