‘He keeps you energized.’ Three-sport Bald Eagle athlete puts his all into baseball and beyond
Bald Eagle sophomore Cam Watkins has diligently prepared for three different sports since beginning high school.
Watkins has a deep love of playing sports, competing for the varsity football, basketball and baseball teams. On every new team he’s played on he’s made friends, including Alex Gavlock, who plays baseball and basketball with him.
“It’s just fun,” Gavlock said of Watkins. “He keeps you energized and always going — always talking, always loud and just a positive person.”
His positive attitude has permeated through everything he does. It all stems from being with his friends and working toward the goal of state championships.
“I love all of the coaches; it’s just great playing all of the sports,” Watkins said. “You have the playoffs, the adrenaline. It’s just a lot of fun. I’m just really excited for the (baseball) season. I’m expecting us to go a lot of places with our talent.”
Leadership on the baseball field
Watkins began playing football and basketball as a seventh grader, but didn’t get to play baseball until his freshman year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He always had an interest in playing three sports. He can’t just sit at home and be idle, preferring staying active to playing video games or other more sedentary activities.
In baseball, he roams the field as a center fielder for head coach Jim Gardner’s team. Watkins flies around, tracking the baseball with the speed of of a raptor. He displays the same abilities on the base paths with three stolen bases on the season in 14 games. He owns a .263/.300/.552 slash line in 41 plate appearances, scoring 12 runs, driving in 12 runs with 10 hits in 38 at-bats and has two home runs.
But his numbers don’t tell the whole story. He also shows leadership and has made himself a valuable asset to the team, Gardner said.
“He’s such a fun kid,” Gardner said. “He’s a hard-working kid — everybody loves him. They (the team) all kid around. He’s just part of the gang. He’s fun and a lot of these guys play a ton of baseball together. They spend a lot of time together year-round. It’s just a brotherhood with all of the kids.”
Putting in the work with football, basketball
He started on the football team as a wide receiver and outside linebacker, compiling 38 receptions, 495 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns in 2021. On defense, he finished with 36 tackles (27 solo) with 22 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks, three quarterback hurries and three passes deflected.
Bald Eagle football head coach Jesse Nagle sees the hard work that Watkins puts forth each week, especially during the offseason. Every day except Sunday, Watkins either has baseball practice or a game. He goes to weightlifting classes twice a week in school, where he trains his different muscle groups for each of his respective sports. He goes to work on his basketball skills on Saturday and works with the football team on Sunday during the spring.
None of Nagle’s star player’s successes comes as a surprise. He expects him to accomplish more going forward.
“I think a lot with him is just he’s a kid that really finds the ball,” Nagle said. “On offense, he’ll go get it — wherever it’s at. Then, on defense, he’s so explosive off the edge. There’s some plays that you’re like, ‘How do you even block that kid?’ He has such great explosion to the ball and also off the line of scrimmage. Sometimes you just have that. And sometimes you don’t. And he’s got it.”
Watkins was the basketball team’s starting power forward, dazzling fans with blocks, strong rebounding and a few scoring outbursts. Kris Glunt watched the 6-foot-3 Watkins hustle and set the tone for his team — averaging 10.5 points per game and leading the team in rebounding with nine per game. He was also the team’s leading scorer in the second half of the season, showing his ability to improve and evolve as the season progressed.
“Cam always plays hard and leads by example and is a true pleasure to work with,” Glunt wrote in an email. “He is a great teammate, values the process of hard work, and he serves as a great role model for our entire program.”
A team of multi-sport athletes
Bald Eagle baseball is the nexus of multi-sport athletes. Along with Watkins and Gavlock, Kahale Burns, Ethan Koleno, Carson Nagle, Hayden Vaughn, Mikey Snyder and McGwire Heverly each play more than one sport. Playing more than one sport has allowed Watkins to build a deep rapport with each of his teammates.
“I love it,” Watkins said. “Everyone comes in and works their butt off for this team. We put the work in, we put the time in and I think that it’s great that baseball is just that great of a sport. It brings us together as a team and our chemistry is really high.”
