By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

While Covid was playing games with high school athletics, Bartlett athlete Camden Heenan put the pandemic to good use to try out another sport. When the MIAA added a Fall II season Heenan decided to try her hand at volleyball making her a one-year four sport athlete for the Indians. With volleyball added to her resume the Bartlett senior has now played soccer, basketball, and softball for the high school. 

 

Softball and basketball are her favorites to play but it’s on the softball field where she excels at the higher level and although she was not offered a scholarship at UCONN she is contemplating trying out for the team, if not at least play club while in Storrs. 

Having played on the junior varsity squad during the seventh and eighth grade she finally made the jump to the varsity team as a freshman and truly showed that she belonged. 

“Camden batted .348 for us as a lefty power hitter while she had a fielding percentage of .920 as a second baseman,” Bartlett Softball Coach Courtney Stawiecki said. “She was a named to the Southern Worcester County League’s All Conference team as a freshman. As a tri-sport athlete she does well whatever she takes on.”

Growing up Heenan started playing baseball with the boys, basically because it was easier on her parent with 2 younger brothers and did so until she was 11 years old. It was her that she gravitated toward travel basketball before finally stepping onto a softball field in the seventh grade. 

“There was no real difference, softball was the same as baseball,” Heenan said. “I was young and just wanted to play, but I also wanted to win while working together with the team.”

Although she began her career as a second baseman, she eventually was moved over to shortstop due to a vacancy while she was playing on the varsity team.

“I had always played second base growing up as that is where they put me as I didn’t have the strongest of arms back then,” the senior shortstop said. “Now my arm is much stronger, and I am able to make the plays and my movement is much quicker.” 

After having a breakout season during her freshman season, Heenan and her teammates were forced to hope and pray as they could not take the field until the strange pandemic was out of sight. Despite the loss of her sophomore high school season, she was still able to take part in a few tournaments during the summer with her travel team, but it was nothing that she had been used to.

When they were able to eventually get back onto the field hitting live pitching was something that they would have to get used to all over again. 

“Due To the lack of hitting during the year and a half of Covid, my hitting was not what I had been,” Heenan said. “During the time off all I could do was hit into a net in my backyard, it was nothing like live hitting.”

Heenan, much like everyone else struggled at first but by the end of her junior season she was fully back to normal at the plate.

As the Indians varsity shortstop got ready to begin her final high school season with Bartlett, she had a couple of goals in mind.

“This year we’re on the younger side so I am sure that we’ll be making a lot of mental errors, but once they clear their heads and go onto the next game, we’ll be ok. This is as great group of girls that makes an all-around team” she said. “As for myself, I can’t lie I want to hit my first high school homerun. I’ve been close a few times, but I really want to clear the fence.”

Bartlett finished the season with a 9-9 regular season record earning themselves a place in the Division 2 State Tournament. Heenan and her Indian teammates are hoping to do better that the 2019 season when they last went 9-9 and lost in the first round of the tournament.