The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
GNH’s Camp signs to play at Div. I University of Rhode Island
WINSTED — “I can play anywhere you want and anywhere you need me to.” — Freddie Camp, Jr. on the internet’s Hudl football recruiting website.
Division I University of Rhode Island took Camp up on the statement with a full-ride football scholarship offer; Camp made it official in a formal letterof-intent signing at Northwestern High School this past Tuesday.
Camp and his Mom, Alexis Calder, a special education teacher at Torrington Middle School, were surrounded at the ceremony by teammates, coaches and school administrators prepared to testify to the truth of Camp’s Hudl statement and much, much more.
“In my 17 years of coaching, nobody compares to Freddie in athletic ability,” said Gilbert/Northwestern/Housatonic co-op coach Scott Salius. Salius guided GNH to the Class SS semifinals this year after falling to Class S State Champion Killingly in last year’s quarterfinals.
“We actually featured him less this year than last because we had more skilled people around him,” Salius said, while adding that Camp was a vital part of his offense defense and special teams.
“And don’t forget, he was also our kicker,” Salius grinned.
Featured or not, Camp’s athleticism/versatility exploded through this year’s 33 touchdowns, the most in the state. In 10 regularseason games, the Walter Camp High School All American rushed for 16 touchdowns, caught passes for five, returned two punts for scores, two more on interceptions and another two passing, before hitting paydirt six more times in the playoffs.
Even so, Camp’s football exploits cover just a third of his sports versatility at Northwestern.
Two years ago, in the Class M Baseball State Finals, Camp spoiled East Catholic star Frank Mozzicato’s no-hitter against the Highlanders with a line drive double to right center field. Later, Mozzicato, a lefty, was picked seventh in the MLB draft by the Kansas City Royals.
Last year, Camp, a cen
ter fielder/shortstop/ pitcher (whatever you need him to do) led the state with 13 home runs.
This season, he leads the Highlander basketball team — second in the Berkshire League — with some 20 points a game and 8 assists.
With one more high school baseball season on the horizon, Villanova, Maryland and Virginia Tech have shown interest from their baseball programs, but URI convinced Camp and his Mom that Rams football was the right choice.
“We visited a lot of schools,” says Calder from her teacher’s perspective. “With a Division I load, Rhode Island impressed me with all of their academic support systems for athletes.”
“I always wanted to go D-I, nothing less,” Camp says. “I didn’t want my Mom to have to pay.”
As one of just two selections
from Connecticut (6foot-6, 315-pound New Britain High School lineman Dontay Bishop is the other), Camp and Calder attended a meeting at URI for the Rams’ new recruits.
“They actually wanted us to have fun,” says Camp, who’s also impressed with URI’s addition of a sports media academic program that piques his interest.
With all Camp’s athletic gifts, this was not his and Calder’s first big decision among their options. Prep schools around the state reached out wanting him to come play baseball or football.
Camp wasn’t interested. “My friends,” he said. “All my memories are here. I wouldn’t change that for anything.”
The same kind of thinking goes into his football decision.
“I’m gonna miss baseball and basketball, but I always wanted to focus on one sport.
“I haven’t reached my full potential in football,” says the 6-foot-1, 190pound
speedster, listed as a defensive back on the Rams’ recruitment website.
“I like offense, but I’ll play anywhere,” he says, in a statement taking you back to his Hudl page again.
Size might have something to do with the Rams’ tentative position decision for Camp. Nevertheless, the prospect of giants like future teammate Bishop coming after him from other teams in URI’s Colonial Athletic Association doesn’t scare Camp on the possibility of going on offense.
“Have you ever tried to catch somebody running scared?” laughs a guy who regularly posts 4.4/4.5second speeds in the 40yard dash. “The fun part is avoiding guys trying to hit you.”
Camp and Calder agree it wasn’t just sports that made their decision in favor of URI among many other college candidates.
If that rounder view is true for Ram coaches in their choice of Camp, they, too, have a winner.
“If I’m just being who I am, there should be no pressure,” says Camp, regarding the possible extra load from being a high school celebrity as a three-sport star. “I can be serious, but most of the time, I’m kind of on the joking end. It’s all about the good stuff, not the bad.”
The same is true of his academic prospects. Though Camp, like most other gifted athletes dreams of a professional sports career in the NFL or MLB, his ambitions are far more inclusive.
“I’m good at technology and I love science,” he says. “You can be creative and put that together with sports and end up in something like sports medicine, helping people.”
Meanwhile, sports fans have a few more basketball games and a whole season of baseball to marvel at Freddie Camp, Jr.
It won’t take long to convince you that, most of the time, he can do anything you need him to before URI and the Rams take over in the fall.