Winfield-Mt. Union- It was a special day at Winfield-Mt. Union as the whole community showed their support for Abram Edwards and Cam Buffington as they signed on to play Division I football.
Edwards will be taking his talents to West Point to attend Army University to join the Black Knights on the gridiron.
Buffington will be traveling just about an hour north to become a Hawkeye at the University of Iowa.
This was the first time in school history that one player signed on to play Division I football, and the Wolves got to celebrate two upstanding young men as their head football coach Scott McCarty talked about at the celebration,
“Absolutely, it’s just a super proud moment of these young men. Like I said, ‘they are the exact intersection of hard work and talent and high quality, high character young men. You know as a coach you always want to be a part of something like this… and to have two of them that’s pretty fantastic.”
Edwards and Buffington were superstars on the field for the Wolves, as they helped lead the team to an 11-1 record and their first trip to the state tournament since 1999 last season. Their career stats are simply outrageous.
Edwards: 567 rushing yards with 13 rushing touchdowns/85 receptions for 1,425 yards and 20 receiving touchdowns/defensively he totaled 158.5 tackles, 24.5 sacks, 47.5 tackles for a loss, three interceptions and three fumble recoveries with one interception returned for a touchdown.
Buffington: 512 carries for an insane 4,830 yards and 85 touchdowns/39 receptions for 950 yards and19 touchdowns/defensively he tallied 307 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 30.5 tackles for loss, and six interceptions with five returned for touchdowns. Additionally, he started at quarterback in his sophomore season and finished with 1,157 passing yards and 17 touchdowns.
It’s ironic that the event happened for these two as anyone can attest, they are soft spoken and incredibly humble.
“You know Cam helps out in first grade, he has for the last couple years, helps them read and do math,” said Coach McCarty. “Abram is never a guy to shy away from volunteering. We had a new family move in this year…he’s over there and he worked from sunup until sundown basically.”
Buffington and Edwards have competed with one another since fourth grade, and they contribute a lot of their own success to each other for always pushing one another.
“Honestly, you can give a lot of my success to Abram too because like in basketball practice ever since we’ve started in fourth grade, it’s me and him guarding each other. So, you can give a lot of success to him because he’s made me better and I’ve made him better throughout the years, so it’s just cool to grow up and be around a kid like that,” said Cam Buffington.
Echoing a similar sentiment was Abram Edwards,
“Oh, that helped me tremendously. In practice, us being able to push each other and go head-to-head. Learning from him and him telling me little things to work on that might improve me and just leadership ability and all that coming from Cam was amazing.”
Head basketball coach and Abram’s father, Klay Edwards, put it simply after the ceremony,
“Super proud of both Cam and Abram, two awesome kids.”
Both Buffington and Edwards thanked the community for showing their support and both are ready to work when it’s time to head off to college.
“I’m just excited to get to in there and just start working with the coaches in there,” stated Buffington.
“I’m excited about playing football under Coach Monken then also the friendships and bonds I’ve created with a lot of people,” said Edwards.
It is almost impossible to describe the impact that both young men have had on the community, but watching the grade school students drop off drawings and ask for autographs certainly paints a clear enough picture.