Achieving a Major Obstacle

Written and Media by Joshua Robinson.

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Hamid Camara profile pic. Photo by athletics.greenville.edu.

Some of the famous athletes have never over came any of their devastating injury. Most of them had to cut their career short because of the severe risks if they kept playing, or the injury was too severe that they had to give up the sport they love. On the other side, there are players that have overcame their season ending injury. Through all the tough battles they’ve been through, and all the obstacles that they’ve faced through rehab in order to get back to the sport they love dearly is a struggle to those players. This week’s testimony of overcoming an injury is about an extraordinary athlete, Hamid Camara.

Camara grew up in Bakersfield, California, where he attended Centennial High. He started playing football during his senior year of high school, playing as a running back. Camara actually ran track from the start, but when all his high school friends said that he should play football, he gave it a shot, and thrived in the sport. Camara attended Greenville College in 2014; he started on the defensive side at first, playing at safety. “I really never played safety before, but the coach needed people at safety.” Camara said. Then the offensive coach had given him a shot at running back. And he succeeded.

During the beginning of his senior year, Camara had suffered a major groin injury. When he was asked how did it happen, Camara said, “I was in a pile. All I felt was somebody pulling my leg to the point it felt like it was going to tear apart while more people were climbing on top of me.” The doctor had told him that he couldn’t play for a while. Although he was injured, Camara still played on an injured groin which made it even worse. “It was an injury I shouldn’t have been playing on,” Camara stated. “I probably would’ve been out for at least three games, but I felt like I had to go in, because we were having a rough season.”

Hamid Camara breaks numerous tables while running the ball. Photo from Greenville College Football FB page.

When Camara was asked what was going through his head during his road to recovery, he said, “I was focused on getting healthy and supporting my team; I wanted to come back and play to the best of my ability.” Emotionally, it was hard for Camara during his road to recovery; but he stayed positive through his bad times. When Camara was asked about the process of recovering, he said that it was basically a lot of icing and stretching, anything that would keep him healthy. It was a lot of work for him, but Camara pulled through. Camara was motivated to have a fast recovery and finish his senior season out with a bang. “I was motivated by my family, because they looked up to me,” Camara said, “especially my little brother and sister.”
When Camara had fully recovered from his injury, he became a huge weapon to the Greenville offense at the last half of the season. He completed his career with 1663 total rushing yards and 12 TDs. Camara also attended the senior all star game where there were Division 1AA, Division II and III schools competing. “It was really cool to be around a group of guys that are in the same situation as me,” Camara said. “The competition was way different, they were way bigger and faster, but it was still a good experience.” Camara will be performing at the professional combine this weekend, on March 4, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Vikings training facility. He’s been preparing for this event by working out with the track team and practicing the drills he learned when he was a Greenville Panther. When Camara was asked which league would you hopefully play in, he said, “Hopefully I’ll have a good chance at which ever league I’ll play in, I just want to play and perform at my best.”

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