By Katherine Brook
Defying odds and tradition. this past summer Valencia High School pitcher Cam Ely competed in the women’s national team trials, earning herself a spot on the Women’s USA baseball team.
“Praying I was crossing my fingers. Please let them say here Ely please say Ely please
say you Ely. They’re going through the names, I hear. Kelsey Whitmore, Beth Greenwood, Cam Ely, and they just moved past my name but I was awestruck. I never thought I would hear my name, let alone at 17 be said by the Team USA Coach that I made the top 40 roster.”
But Cam’s ballgame started long before the winning pitch.
“I got into playing very young at the age of three. Turns out I actually hated my first year playing baseball. My parents forced me to play another year, and I’ve never fallen out of love with it since.”
But being the only one with a braid comes with challenges of its own.
“You have to accept that you won’t be accepted. And that has to be okay with you. Taking the leap of faith to do something you love rather than the thing that’s supposed to be right. It means more than that. So take a leap of faith. Try it out. If it’s too much, then it’s too much. But if it isn’t, and you can push through, you will feel more accomplished than anything ever I promise.”
“It’s that mentality that makes her the player she is today.”
“Everything that she tries to accomplish and puts in the work she’s going to do. There were moments in games, even playoff games where she’d kind of really break it all down something I didn’t even think about yet. So I mean it kind of really showed her maturity in the game and she’s done a really good job for us,” says her Coach, Coach Meza.
“Now I’m out here playing high school baseball and on Team USA. It’s a dream.”
Stepping to the mound for both Team USA and her high school comes with resilience as she proves to herself and future generations the place for women in this male dominated sport.
