SALISBURY — Cameron Pierson is a senior at Dayton University in Ohio, majoring in electrical engineering with a bright future ahead of him. He’s also the Carolina Panthers Fan of the Year, and along with that distinction came a trip he will never forget — Las Vegas for Super Bowl XVIII.

Pierson is quick to acknowledge that his major is intense and requires a lot of studying, but he’s always found time to carve out room in his life for his passion for sports.

“Even though I am in a difficult major, I study a lot; I still try to keep myself in different hobbies, one of those being sports,” Pierson said. “I have loved sports ever since I was a kid. I will watch it and play it. I love them all.”

Ever since he was a kid growing up in Salisbury, Pierson has loved rooting for the Carolina Panthers. It’s a fandom he has continuously nurtured, even as a college student in Ohio.

“Whenever the Panthers are playing it is a blocked-off time for me to enjoy life and not have to worry about school,” Pierson said. “It’s basically building a schedule around the stuff I enjoy the most and getting the work done I need to get done outside of those times.”

Eight months ago, when Pierson was attending a Panthers practice session with his mother Renee and sister Angelina, a trip to the Super Bowl was at best a wild dream. A prompt on the scoreboard led his sister to draft an application for Panthers Fan of the Year on Pierson’s behalf.

“My mom, sister and I were sitting there watching practice with the fringe roster guys who may or may not make it,” Pierson said. “I was looking around and checking out the roster trying to watch and evaluate the players.

“Up on the jumbotron, they post a QR code to a form that said to nominate someone for NFL Fan of the Year. My sister poked my mom and said, ‘Hey, we should nominate Cam.’ While I am sitting there watching practice, my sister filled out an application.”

It turns out that Pierson’s interstate fandom found favor with the Panthers organization.

“(In the application,) my sister and my mom talked a lot about me going to school out of state, and one of the things I really try to do is bring the Panthers’ hospitality of it, our fandom and our spirit to Ohio with me to a part of the country that doesn’t have much knowledge of Panthers fans.”

Even if he is not converting new fans, Pierson still makes it a point to get a group together on game days.

“I try to get people to, if not root for the team, at least keep them involved, especially my friends that follow football,” Pierson said.

For the next few months after his application was submitted, Pierson went about life as usual. Hew was trying to wrap up his senior year in college and was focused on getting a job in his field next year. He’s happy to report that he will be coming back to North Carolina and starting with a company in Raleigh following graduation.

Throughout that time, even amid the Panthers’ woeful season, Pierson’s fandom never waned.

“There were probably 5,000 other people who turned in applications,” Pierson said. “What are the odds that my nomination even makes it past the first round? It was not something that I thought could happen.”

Then, later in the season, his mother received an email indicating that Pierson was a finalist. A member of the Panthers’ marketing team asked to set up an interview with Pierson.

Since the semester was winding down, Pierson was hesitant to ask for any time off from class, but when his professor heard he had an interview, he obliged Pierson’s request to come to class a little late.

“I join in on a (Microsoft) Teams call,” Pierson said. “I get on, and it’s one of the Panthers’ marketing people. She says, ‘Hey Cameron, here’s Sam with a few questions.’

“I’m thinking, oh, Sam is a generic name, and then Sam Franklin Jr. (safety) appears on screen,” Pierson said. “Oh, that Sam.”

Franklin proceeded to tell Pierson that he had been named as the Panthers Fan of the Year.

Pierson initially planned to answer questions, believing an interview was forthcoming. He did not realize that the organization’s decision had already been made.

“It came at me so fast,” Pierson said. “I was prepared to talk about my support of the franchise.”

After the meeting concluded, a gleeful Pierson returned to class with a smile that indicated to this professor the interview must have gone pretty well. With the announcement in the rearview, everything else started moving really fast.

The NFL overnighted a jersey to Pierson and arranged a photoshoot in the Dayton basketball arena.

“It was tough to fit something like that into my schedule but I was going to make time,” Pierson said.

On Dec. 24, Pierson got to hit the “Keep Pounding” drum at a Panthers home game.

Ultimately, the crown jewel rested in a former military stopover in the Mojave Desert, where Pierson would join 61,000 other spectators for the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

“Vegas was fantastic,” Pierson said. “The city really embraced the Super Bowl. It really seemed to use the opportunity that it had to run with it.

“It was my first time in Vegas. It was cool to explore this town that has been on the other side of the country.”

Pierson’s ticket was near the goal line of the 49ers endzone, so he got to watch former Carolina Panther Christian McCaffrey score a touchdown in the first half. Given the connection with McCaffrey and 49ers’ defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, Pierson was firmly in the 49ers’ camp.

“I was rooting for the Niners mainly because of CMC,” Pierson said. “Steve Wilks is a local guy with a lot of ties to the Panthers organization.

“A lot of the fan base has mixed feelings about Steve, a lot of them positive. Great culture guy and a fantastic human being.”

Pierson said that he has nothing against the Chiefs.

“I don’t like hating on teams because they are good,” Pierson said. “I don’t mind the Chiefs; I just don’t really care that much about them. I’m not mad they won, but I wanted CMC to get a ring.

The game might not have gone the way he hoped, but a trip to the Super Bowl was a great way to wrap up the season.

“This is not even a dream come true because I could not have even dreamed this,” Pierson said.