2028 Prospect Camdyn Crow Is A Diamond In The Rough

Perhaps no two American states are more diametrically opposed than Texas and Vermont.

From size to climate, topography to politics, moving from one to the other can result in a significant culture shock. Texas produces one of the highest concentrations of elite softball talent in the country; Vermont, not so much. In 2024, there was just one NCAA Division I player who played high school softball in the Green Mountain State.

Camdyn Crow is well aware of those long odds, but if her family had not moved from Rhome, Texas to Thetford, Vermont when she was in third grade, she might never have picked up a softball at all. Crow played volleyball in Texas, but most schools in Vermont don’t offer volleyball, so she needed to take up a new sport in addition to karate.

Now, the class of 2028 recruit is a brown belt in karate, and is coming off her freshman season on the varsity softball team at Thetford Academy. She just joined the U18 team at Granite State Elite, a strong travel ball program in New Hampshire with a track record of feeding players into the college ranks.

“I just want to make it from New England and just show everyone that someone can make it from here,” Crow said.

When she was 11, Crow became connected with Danielle Tenney, the head coach at nearby Hartford High School who hosted local pitching clinics in the summer. Tenney immediately saw potential in Crow—who pitches sometimes but also plays both middle infield positions and center field—and took her under her wing, helping her continue to fall in love with the game.

The pitching clinics turned into one-on-one lessons, and Tenney remained impressed by Crow’s work ethic. Crow was just playing recreationally at that point, but Tenney encouraged her and her parents to join a travel team.

“Initially, what was fun about it was she was really passionate. That’s really the key to start,” Tenney said. “You really have to just love softball. She was willing to learn anything. And that’s the other piece, too, she took direction really well. She was very coachable. And at such a young age, she already decided that this was the sport she loved. A lot of kids don’t really decide that until they’re a little bit older.”

Crow’s first travel team was the New Hampshire Lightning, based in Concord, and she continued to prove herself as one of the top players in her age group across northern New England. The Lightning were able to practice year-round using indoor facilities in nearby Goffstown and Hooksett, and played in tournaments all over the region during the warmer months.

“She showed herself on the field very well, hit the ball very well, showed that she has some confidence. We were actually looking for pitching specifically for our team that year, and she definitely impressed us (in the circle),” said Rob Browning, an assistant coach with the Lightning organization. “She’s very versatile, too. She can play anywhere. Anywhere we asked her to go, she would go there in a heartbeat with no question. We used her mostly at shortstop. She has a great arm, she has great movement side to side, pretty much a brick wall there over at short for us.”

As she readied to enter high school, though, Crow was seeking a higher level of competition than the Lightning were providing. And it’s not like she was completely alone in having college softball dreams coming from her area. Oxbow High School, a 20-minute drive north of Thetford Academy, produces a steady stream of college players, most recently class of 2025 pitcher Anastase Bourgeois, who signed to play at Division II West Virginia State University.

Bourgeois, whose sister Mazie is a 2026 prospect at Oxbow, worked privately with Crow on her game and even inspired Crow to offer her services to younger players in the community for lessons.

Crow has even had a chance to learn from one of the best college coaches in the country—Florida State’s Lonni Alameda heads to Vermont every summer to lead a camp at Norwich University, less than an hour away from Thetford. At the camp last year, Crow connected with class of 2027 star Addison DeRoche, the two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Maine.

“I was (saying to her), ‘Let’s just do this. You have nothing to lose,'” said Crow’s mother, Kim Crow. “It’s pretty cool. That’s what helped Camdyn, inspire her to go to a bigger college and to have big dreams, is having that opportunity that Coach Alameda brings here. A lot of people don’t come to this area.”

After missing some time last fall with a hamstring injury, Crow was fully recovered for her first high school season, where she hit a home run in her varsity debut as Thetford Academy defeated North Country Union. Crow was used to facing faster pitching in travel ball and had some issues adjusting to the slower high school pitchers she faced, but still helped the Panthers finish 12-4 and reach the Division III state semifinals.

Crow is now in her first summer with Granite State Elite, led by James Christie. She has impressive bat speed and an aesthetically pleasing uppercut swing, generating more power than many people might expect given her 5-foot, 4-inch frame. Defensively, she has an excellent feel for the game at shortstop, always seems to be in the right place at the right time and can handle tricky hops on ground balls.

“She has a really solid skill set that when I had a chance to meet her in person, I was like, ‘This is something that we can do a lot with,'” Christie said. “We’ll see improvements quickly just because the commitment is there. She’s athletic and has good control of her body, and really just needs some coaching at the end of the day to help take her to that next level.”

Her formal recruiting process won’t start for more than a year, but Crow is already hearing from Division I schools in the Northeast, with Massachusetts, Bryant and Binghamton all sending her mail in the last few months. She also wears a ribbon on her batting helmet for cancer awareness to support Browning, who is battling stomach cancer, as well as Alameda, who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

Above all, the Texan-turned-Vermonter is trying to prove to herself and others that there is a path to softball stardom from anywhere.

“She’s been told on a couple different occasions that this is not a softball state, or this is not a softball school, or you’re probably not going to go anywhere in college with softball living here,” Kim Crow said. “She just has a goal, like, ‘I’m going to prove it to myself and everyone that you can make it.'”