Undiscovered Champs
[caption id="attachment_621" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="The Camden-Frontier softball team practices earlier this month — with only 11 girls and a barn in the background."]
Sorry about absolutely NO posts as of late, but 12-14 hour days at the sports desk and tournaments, championship meets and the conclusion of the regular season is wearing me out, and I don't need to get carpal tunnel from blogging!
Anyways, one quick note, then a full-length feature to indulge yourself in if you've got a little time and consider yourself a Hillsdale County high school sports fan.
First, the note: The last four days is precisely why I've always liked the NBA way more than college basketball. The personalities are bigger, the stakes are higher and as LBJ proved last night, the players are exponentially more talented. Hands in the face are no matter, time is no object and sorry to plug it, in a very non-journalistic fashion, but the NBA IS "Where Amazing Happens...". Wow.
Anyways, onto the local stuff. This feature took several weeks, many phone calls, and me attending a C-F softball practice and I hope it provides a worthwhile glimpse of what it's like trying to build a successful program at a Class D school with a whole lot of variables involved. Enjoy.
Undiscovered Champs
An inside look at the success of the Camden-Frontier girls’ athletic program, what it tries to stand for and what types of challenges stand in its way.
Gale-force winds rip through the country side, where cows and horses outnumber cars and houses.
A hint of manure melds with the smell of fresh grass with the wide blue yonder as the backdrop.
An out-of-place Powerade ad takes up space on an already tiny scoreboard not far from a gaggle of evergreens that ever so slightly blocks the view of your run-of-the-mill red barn.
This is where 11 girls practice in anonymity this May, hoping to stay healthy so their championship hopes don't hit the injured reserve.
This is the softball diamond for a team that holds no tryouts and has no room for errors, yet expects to uphold its lofty definitions of success.
This is the venue Dawn Follis and Melissa Warfield have turned into a beacon for getting the most out of young girls, all skill levels, as long as they possess strong hearts and commendable work ethics.
Sometimes it seems like no one cares, especially college scouts and on occasion even their own fans — but if they cared what everyone else thought, they may never have built programs with such strong winning traditions in the first place.
A winning tradition that includes five straight SCAA volleyball titles from 2003-07, six district championships in girls hoops since the turn of the century and district titles in softball in 2003 and 2008.
Being a bit off the beaten path, and one of 11 high schools in the county, it is relatively easy to remain anonymous though.
If only people understood what takes place at 4971 West Montgomery Rd.
FOLLOW THE LEADER
Players come and go, so sometimes the face of a high school program is its unchanging leader.
Follis is fiery, but gentle, all at once, urging her volleyball teams to conference championships each fall, but once basketball rolls around in November the Redskin girls are all Warfield's, until the end of June.
For the last 16 seasons she has called the shots for C-F basketball, and in 2001 she took over as the varsity softball coach.
Coaching was never part of Warfield's plan, until a school board member gave her the heads up on the JV basketball job opening in 1994. Now Warfield can't imagine life without it.
[caption id="attachment_623" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Head coach Melissa Warfield does it all at C-F, including trying to catch flyballs with a bucket."]
She pitches to her girls in batting practice, runs around the outfield shagging fly-balls, and tries to interweave solid principles with explanatory demonstrations. In her mind not much has changed over the years, other than her body is starting to feel the wear-and-tear and she likes to think she's learned a trick or two.
Warfield said she gleans philosophical ideas from books written by historically successful coaches like Pat Summit, John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski, but ultimately she feels like she's done her job if she is instilling valuable life principles.
