Cameron Price runs through a play during spring practice.
A year ago, Alan Cohen made the transition to football look pretty easy.
The 6-foot-4 wide receiver led the Senators with 29 catches for 461 yards and six scores to help Carson to a 9-3 record and a Sierra League championship.
Carson coach Blair Roman hopes for the same magic with Cameron Price, who has decided to give football a try for the first time in his high school career.
Price played youth football through eighth grade, but because of injuries and basketball opted to not play football until now.
“I got hurt (in eighth grade) and my dad didn’t want me to play my freshman season,” Price said after Monday’s initial workout during spring football. “It’s what I wanted to do.
“I never really talked to Alan about it. He just said it was a good experience.”
Roman said he never tried to recruit Price. He thinks the recruiting may have come from the Rooker brothers, both of whom played basketball with Price last year.
The Senators made good use of Cohen’s height last year, especially in the red zone. Roman hopes he can do the same thing with Price.
“He can run, jump and he’s got great hands,” Roman said. “I’m hoping he sticks with it. He’s strong. I think he’s physically stronger than Alan. He has a really good, quick first step.”
Roman pointed out that Cohen came on strong in the second half of the season, and he hopes that Price will follow suit. In the last five weeks of the regular season, Cohen had 11 catches for 214 yards, including a season-best 101-yard effort against Bishop Manogue.
“His learning curve is steep,” Roman said. “It’s early. We have the rest of spring football and the full summer. It’s a learning process.’’
Price said learning the pass routes may be the most difficult thing to learn. He did spend much of the spring working out with other members of the football team.
The 6-foot-4 Price said h’s probably going to be a one-way player.
“I don’t want to get injured for basketball,” Price said. “It’s going to be tough to balance football and basketball this summer, but I think I can do it.”
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One of Roman’s biggest jobs this summer will be to reconstruct the offensive line. The Senators lost center Noah Texeira, guard Andy Cooper and tackle Aaron Cowee to graduation. Cooper and Cowee may have been the best guard-tackle combo in the Sierra League last season.
The good news is that Maurilio Olivares and Josue Orozco do return at right guard and right tackle, respectively.
“The cupboard is definitely not bare,” Roman said. “I do feel we have quite a few kids (juniors) that can come in and do good things.
“Jesse Medina had his season cut short last year with an ACL injury. He is back, and we have four kids between 220 and 250 on the roster.”
It’s an area that will be looked at very seriously when the Senators go to South Tahoe High for a three-day camp, which includes contact.
