Mifflin’s Stewart commits to play football at Rutgers
Cam’Ron Stewart is grateful to a lot of the people in his life – family, coaches and mentors – who helped him earn a football scholarship. He was sure to mention them Friday after announcing his commitment to Rutgers.
One of the biggest was his grandfather Ronald Stewart, who he said sparked something inside him.
“He said he always saw something in me,” said the Gov. Mifflin junior. “It hit home. (I realized) ‘Yeah, it’s time to get to work and get to where I want to be.’ After basketball season my sophomore year I adopted a whole other mindset of working hard.”
The 6-4, 225-pound Stewart used a productive offseason of training as a springboard to a big junior season when he was named Berks Defensive Lineman of Year and to the PaFootballNews.com Class 5A All-State team.
He received the first of eight Division I offers in late January, from Bowling Green. Buffalo and Central Michigan followed shortly
after that. More recently he’s had offers from Syracuse and Temple.
It was Rutgers, however, that stuck out to him ever since a game-day visit last season, and
then more so when new head coach Greg Schiano and his staff made a big push in recent months.
“The atmosphere (at Rutgers) was just amazing,” said Stewart.
“The coaches welcomed me with open arms.”
Stewart was first recruited by the former coaching staff but Schiano, who was hired in December, and Matt Hewitt, the Scarlet Knights’ assistant director of recruiting, took a big interest in the Mustangs’ defensive end.
“They’ve been recruiting him hard,” said Mifflin coach Jeff Lang. “They’ve been the one school that’s been in contact all the time, just pushing it.”
Stewart visited earlier this month and is now all in on what Schiano and his staff have planned. He said the head coach – who returned to the program after leaving in 2012 for the NFL – was a key factor in choosing Rutgers.
“I believe the program is in great hands,” said Stewart, who received his offer directly from Schiano during a Feb. 6 phone call. “He brought in a whole brand new coaching staff, and they’re awesome.”
Stewart didn’t play defense until his freshman year, when he was moved to end. He immediately liked it and has excelled at that spot. As a junior he had 43 tackles, nine tackles for loss, two interceptions, six sacks and seven tipped passes.
He also averaged 17.3 yards on 16 receptions as a tight end. He was an All-Berks and all-league pick on both offense and defense.
“At mid-season he really turned it on,” Lang said. “There’s some plays in his highlight tape where you can see him getting to the quarterback, knocking balls down or picking them off at point-blank range. When he (started making plays like that) I knew he was going to be something special. He’s one of the most athletic kids I’ve seen at that size.”
Stewart has been invited to the ESPN 300 Elite camp April 18 in New Jersey.
He’ll be part of a prospectladen team at Mifflin along with rising junior Nick Singleton and rising senior Brandon Strausser.
Singleton, an All-State running back, has at least 20 offers, including Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Strausser, an All-State linebacker, is drawing Division I interest but has no offers at this point.