New Pal catcher, valedictorian balances baseball with engineering future: 'Just trying to juggle everything'
New Palestine catcher Jackson Kamp watched the pain his grandmother, Debby Fisher, dealt with on a daily basis after undergoing multiple joint replacement surgeries.
As a kid, Kamp wanted to study aerospace engineering and design airplanes, but finding a solution to his grandmother's pain sparked his interest in biomedical engineering. Kamp wants to design joint replacements, prosthetics and surgery robots, things that can really make a difference in people's lives. The senior is a dedicated student, valedictorian of his class with a 4.11 GPA. Before he solves the world's problems as an engineer, the Dragons (24-3) backstop will be tasked with slowing down the Guerin Catholic (18-12) offense during Saturday's Class 3A semistate semifinals.
"Behind the plate, it definitely helps a lot," Kamp said of his intelligence. "It allows me to see things and study them. It can get me into trouble at the plate sometimes, though, starting to overthink things a little bit, but behind the plate, there's never enough time for that. It lets me make decisions quickly based on what I see. It makes it easy to see patterns. So, when I see the patterns, I know, oh, I need to do this."
Balancing academics and athletics was not an easy task for Kamp. There were nights where the senior stayed up until 1 or 2 a.m., after games studying and finishing up homework. Kamp also had to sacrifice his social life to maintain his grades.
"Just trying to juggle everything, it's definitely not easy," Kamp said. "My parents were always on me about using my time wisely, because I'm still a teenager and want to have fun with my friends and stuff, but they were like, 'if you want to accomplish this goal, you might have to give up something else.'"
"He's probably one of the hardest workers I know," added senior pitcher Rigg Mahurin. "To be able to have his GPA and to be one of the better baseball players on the field, it just takes that much more work. ... He's usually one of the first ones out here, doesn't put his cleats on yet, just goes straight to setting the field up for practice. He's the last one off the field, last one to take reps. He's just that kid to stay after and just put the work in when he knows he needs it."
Kamp and Mahurin have developed into a shutdown battery. Kamp relays the calls from coach Shawn Lyons to the pitching staff and the defense. Kamp caught Mahurin's nine-strikeout no-hitter against Cascade in the regional championship. Mahurin has not allowed an earned run over three postseason starts. For the season, Mahurin is 9-1 with a 1.38 ERA and 85 strikeouts over 60⅔ innings.
Kamp's experience and ability to process the game keeps him in sync with his coach and pitchers. Lyons trusts his backstop to make the right signals based on what he's seeing from the dugout, and Kamp has the defensive ability to execute all the plays on the diamond. The Anderson commit has a .977 fielding percentage, with nine assists and just five errors in 216 chances. At the plate, Kamp is batting .311 with 19 runs scored, 26 RBIs, seven doubles, one triple and a team-high six home runs.
"He's my quarterback for the defense," Lyons said of Kamp. "He'll make sure the pitcher and him are on the same page. He'll let me know, 'hey the umpire is really tight. Or he's giving a ball on the outside or the inside (of the plate).' We're always communicating.
"Jackson has been with us since his freshman year. ... They understand our coaches. They understand where we're coming from, and they trust the process."
Just two games from the state championship is a familiar place for the Dragons. In 2022-23, they lost in the semistate semifinals to Castle. Last season, New Pal lost in the semistate semis again, this time in extra innings to Class 4A runner-up Mooresville. There's a sting that comes from getting that close to the championship and coming up short. Failure is painful, but New Pal is hoping to build from the experience gained over the past two seasons.
"The atmosphere is crazy," Kamp said of the semistate tournament. "So, if you've never been in it, it's surreal. Having that experience just lets you play instead of being all tight because you're like, 'oh, there's a lot of people in the stands right now.'"
Follow IndyStar high school baseball Insider Akeem Glaspie on X at @THEAkeemGlaspie and get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
Class 4A at South Bend Riley (Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium)
Class 4A at Mooresville
Class 3A at LaPorte
Class 3A at Jasper
Class 2A at Oak Hill
Class 2A at Castle (at University of Evansville)
Class A at Lafayette Jeff (Loeb Stadium)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Andrean's Charlie Sollars loves ‘that adrenaline rush.' Just wait until the state championship game.
