During volleyball season in the fall, senior Ashlee Bueler was one the best players on Camp Verde High School’s team. That ended up being the set-up for a really good finale to her senior year in sports.
When Bueler joined the Cowboys track and field team as a sophomore, one of the expectations was that it would get her in better shape for her junior season in volleyball. As a senior, with no volleyball season to get in shape for, the goal in track and field became strictly to do as well as possible. She did.
On Saturday, May 15, Bueler competed in the Division IV State Track and Field Championship Meet in the discus. It was her final event of the season and — as a senior — her high school career. She went out in style. Bueler’s distance [101-4] on her second-to-last throw won her a state championship and was 1 foot better than the second-place finisher.
Due to her accomplishments in volleyball and track and field in the spring, the Camp Verde Journal is naming Bueler as its Female Athlete of the Year for the 2020-21 school year at Camp Verde High School.
For Bueler, winning the state championship was the culmination of a two-year journey.
“It felt really good and satisfying,” she said. “Especially since I worked so hard, not just this year but last year — my junior season — when my goal was to make it to state. I worked so hard, then we had COVID and I kind of lost all my progress.”
“It was a satisfying feeling this year,” she added. “Not only going to state — I kind of knew I would go since the beginning of the season. But wanting to win and actually winning was kind of surreal. It was satisfying.”
Bueler said that going into the season, her goal was to set the school record in the discus. While she fell short of that, she also noted that the current record holder did not win a state championship. If Bueler could only have one of the two, she’s happy it was a state crown.
And while Bueler doesn’t hold the school record in the discus, she does have it in another event — the javelin. Bueler additionally showed well in the javelin throughout the season and ended up finishing tenth in the state in that event.
Bueler identified winning the state championship as her top memory in track and field. Another big memory was the Marauder Early Qualifier, held at Mingus on April 1. That had a lasting impact on Bueler for two reasons.
“Our first meet of this season was so exhilarating just to be back in competition,” she said. “And to win. I wasn’t expecting to win going in, but winning made me think I could do it for the rest of the season. I was like ‘Oh, this is how it’s going to be.’ I wasn’t expecting it to be that competitive. The first track meet was an eye opener in many good ways.”
In her time at Camp Verde, Bueler was also a cornerstone player on the Cowboys volleyball team. She played throughout the court but was particularly strong at the net. Her 27 kills and four blocks were second on Camp Verde’s team during her senior season.
Due to COVID restrictions, there were no tournaments held throughout the 2020 volleyball season. A tournament in her junior season was what Bueler labeled as her best memory playing volleyball for the Cowboys.
“We won the first ever trophy that the volleyball program had won,” she said. “It was a third-place trophy at a tournament. And it was a small tournament but it was like a big, monumental thing, thinking that we could actually be something with this program. And doing it with some of my best friends was the best.”
Next year, Bueler will attend Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. And while her time as a high school athlete is done, she hopes to continue more in college. Bueler plans on playing intramural sports — like volleyball — and has also thought about walking on to the Trailblazers track and field team.
With her time at Camp Verde High School now done, Bueler hopes her achievements in track and field, as well as in
other areas, will be looked up to by future generations of Cowboys.
“I want them to think I was a kind person, smart and a great example to younger kids,” she said. “I’ve had a few of my teachers with younger kids tell me that ‘I want my kids to grow up like you.’ I think that would be great. To know that I was a great example to some kids in Camp Verde. A good example of not just being mediocre — that you can always excel in something.”
