Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: San Mateo’s Cam Palma

This time, Palma soldiered his way to Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors, quarterbacking the mighty ground attack with 11 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t record any passing yards because San Mateo never went to the air, rushing on each of its 39 plays from scrimmage.

“We didn’t throw a pass,” San Mateo head coach Jeff Scheller said. “It was like, if it ain’t broken, why fix it?”

Senior running back Logan Davis led the way with five carries for 163 yards and two touchdowns, highlighted by a 91-yard bolt on a pitch play off the left side. Senior running back Emmanuel Fitzgerald carried 13 times for 113 yards and one touchdown.

“Us three, the bond we have outside really translates to the field,” Palma said.

San Mateo’s triple-option approach predates Palma’s arrival to the varsity squad, as he was a postseason season call-up his freshman season of 2021. When the Bearcats installed the offense — which demands a quarterback who thinks on the fly to determine who will carry the ball after the snap by virtue of reading the opposing defense — 2023 graduate Giancarlo Selvitella had led the team to the Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division.

It was an offense Scheller had wanted to run in 2020. In fact, he attended a clinic at Harding University — an NCAA Division II program where 2012 San Mateo graduate Michael Latu had played, and helped the program to the Division II national championship as a fullback in the triple-option — in February 2020.

Latu has been on staff at San Mateo ever since.

With the Bearcats getting promoted to the PAL Ocean Division in 2022, Scheller said he wasn’t sure the offense would work in the tougher league. His outlook changed in a hurry, though, as Selvitella led San Mateo to its second straight league title.

“We were like: ‘What’s going on here?’” Scheller said. ‘“This is working our pretty well.’”

Of San Mateo’s five league wins in 2022, four of them were by more than a touchdown. This allowed Palma to get plenty of QB reps as a sophomore. He turned out to be the perfect heir apparent to Selvitella.

“It really has to do with managing the game, and Cam has just gotten much better at it,” Scheller said.

“When we call a play, I don’t even know who’s going to get the ball,” he said. “[Palma] is making all the decisions.”

The Bearcats are in a fortuitous situation this season, with plenty of experience on the offensive line in tackles Edil Garcia and David Nagaya, guards Nesta Nogales-DeGuzman and Diego Reyes, and center Nitin Prasad, all five of whom are seniors. The five have remained relatively healthy this season.

“Very, very experienced line,” Palma said. “I have a ton of confidence in them.”

It helps that Palma has the guts of a burglar.

With the game deadlocked 7-7 in the first half, Palma gave the Bearcats the lead with a gritty 5-yard scoring run through the left side. The way Palma explains the triple-option, it sounds simple, as it is incumbent upon him to locate the two defensive linemen keying on the running backs. Once the ball is snapped, Palma puts the play in motion by choosing the ball carrier by virtue of what those two defenders do.

“After experience, it kind of slows down for you,” Palma said.

When Palma put the go-ahead score in motion, he opted to keep it himself, taking on a nose guard at the line of scrimmage. He immediately felt a grab of his face mask that went unnoticed by the referees, but he fought through it, broke another tackle, and stretched across the goal line to score the touchdown.

“That one was crazy because I was actually getting face masked really badly,” Palma said. “So, I couldn’t see what was going on. I just knew that I had to keep pushing forward. … I couldn’t see where the line was to be honest.”

As the game progressed, the field opened up for San Mateo. Following Davis’ 91-yard bolt, Palma added a second scoring run with a similar route to his first score, only this one went for 45 yards with a key block from sophomore wide receiver Dean Qutteineh.

Palma is not only the captain of the offense, he is also the captain of the secondary as a starting safety. He totaled six tackles Friday, while breaking up three passes, including a shot at the goal line at the point of contact that prevented a Carlmont touchdown — a hit Scheller said was one of the key plays in the game.

“He’s not afraid,” Scheller said. “He’s a gamer.”