Studentathlete
Former Millwood valedictorian Cameron Batson is still making the grade on, and off, the field.
Cameron Batson’s parents drilled the phrase into his head from an early age.
“We don’t raise a dummy,” they often said.
That sentiment stuck. In a couple weeks, the Millwood High alum and Texas Tech receiver will be a college graduate. Not only will he have earned his accounting degree in just over three years, but he will also graduate cum laude with a grade-point average in the 3.7 or 3.8 range.
On social media, Batson proudly posted the letter he received about graduating with honors. As well he should have. “He’s been phenomenal,” Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “He’s what you want in your program.”
When the Big 12 touts making “champions for life” or the NCAA trumpets “going pro in something other than sports,” it should be mandatory that those promotions include Batson. There is no better representa-
tive of the student side of student-athlete.
Now, don’t misunderstand — he’s no slouch as an athlete. Last season at Texas Tech, he started 10 games at inside receiver, snagged 60 passes for 644 yards and eight touchdowns and averaged 9.2 yards on punt returns.
This season as a senior, he’ll be starting inside and returning punts again.
“One of the toughest kids we have on our team,” Kingsbury said of the 5-foot-9, 170-pound speedster.
Batson’s tenacity on the field is evident in the classroom, too.
His parents began preaching the importance of academics when he was young, but he took it to another level when
he realized the classroom was just another place to compete. He wanted to score the highest. He wanted to rank the best. He wanted to set the curve.
After graduating from Millwood as a valedictorian, Batson went to Texas Tech with the goal of graduating in only three years. He had taken a bunch of dual-credit classes in high school, so he went to Lubbock with nearly a year of classes and credits already under his belt.
During the football season, he has taken only the minimum 12 hours required by NCAA rule to maintain his eligibility. But during the spring, he has added at least three hours to his class load, and during the summer, he has really loaded up.
He not only amassed enough credits to graduate next month — a little over three years after he arrived at Texas Tech — but he also kept up that GPA even with a fulltime gridiron gig.
“It was definitely difficult,” Batson said. “A lot of long nights, sleepless nights.”
He credited teammates and classmates with helping explain complicated concepts and decode confusing assignments along the way, but in the end, classwork is a solitary endeavor. Either you learn the lessons and pass the tests or you don’t.
Batson absolutely did. The best part of the journey was calling his parents, Ericka and Willie, and telling them that he was going to graduate with honors.
“It was great,” he said, grinning. “I know they’re proud of me.”
This fall, Batson plans to start work on a second bachelor’s degree, this one in management. And as the winner of one of the Big 12’s Prentice Gautt
Postgraduate Scholarships, he has $10,000 to put toward work on a master’s degree.
“And I do not want it to go to waste,” Batson said, smiling again. “That has to get spent.”
Hard to believe it won’t.
Kingsbury was asked the other day if there was a player on his team who he could see being his boss one day.
“He would be it,” Kingsbury said of Batson.
Cameron Batson still has a lot of goals to reach. He wants to play in the NFL. He plans to get a master’s degree. But even at that, he’s already achieved so much.
He’s no dummy, after all.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/ JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.