Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Life Of The Dugout
STEARMAN NAMED INSPIRATIONAL ATHLETE OF YEAR AT PRAIRIE GROVE
PRAIRIE GROVE — Moments before Charity Stearman delivered the knockout blow in the bottom of the third inning, she reached down into the dirt in front of Prairie Grove’s dugout.
The Prairie Grove 2022 graduate kept things loose in the dugout by sketching a cartoon figure of “Homer Simpson” in the dirt with her finger.
“I like drawing a lot in art class. I’ll draw Homers a lot, all around the field. Then I’ll draw it on Coach [Katy] Chavis’ papers and stuff. There’s one in the concession stand right now hanging up on the fridge on the wall,” Stearman said during a postgame interview.
She singled with the bases loaded, driving in a pair of runs to finish the Lady Eagles off with Prairie Grove winning by a 15- plus run advantage, 19-3, completing the Thursday, April 14, game in three innings.
Laugh At Herself
The ability to laugh at herself served Stearman well in the heat of competition and made her the Enterprise- Leader’s choice for Inspirational Athlete of the Year at Prairie Grove.
The Lady Tigers center fielder went 2-for-2 with 2 RBIs, reached on an error, and drew a walk while scoring two runs in the 19- 3 conference win over Huntsville.
Stearman demonstrated poise in a quality at-bat with a runner in scoring position.
Stearman took a called strike one, then swung and missed to fall behind in the count 0-2. She let the next pitch go by high and outside for ball-one, then fouled off a pitch before taking balltwo low. Another foul was followed by ball-three.
Stearman mistakenly thought she had drawn a walk and got all the way to first base before the home plate umpire called her back reminding her the count was 3-2.
Stearman laughed at herself during a brief exchange with Chavis coaching first base, and headed back to the batter’s box, still with two strikes. She fouled off the next two pitches, then dodged a bullet when Huntsville failed to catch a third straight foul just outside the first base line.
Poise At Plate
In the 11th pitch of the at-bat, Stearman calmly drew a walk, placing two runners on base with the Lady Tigers leading 2-0. Her successful at-bat showcased the longest duel between batter and pitcher of the inning. The previous five batters faced 19 pitches with two outs, two runs scored and one runner
on base.
“Usually with two outs I always struggle with it, but I really didn’t want to strike out this time so I made sure that I battled up with it and everybody else on the team did really good too, and we got through the entire lineup which is really nice with it going with two outs because usually with two outs everybody gets all shaky but tonight we just kept going with it,” Stearman said.
The next five Prairie Grove batters challenging Huntsville starter Katlynn Campbell faced 13 pitches. All of them got on base and four
runs were scored aided by one error, bringing the Lady Tigers’ lead to 7-0.
Huntsville switched pitchers, bringing junior Breanna Johnson into the chalked circle. She threw 14 pitches while facing the next three batters, yielding a 2 RBI single to Rhiannon Umfleet and an RBI double to Kaylee Kincaid, then walked Kennison Hamilton.
Stearman came up for the second time in the inning with runners at the corners. This time she reached on an error on the third pitch of the at-bat with a run scoring, pushing the Lady Tigers lead to 11-0. Johnson gave up one more run on Chloe Hillian’s single into left center that widened the gap to 12-0.
Johnson finally got Huntsville out of the inning on a strikeout, but the Lady Eagles didn’t last beyond the third inning.
Thrilling Basketball Run
Stearman started at guard for the Prairie Grove girls basketball team which, after finishing sixth in the 4A-1 Conference standings with a 4-8 record, sent shock waves throughout the Class 4A rankings by advancing to the 4A North Regional championship game and onto the Class 4A State semifinals.
Only a talented and deep Farmington squad kept the Lady Tigers from appearing in their first state finals since 2013. The run became a memorable feat for the Class of 2022 with Prairie Grove making its first state semifinal appearance since 2015. The Lady Tigers ended their basketball season 19-14.
Stearman mentioned several key people she’d like to thank who helped her excel athletically, get through the challenges of high school and enjoy life as a teenager.
Chief among these were her basketball teammates along with head girls basketball coach Kevin Froud and assistant girls basketball coach Rachel Harmon.
“Coach Froud is one of the main ones. He taught us to pretty much not be selfish at all. We all improved from it too,” Stearman said.
Unselfish Basketball
The Lady Tigers’ unselfish mindset manifested beautifully in the effective play of classmate and leading scorer Trinity Dobbs, the most skilled offensive player on Prairie Grove’s roster. Opponents knew that and guarded her like crazy, but during that postseason run Dobbs never forced shots that might have cost Prairie Grove in downto-the-wire games such as their 39-36 upset of 4A-4 top seed Morrilton on Feb. 23 in the first-round at regionals or 47-43 win over defending 2021 state champion Harrison in the regional semifinal or a 47-44 state quarterfinal victory over Highland on March 5.
If the Lady Tigers didn’t have Dobbs playing it cool like that, Stearman questions whether they’d even made it to state because Dobbs got the game going for each player.
“She gets the motivation going throughout all of us so it becomes easier for us to all score. When they’re all on her we have to find a way to move the ball to her side more so that they girls that are on her don’t help off of her. We’d have to drive on her side [of the court] so it would be easier for us to get a [quality] shot off,” Stearman said.
Stearman attributes Froud’s coaching emphasis as improving her a lot as a person and in her personality.
“I used to think when I’d make a mistake I’d think I was the reason that everything is going downhill now. But now, it’s like we have to move past that,” Stearman said.
Froud encouraged the team through inspirational quotes. She admits she doesn’t begin to know how to describe the transformation but said Coach Froud became one of the main people who made it happen for her and within her personality as Stearman flourished.