The Program: A season with Oakwood football in 2026, Part I
· Yahoo Sports
Aug. 20—RURAL DANVILLE — Cameron Lee remembers getting the text message from Chicago Bears college scouting coordinator Bobby Macedo.
He needed to meet with Lee before practice at Halas Hall, the Bears' training facility in Lake Forest.
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It was a mid-May morning in 2018. Lee, then 24 years old, had his sights set on making the Bears' 53-man roster for the upcoming season. The offensive lineman had just bought a townhouse in Gurnee. Had signed a contract with the Bears after playing in two games late during the 2017 season.
His fiancee and high school sweetheart from Oakwood, Matte, had just graduated from Illinois State University and moved up to the Chicago suburbs with him.
Then, what he thought his immediate future would provide came to an abrupt halt.
The Bears were releasing him.
"It was terrible," Lee said.
Cameron Lee recounts the moment more than eight years later, on a picturesque early August summer evening standing in the backyard of his parents' house. Matte is now his wife of seven years.
They have three children — 6-year-old Lennox, 4-year-old Bridges and 2-year-old Recker — who had just spent the better part of an hour playing on a portable children's basketball hoop, riding miniature jeeps and enjoying the innocence of their childhood.
Tim and Dawn Lee, Cameron's parents, are situated on an outdoor furniture couch. Cameron's two brothers, Logan and Parker, are also nearby in the spacious backyard.
It's a scene Cameron probably envisioned happening at some point in his life. Even if he couldn't imagine it on the day his NFL aspirations essentially ended. Now, instead of just a former NFL player, he's entering his fifth season as the Oakwood football coach. A tenure that has produced consecutive playoff appearances for the Comets and a highly-anticipated 2026 season since nearly the entire team returns after helping the Comets go 7-3 during the 2025 season.
"If I didn't have this kind of support — or know that I can rely on these people — I probably couldn't do this," Cameron said. "It makes it really special to have everybody by my side."
'It's Oakwood. I know everybody'
Chaotic. Busy. Fun.
Those are ways Matte Lee describes what a typical Friday evening is like in the late summer and early fall months for her family. A family fully invested in Oakwood football these days.
Aside from Cameron's role as the Oakwood coach, four other Lee family members are directly tied to the program. Parker is the Oakwood quarterbacks coach, roaming the sidelines with his older brother close by. Tim and Dawn are also on the sidelines, helping keep statistics during every Oakwood game. And Matte is the Oakwood cheerleading coach. Logan, the oldest of the three Lee boys, and his family recently moved back to the area from South Bend, Ind., and will be in the stands watching this season.
"If the weather is nice enough, we round up all the family members we can and say, 'Hey, come out and watch the Oakwood Comets play,'" Matte said. "We let our kids run wild at the games. Everybody knows them, and we know a lot of the people there. That's one of the main reasons we came back home and why we wanted to raise our family here is we had such a big community here."
"It's Oakwood," Cameron added with a laugh about the Vermilion County village of roughly 1,300 residents. "I know everybody."
Cameron and Matte met in 2010 at a youth football game in Catlin, with Cameron there to watch Parker play. Cameron was a junior at Oakwood at the time, a multi-sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball with the Comets known for his size, work ethic and athleticism. He checks in at 6 feet, 4 inches and, during his football career that took him from Oakwood to Illinois State to four NFL teams in a two-year span, had him weighing just over 300 pounds.
"I was an incoming freshman with this gigantic upperclassmen standing over me," Matte said with a laugh. "I was nervous because he was the biggest man I had ever seen in my life to that point."
The two talked at the game. Exchanged phone numbers. Cameron texted Matte later that night.
"I didn't text him back because I was so nervous," Matte said. "He thought I was ignoring him and that he was never going to hear from me again. Then, the next day, I got the courage to text him, and we've been together ever since."
Matte now teaches science at Oakwood Grade School. She grew up wanting to become a zookeeper and majored in zoology at Illinois State. It's also a factor where one of the most significant moments in their life together happened.
It was in December 2017. Cameron had just been elevated from the Bears' practice squad up to the Bears' roster. Matte was visiting him in Chicago, and he took her to Lincoln Park Zoo. Where he asked Matte to marry him. Even if Matte admits now she didn't have a clue about what was going on around her at the time.
"This was after the fact, but I think back now and am like, 'Why did I stand and stare at these gorillas for 30 minutes?'" Matte said. "I stood there and looked at the gorillas forever because my favorite animals are primates. I was so oblivious. I was watching this gorilla build its nest as it was getting ready for bed."
Then, after a slight delay in getting a photographer there to capture the moment, she turned around and saw Cameron down on one knee, a ring box in his hand.
"We had been together almost eight years at that point. She wasn't going to say 'no,'" Cameron said with a smile. "I took her to her favorite place in the world and got her a beautiful ring."
The couple married on June 29, 2019, at Bloomfield Barn in Chrisman. Lennox arrived in May 2020. Bridges followed in July 2022. Recker rounded out the trio in March 2024.
Matte said she and Cameron were in agreement on naming Lennox and Bridges. Recker is all on Cameron.
"Here's my rule," Cameron said with a grin. "The names have to sound cute on a baby, but tough on a man. Tell me that doesn't work? Do you know the number of dudes who have come up to me about Recker and said, 'That is the coolest name.' Yeah it is."
'We're a really tight-knit family'
Tim and Dawn spent most of their professional lives working in the Oakwood school district, Tim as a teacher and administrator who retired as the Oakwood High School principal in July 2021. Dawn retired two years later from the district, primarily working as a guidance counselor. Tim, a former coach with the Comets in multiple sports who also served as Oakwood's athletic director, appreciates how Cameron has grown in his role.
