Camden defensive lineman Richard ‘Wink’ James relishes the competition as he commits to West Virginia
Camden captured the sectional championship thanks to a top defense where James played a major role and found himself in a leadership role.
“Wink” is the nickname for Camden High defensive lineman Richard James Jr., and it was given to him by his father at birth.
“Me personally, I think my dad gave me the nickname just because,” James said. “But if you let him tell it, when I was born the first thing I did was instead of crying was wink at him. I don’t believe it, but if that’s the story he’s going to go by.”
James transferred from St. Joseph’s Prep to Camden for this past season, and the junior has committed to West Virginia. He started playing football when he was 5 upon seeing a golden opportunity to show up his older brother.
“He’s five years older than me, started playing football when I started it,” Wink said. “And he was always so happy and saying, ‘I can do this, this, and this because I play football,’ and I was like, ‘I’m going to play football just to be better than you.’ And I know that sounds crazy, but it ended up working out in both of our favors.”
» READ MORE: Camden linebacker James Heard committed to West Virginia
Competitiveness is only one part of James’ arsenal though, as his football IQ is something that many around him have taken notice of. Camden linebacker James Heard, who also played with Wink at St. Joseph’s Prep and knew him before high school, can attest to this.
“He’s so intelligent on the field, he knows when to make a play and when to set the play up for me or another teammate,” Heard said. “Just on and off the field, he has a great IQ.”
James’ knowledge of the game gave him the ability to help this Camden team right out of the gate. In only the second game of the season against Salem High, he was called upon by head coach Rob Hinson to be placed in a key position.
“We were inexperienced on the offensive line,” Hinson said. “I think we had one starter back and then we had some guys who never played football before on the offensive line. We were struggling.
“So that second game, we were in for a nice little dogfight there with the defending champion, regional champion, and our inexperience on the offensive line started to show a little bit and Wink stepped up for us and he went from not even playing offensive line for us to playing 140 snaps in one game, which is a lot for a high school football game.”
James’ willingness to be put in this position helped gain him the respect of his new team and would be a key moment in his becoming a leader.
“That made it easier to bond with the teammates,” James said. “Specifically because they’re saying, ‘If he can make those sacrifices, then we can make those sacrifices,’ and then throughout the year we have guys playing positions they don’t really want to play but they have to for the greater good of the team, and nobody’s complaining about that.”
The addition of Wink to the team, along with Heard on defense and even Hinson, as it was his first year with the program, led to Camden’s winning its first sectional championship in 46 years.
After the season Heard enrolled early at West Virginia. Although Heard is a class ahead of him, James made his decision to pick the Mountaineers before he did. And it was another former St. Joseph’s Prep teammate who ultimately made the choice first.
“Josiah Trotter had a big influence in getting both of us to come down there,” James said. “He was real excited about the school and explaining everything to both of us, and we decided that was going to be a great place for us.
» READ MORE: Who is Josiah Trotter? The son of former Eagles star Jeremiah Trotter just signed with West Virginia
“Me and my dad were just talking about that earlier — once you make it out of the place you’re in, you’ve got to put on for that place. [Heard’s] going up there first, so I know he’s going to try to put on and then I’m going to go up there and I’m going to put on better than he is. That’s competition with us two every day, all day, in the classroom, outside the classroom, so I feel like us competing with each other is going to make it easier to put on for South Jersey and Philly.”