When the COVID-19 crisis caused the shutdown of schools, it brought an end to a promising baseball season for Camp Verde, keeping the Cowboys from going on a potentially long postseason run. One player on that team was senior catcher Kelton O’Grady, who became well acquainted with the playoffs in his time at Camp Verde.
O’Grady played middle defense for the Camp Verde soccer team for four years. The Cowboys made the state playoffs in each of those years, reaching the state semifinals in O’Grady’s freshman and senior seasons. During O’Grady’s junior year, the baseball team went on a long playoff run, reaching the state semifinals before finally being eliminated.
“Going as deep into state as we did, going to final four — making it that far with that team was just amazing,” O’Grady recalled. “It’s my favorite team I’ve had my entire life. The friendships I’ve had with some of those kids started in kindergarten and preschool. Growing up, playing with them in Little League and making it to the final four with them was amazing.”
O’Grady had a similar feeling about this year’s team.
“I think we would have been equally as good as the team last year,” he said. “We had a higher baseball IQ and were full of athletes. We beat Payson. That was the best game I’ve ever played in aside from some state games. I think we would have done super well and been state champion contenders.”
In soccer, O’Grady noted that some of his top memories came from away games, singling out the bus rides.
But he also added that defeating Chino Valley on Senior Night was “a dream come true.”
“We hadn’t beaten them in a long time,” he said. “Doing that on senior night was incredible.”
In his last full baseball season, O’Grady hit .279 with a .325 slugging percentage but was remarkably adept at getting on base, sporting a .492 on base percentage. Those numbers all improved in his shorten-ed senior season, as O’Grady had a .444 average, a .600 OBP and slugged .500.
And while the COVID-19 crisis did end O’Grady’s high school baseball career, more baseball is in his future. O’Grady will attend Eureka College in Illinois, the alma mater of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The school is roughly two hours south of Chicago.
“I wanted to play baseball after high school and I want to try to go pro — a recruiting site helped me find the best fit for academics and athletics,” O’Grady said. “That was it, even though it’s so far away.”
Academically, O’Grady plans to work toward getting his doctorate in physical therapy. While at Eureka, he hopes to major in kinesiology and sports medicine. Then, he wants to transfer to a bigger school for another four years to attain his doctorate.
O’Grady added that while the pandemic kept him from finishing high school the way he would have liked, the transition to online school has gone OK for him.
He also hopes that the Class of 2020 is remembered as one that fought hard to overcome obstacles, such as COVID-19.
“I just want us to be remembered as the class that still did everything,” O’Grady said. “Even in things like this, when school is canceled, we didn’t quit. We still made that jump into adulthood and still put our full effort into everything that we could possibly do.”
