Jupiter's Tyler Cameron, Lake Worth's Evan Moore lead a junior QB class that's lighting it up

Monday, October 11, 2010
by Jeff Greer

Jupiter's Tyler Cameron and Jupiter Christian's Kedric Bostic are best friends - they have been since playing travel sports together through grade school.

But aside from their social circle, the two are part of a larger group of area junior quarterbacks who are making an immediate impact. The group's impressive success means 2011 could be The Year of the Quarterback.

Joining Cameron and Bostic in this elite QB class are Fort Pierce Westwood's Travares Copeland, Lake Worth's Evan Moore and several others.

"There's a lot of great quarterbacks in our class," Bostic said. "We have to represent. We have to push each other and see how far we can all go."

Cameron, a 6-foot-3, 210-pounder with a rocket arm, probably gets the most attention. ESPN ranks him as a top 150 recruit in the nation among juniors.

He has verbal scholarship offers from Illinois, South Florida, Boston College, Rutgers, Louisville and several others. His ability to escape pressure, move around the pocket and make tacklers miss in the open field has drawn high compliments from several area coaches.

There have even been lofty comparisons to the almighty Tim Tebow, and for good reason: Cameron has 601 passing yards and 433 rushing.

"He's the best dual-threat quarterback I've seen on film this year," said Palm Beach Gardens coach Chris Davis, whose team shares a district with Cameron's Jupiter. "As far as I'm concerned, he's the best junior quarterback in the state."

Moore, who has thrived in Lake Worth's spread offense, leads the area in passing with 1,157 yards and 19 touchdown tosses. The 6-1, 170-pound junior also has 530 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns.

He's considering Wake Forest, South Carolina and a host of other schools. He recently received a recruiting questionnaire from Alabama.

"I've got a whole bin full of letters," Moore said, laughing.

Westwood's Copeland, who has thrown for 731 yards and nine touchdowns, might be the best athlete of the bunch, and college recruiters project him as an "athlete" at the next level. In other words, colleges think Copeland can play pretty much anywhere.

"He's a ridiculous athlete," Glades Day junior quarterback Tanner Redish said of Copeland, who Redish has seen at summer football camps. "He can do anything he wants on the field."

Cameron, Moore and Copeland all are in the top 10 in the area in passing among big schools, and Cameron and Moore also rank in the top 10 in rushing.

At the small-school level, juniors Bostic, Redish, King's Academy's Shane Bussey and Cardinal Newman's Brett Benes are top-10 passers, too.

And all that goes without mentioning Dwyer's talented junior quarterback Bobby Puyol, who should take over for senior standout Jacoby Brissett next year.

"They all deserve recognition, each one of them," Cameron said of his fellow junior quarterbacks.

Well, they're getting it. While Brissett and Glades Central senior Jamarious Rowley have lofty numbers as senior signal-callers, the glut of talent at quarterback clearly comes from the junior class.

That's why 2012 is expected to be The Year of the Quarterback.