Meyers on record-setting tear for Port Clinton

PORT CLINTON — Port Clinton quarterback Cam Gillum had an easy job in Week 8 — catch the snap and hand the ball to Dagan Meyers. Meyers did the rest. "It was crazy to watch," Gillum said. "We had a lot of games last year where we were pretty dominant in the run game, but I don't know if we had a performance quite like that. I don't even know how to describe it. Just being able to catch the ball, hand him the ball and just stand there and watch him run around. It was a different experience for me, definitely." By the time Meyers' running around had concluded, he had carried the rock 16 times for 268 yards and five touchdowns in a 68-13 win over Willard. The five rushing TDs set a single-game Port Clinton record and tied the school record for overall TDs in a single game. Meyers had already known what the record number was because the week before, in a win over Vermilion, he found paydirt four times. "It is really cool to watch him," Port Clinton coach Eric Leuthold said. "We all have goals, individual and team goals. I don't know if that was one of his goals or not, but it's something cool that now he has his name in our record book." The recent onslaught from Meyers has been the continuation of a standout season for the junior, who leads the SBC Bay Division in rushing. He's taken 83 runs for 862 yards (10.4 yards per carry) and 14 TDs despite missing a game earlier this season, helping Port Clinton to a 5-3 mark (2-1 SBC Bay). Meyers was an obvious candidate to step in for graduated senior Garrett Cornell, who was a workhorse on PC's first-ever state final four team last fall. But even he didn't quite expect this. "Last year, I had 17 carries on the year," Meyers said. "Now I'm getting 17 a game. I didn't know it would come to this." Learning football Meyers didn't play football growing up, or any other organized sports. He watched the game, becoming a Green Bay Packers fan early on after watching quarterback Aaron Rodgers. And he spent plenty of time playing games outside with friends. But it wasn't until Meyers moved to Port Clinton that football became an integral part of his life. Moving was a pretty standard experience for Meyers. His mother, Kelsey, was an Information Systems Technician in the U.S. Navy. Meyers was born in Virginia, then spent time in Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania and back to Florida. He lived in Jacksonville most recently before moving to Port Clinton in eighth grade. Over time, Meyers learned how to make new friends every three or four years. At PC, the obvious route was football. "Once I got here, everyone was already playing football," Meyers said. "We're in a small town, so all you hear about is football. So I just gave it a try." Meyers began offensively as a wide receiver, along with the middle linebacker position he still plays. But by the middle of his eighth-grade year, he moved to running back. "I just kind of fell in love with taking the ball from the backfield and running with it," Meyers said. Meyers still had to learn some of the more nitpicky rules of football, along with how formations and plays really all came together. But he could make things happen with the ball in his hands. "Once he kind of stepped in, you could tell pretty quickly that he was gonna be a pretty good football player," Gillum said. 'Momma's boy' Meyers told his mother, Kelsey, everything. He didn't always understand what she did in her IT role with the Navy, but he knew it was a big deal. Kelsey achieved the rank of Petty Officer First Class. "We were really close," Meyers said. "... Typical momma's boy." Before Meyers moved to Port Clinton with his father, Nicholas, Kelsey's liver problems had begun. About two years later, on July 7, 2021, Kelsey died of liver failure in Florida at the age of 36. "Being away from it, it was hard," Meyers said. Sports became Meyers' escape. In addition to beginning football when he got to PC, he also picked up wrestling and track as an eighth-grader. Meyers attacked the grieving process on the field, the mat and the track. He played a thumping middle linebacker role for Port Clinton's state semifinalist, then wrestled at 190 pounds before doing sprints in the spring. "Obviously, trying to get through it and overcome it in the first year is kind of tough," Meyers said. Meyers wears a necklace with his mother's initials to remember her, and she's frequently in his thoughts. "She's kind of with me every day," Meyers said. "Every day I think about her at least once." Meyers also got a tattoo on his right abdomen in memory of Kelsey. It features a large cross, along with Kelsey's birth and death dates, which surround the words "Follow the light God gave you." Each day, with his mother always in the back of his mind, Meyers tries to do just that. "I'm pushing on," he said. "I'm going day by day." Embracing a new role Meyers didn't have some master plan for seizing PC's running back opening this fall. He just tried to have the right mindset. "In the offseason, I kind of just embraced it," Meyers said. "I worked hard in the offseason on speed, hit the weight room. I just embraced it." Gillum said Meyers, who packs about 200 pounds on his 5-foot-11 frame, frequently stands out in the weight room. First-year head coach Leuthold also noticed quickly that Meyers was putting the work in whenever possible. "That was something that he invested a lot of time in," Leuthold said. "He's a weight room kid, a program kid that was in here every day that really put in the effort in the weight room in the offseason to really have some success this season." Meyers heard the doubts about Port Clinton's offense following prominent graduations, including along the offensive line. But even as early as Week 1, during a loss at Bellevue, Meyers sensed that things would be OK. He ran for a touchdown against the Redmen, then totaled 117 yards and three TDs the following week in a win over Rossford. Meyers was concussed for the first time in the Rossford game, meaning he missed a 49-0 loss to Perkins the following week. He still wishes he could've played in that contest. "I feel like the game would be different if half our team didn't get hurt, or if I had started that game," Meyers said. "I just want to play Perkins. The score would be different." Meyers made it back to the field the next week and hasn't stopped running hard since. Port Clinton has put together four wins in the last six weeks to push itself onto the playoff bubble. "The parts around him, the people blocking up front for him, have done a great job of creating some holes for him and giving him opportunities to be successful," Leuthold said. "Cam's been throwing the ball really well and making good reads, which has opened up some things for us there that has created some opportunities for Dagan." Port Clinton currently sits at No. 17 in the Division V Region 18 playoff picture, meaning the Redskins are one spot out of the postseason bracket. They'll have two chances to get in, hosting Huron in Week 9 and traveling to Oak Harbor in Week 10. A victory in one of those games would likely be enough for PC to slide into the playoff field. "We're just tightening stuff up, crisping it up," Meyers said. "Every week we've got to play that team and not worry about anybody ahead." Regardless of what happens the next two weeks, or in Meyers' senior season, he's already left his mark at Port Clinton. His name will be right there on the football record board, reminding those who see it years from now of the kid who moved from Florida having never played the game and turned into one of the most powerful runners Port Clinton had seen. "Me not growing up here and kind of just learning how to play football," Meyers said, "it feels good to know that I'm capable of a record."