Camille is a Computer information systems major from LA, Inglewood specifically. She is the oldest of 3 siblings, the other two being brothers. She can recall loving the thrill of competition and the joy of sports early on, but also experienced fear of being in front of others. In fact, the first question that she asked about Softball was if there would be other people in the stands. Initially better at fielding than hitting, Navarro began as a catcher and was recruited at the position. However, she has since become one of the best Second basemen in all of collegiate softball. She did not give the sport her full attention until her junior year of high school, playing basketball and volleyball to round out the year. Although she had difficulties juggling travel softball with her day to day schedule, playing for her high school team presented much lower stakes. They worried about being able to field a team and teach the fundamentals, whereas travel softball was all gas no brakes. She verbally committed to Howard weeks before her Senior year and took a subsequent visit in the Fall. Navarro was on her visit with 6 of the other 10 eventual commits, and remembers being excited about what was to come. As fate would have it, the team’s coaching spot became vacated and there was a threat of having no season. Navarro arrived at Howard confused but optimistic. The team was conditioning, lifting and attempting to practice. But without a coach, things were looking bleak. In November of that year(2018), Coach Tyson was eventually hired and things were finally on track. Although Navarro has grown significantly from her first year, it was no slouch of a season with her finishing as the team’s Freshman of the year. Named a Captain during her Sophomore year, she was off to a smooth start. Through ~20 games, she was well on her way to being named all-conference. During what seemed to be a normal March game, both teams received word that the Covid-19 pandemic would be cutting everything short. Their season. Their semester. Everything. They played their pair of games and created an impromptu senior day, a meaningful but unfortunate ending. Like myself, the pandemic had Camille questioning when the next time she would be playing her sport would be. Her next time donning the Bison blue would be the Spring of 2021. Despite having only 12 active players for the most part, Navarro and the Bison had many highlights throughout the season. During this time, she eclipsed 100 hits for her career, and was named MEAC Player of the year. Navarro is excited to explore her interests outside of softball when she hangs the cleats up soon. But for now, she’s got her eyes on a championship and trip to the Regional. Good luck to the Women’s Softball team and Thank you again to Camille!Recorded: 3.3.22