If the Class 3A state championship game is on the line on Friday, Andrean senior outfielder Charlie Sollars wants to be the one at the plate. The Lincoln Trail commit doesn't shy away from those high-pressure moments. He embraces them. 'I just love to compete,' Sollars said. 'That pressure you have sometimes when the bases are loaded and there's a 3-2 count … I love the feeling of that adrenaline rush.' Sollars could get his chance when the 59ers (30-3), who are ranked No. 1 in the 3A state coaches poll, play No. 7 Jasper (28-6) at Victory Field in Indianapolis at 7 p.m. Friday. They will try to win their ninth state title and first since 2022. Although Sollars pitched earlier this season, he has made most of his impact with his bat. He's hitting .357 with six doubles, one home run, a team-high 36 RBIs, 38 runs scored and 12 steals. Sollars was in the cleanup spot during Andrean's 4-0 win over NorthWood in the LaPorte Semistate championship game on Saturday. 'He's been a consistent offensive player the whole year,' Andrean coach Dave Pishkur said. 'He's a competitor, and he likes the moment, whatever that moment may be.' Sollars has had plenty of moments like that during his high school career, which included time as an outside linebacker on Andrean's football team. He had 71 tackles and two interceptions for the 2A semistate runner-up last season. Pishkur said Sollars sometimes approaches baseball like he's on a football field. 'You'd expect him, being a linebacker, to take some of that mentality onto the baseball field,' Pishkur said. 'He doesn't do it in baseball because it's a different sport, but in football he's a talker. If he makes a tackle, he might say something to you as well.' Sollars noted that he doesn't have as many opportunities to talk like that because he's in the outfield for half of the game. 'Football's a much more emotional sport,' he said. 'Baseball is more of a mental battle, so you try to keep your emotions to a minimum.' It can be a different story during practices, however. Sollars takes advantage of opportunities to be heard by his teammates. 'Any way to create competition in practice is a good thing,' he said. Andrean senior catcher Blake Kouder said Sollars has a knack for making practices feel like game situations. 'He can get on your nerves for sure,' Kouder said with a laugh. 'There's no harm intended with it, but sometimes during practices it can be hard to find that competition, so he just implements it himself.' Sollars implemented that in the weight room during the offseason too. 'It's more about flexibility rather than just heavy lifting,' he said. 'Instead of getting on the bench press and trying to lift as much as you can, it's about explosive movements and power, moving the weights as fast as I can to build up the smaller, faster-twitch muscles for baseball.' Kouder said Sollars savors any chance to compete. 'It just comes with his personality,' Kouder said. 'He's not a guy who's going to stand down to anybody. He's just competing with the guy on the mound, and he's not going to let them beat him.'
Indianapolis Star
3 days ago
- Indianapolis Star
Noblesville's Meredith Tippner repeats as Gatorade Indiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year
Meredith Tippner added one last accolade to her high school resume this week, garnering Gatorade Indiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year honors for a second straight season. The Noblesville senior forward led the Millers to a 19-0-2 record and a third consecutive Class 3A state championship last fall, scoring 24 goals and 16 assists. 12 of her goals were game-winners and she assisted on all three goals in the state final vs. Center Grove. She went 24-1 in state tournament games with with four sectional titles and three state championships. Gatorade Player of the Year honors the nation's best high school athletes for their success on the court, in the classroom and in the community, and distinguishes Tippner as the state's best high school girls soccer player. IndyStar ALL-USA Central Indiana POY: Meredith Tippner Noblesville honors assistant's memory: 'If you were coached by him, you knew what love was.' 'Her athleticism is off the charts,' Hamilton Southeastern coach Greg Davidson said of the two-time United Soccer Coaches All-American and 2024-25 Indiana Miss Soccer. 'She can singlehandedly take over a game. Her mental toughness is key and helps her teammates believe in themselves.' Tippner has maintained a 4.34 weighted GPA in the classroom and has volunteered locally with the White River Food Pantry. She has also donated her time with the Humane Society of Hamilton County. The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport. Recent Indiana recipients include Noblesville's Ava Bramblett (2022-23) and Homestead's Amelia White (2021-22). As part of Gatorade's commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Miami Herald
Cypress Bay's Tyler Johnson is the Broward County Boys' Volleyball Player of the Year
Tyler Johnson embraced the underdog mentality during his time playing for the Weston Cypress Bay boys' volleyball team. During his high school career there, Johnson, a 6-foot, 3-inch outside hitter, has never been part of the tallest or deepest roster in the state or even Broward County. And yet Johnson and the Lightning have consistently remained among the best. 'Since sophomore year, it's been an honor to be part of such a great program. We've had two great coaches during my time here, who have built a great culture there,' Johnson said. 'The mentality we had. We were understaffed compared to other teams we played, but we didn't let it stop us.' Johnson is taking that approach to his next step - playing collegiate volleyball at Brigham Young University. And he'll head there after finishing a stellar senior season and earning his second consecutive Miami Herald Broward County Boys' Volleyball Player of the Year honor. Johnson finished the season with 302 kills, 147 digs and 52 blocks. His efforts helped Cypress Bay advance to the Class 3A regional semifinals before losing in four sets to Miami Columbus. The Lightning went 19-7 and navigated through a tough schedule in Class 3A, which was considered the toughest of the three classes this season after the state expanded to a three-class format. Cypress Bay lost only once to a team from Broward and beat several of the top teams in the state along the way. 'We took a lot of younger kids on the team this year and helped them fall in love with volleyball and really embrace the sport,' said Johnson, who also played a lot at the setter position during his career. Johnson, who has played on Team Florida on the boys' national select team in recent years, will join one of the country's top-notch programs at BYU. He plans to take the most he can from the lessons he learned while helping the Lightning evolve into one of Broward's best teams over the past four years. 'I think I have to have that mentality (in college),' Johnson said. 'I'm a little undersized and gonna be among a bunch of giants so I have to have that mentality when I go over there.'
