Marty Gordon
Punt, Pass, and Kick (PP&K) is a youth skills competition that tests participants’ punting, passing, and placekicking abilities, and in 2014, Christiansburg’s Kadyn Camper was a national champion in her age group.
The competition even gave Camper her own football card, which is selling for $3 on the Internet.
“I really like football and would practice in the driveway,” she said.
She never thought about playing football in high school, she said with a laugh.
But it was something else Camper claimed a state championship this past spring. She led Christiansburg High School to its first Class 3 softball title.
“It was our goal to win the state going into the season,” she said, “and we did it.”
Camper admits she made drastic improvement from her sophomore year to now.
“I put in a lot effort to get it right.”
As a sophomore, she had 13 wins with 103 innings pitched with 173 strikeouts and only allowed .130 opponent’s batting average and finished the season with an Earned Run Average of 1.43 and threw a one-hitter.
She finished 20-2 this season on the mound with 277 strikeouts and a .853 earned run average, while hitting .542 with 11 homeruns at the plate. She was named first-team pitcher for the River Ridge District, Region D and state, and player of the year at all three levels.
All of this was accomplished with a torn labrum for the entire season.
Thanks to her effort, Camper has been named the all-county/all-city softball player of year and co-pitcher of the year.
For now, she is trying to work through the injury, preparing for the next chapter in her softball career at Purdue University.