"Like all young coaches, the image of coaching high school football is that it's the Friday nights," Tim said. "What he has realized is there's a lot more to the job. I've tried to take some of the load off him for some of those things, but I've seen him get better at those things, too. I'm proud of him because I know there can be potholes and difficulties, but it's nice to see a Lee on the sideline. It gives me confidence in the program."
To see not only Cameron, but their other two sons, return home is one aspect both Tim and Dawn don't take for granted. Especially when the grandchildren come over to their house these days.
"We're a really tight-knit family and to have everybody close is pretty special," Dawn said. "The boys have always been close as brothers."
Coaching isn't exactly the path Dawn thought her middle son would take. Especially since, as his guidance counselor in high school, he went to Illinois State to major in sociology and minor in agriculture.
"It's hard to give up a sport when you're a competitive person," Dawn said, "and this gives him that competitive outlet."
Getting the chance to coach with Cameron was an opportunity Parker, who is a teacher at Oakwood Grade School, couldn't pass up when Cameron became the Comets' coach prior to the 2022 season.
"I'd already been in the district coaching other sports, so I knew some of the kids and it seemed like a good opportunity," said Parker, a former multi-sport athlete at Oakwood who also went on to play college football at Illinois State. "I've always loved football, and Cameron was a guy I looked up to through sports. He's always held me accountable, and I've been there to keep him loose, keep him smiling on certain days and keep everything grounded. I think we work well together."
Logan said it was surreal watching Cameron's college career progress at Illinois State, from walk-on to dependable starter on an eventual national runner-up team.
Even more surreal to see him play with the Bears against the Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field on Christmas Eve in 2017 and then a road game against the Minnesota Vikings on New Year's Eve in 2017.
But watching Parker develop as a coach is just as interesting for the oldest of the Lee boys.
"It's funny just standing at an event with Parker," Logan said. "Like a parade, for instance, because the younger kids just love Parker. The reaction they get from seeing him out anywhere is hilarious to me. He'll be standing on the sideline, and kids will come up to him. He'll just give a little half-wave. It's been cool to see him grow into that. I knew Cameron had that drive. Parker was super talented, as well. I didn't know if coaching would be the route he would go, but he's grown into that, and it's been super cool to see, too."
Parker has a talented Oakwood quarterback to work with this season. Alex Wallace returns for his second season as the Comets starter after the 5-foot-9, 150-pound senior threw for 1,615 yards, 22 touchdowns and just three interceptions in 2025. Wallace credits the influence of not only Cameron, but Parker, as well, for the reason he decided to play football his freshman season.
"Parker helped me a ton with just the basics on everything," Wallace said. "With Coach Cam, I can always trust him. I really like playing for him because there's a level where you can have some fun, but then you've really got to lock in and do your work."
'This town is so important to me'
The work on this Oakwood football season started almost as soon as the last one ended. The Comets performed well during the regular season, posting a 7-2 record for the program's best regular-season finish since 2019. But a 28-14 loss to Carrollton in the first round of the Class 1A playoffs ended any hopes of a deep playoff run.
"It's one of those things where you mark the date of the first game on the calendar months in advance and you start to go through your everyday life in December and January thinking, 'Why do I feel like I'm so excited for something that is so far away?'" Cameron asked rhetorically. "But it is shocking how fast it all goes by, especially when you get into the grind of the offseason and the day-to-day of it all. It's been something that I've been mentally counting down days in my head like a loser."
A self-deprecating sense of humor and dry wit are trademarks of Cameron. But a simmering intensity in getting Oakwood football to not only a prominent place in the Vermilion Valley Conference — a league where the likes of Westville, Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin and Salt Fork have stood out in recent years — but on a statewide level is what drives him. Oakwood only has four playoff victories in its program history, with a run to the 2A state quarterfinals in 1988 as the high-water mark.
"This sounds so corny, but this town is so important to me," Cameron said. "I grew up going to high school basketball games when my dad was the varsity basketball coach. I remember being so involved and invested in this school that I can't imagine being anywhere else or coaching anywhere else. I don't know if it's selfish, but I want something like that for my kids because I want them to feel what it's like to be so connected to something."
The journey of another season begins this weekend. With a slight tweak. Instead of hosting BHRA at Marty McFarland Field, the Comets will travel to Bismarck to take on the Blue Devils at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Payton-Moss Field. A good early-season test to see what this Oakwood football team could possibly accomplish this season.
"With all the talent we have back from last year, everybody is anxious to see how the season goes," Tim said. "It is a great bunch of kids. That's why I like helping out and being on the sidelines is getting to know the boys and talking to them. That's a part of the job that I miss."
Cameron seems content with where his life is at now. He's 32 years old. Far removed from his own NFL career that started with the New Orleans Saints in 2017 as an undrafted free agent, continued with the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bears and ultimately ended with the Baltimore Ravens cutting him before the season started in September 2018.
He's settled into his role not only as the Comets' coach, but also with his full-time job as a dispositions manager for a whole-sale real estate company.
"You see those guys on HGTV that flip houses?" Cameron said when asked to give an explanation about his job. "I'm the guy that sells the houses to flip."
And on Friday nights — along with the occasional Saturday dates — for the next two months, he is the guy determined to deliver a successful football season for Oakwood. All he has to do is take a moment when the Comets are playing, look around and his motivation is easy to spot.
"This is rewarding for me on a level I don't think people can fully understand," Cameron said. "If something good happens on the field, my wife is over there coaching the cheer team, my brother is on the sideline, my dad is over there running stats and my mom's keeping stats. It's a really cool feeling, and I don't take it for granted."