Basketball. Golf. Pickleball. Hiking. Snowshoeing. For 48-year-old Cammas Freeman, age is no deterrent to playing sports. Her only deterrent is not having enough time to jam in all the sports she wants to play as an adult athlete.
In addition to her sports activities, Cammas is the founder of a successful recruiting firm and the mother of three daughters. So to say she juggles a lot of balls in the air (not just the sports ones!) is an understatement.
Her solution to fighting the ever-challenging battle of a busy work schedule without giving up her passion for athletics? Blend the two together! Cammas came up with the creative idea of scheduling business and networking meetings on the golf course or the hiking trail.
Because for Cammas, being active and involved in sports is what keeps her going both mentally and physically. (This is a running theme among many of our featured adult athletes).
How Sports Became A Centerpiece
For this Idaho native, her passion for sports started early. Cammas’ single mom didn’t earn a lot of money but still managed to sign Cammas up to try whatever sport was available, so she played tee ball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, and basketball. She even did gymnastics.
By fourth grade, Cammas honed in on one sport that she continues to play today–basketball. But back then, there weren’t always girls’ teams for all sports, so sometimes this meant she was the only girl on boys’ sports teams.
Life wasn’t without challenges. Cammas moved. A lot. Between her freshman and senior years in high school, she lived in 13 houses in five different towns and went to three high schools. But she also credits this life experience with opening up new opportunities.
“Some of them [her moves] were to really small towns with really small schools,” Cammas explains. “Which was beneficial because I did get to play everything.”
One of the things she tried on a whim was throwing the javelin because she thought it looked fun. Her whim paid off, and she ended up going to state championships.
“I didn’t end up placing once I got there,” Cammas laughs. “But if you’re an athletic person, you can do most things decently, so I think I was blessed with that a little bit.”
Cammas moved back to her hometown of Boise for her senior year of high school. Now that she was at a bigger school, the athletic competition was more fierce. So while she was on the basketball and volleyball teams, she didn’t get much playing time.
“I didn’t get to play [basketball] my senior year hardly at all,” recalls Cammas. “It was heart-wrenching. I cried. I used to carry a basketball around with me all summer. It was the worst thing that could happen to me. I was devastated.”
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Basketball, Volleyball (And Determination) Take Center Stage
Many born athletes share a common personality trait–fierce determination. Cammas is no exception. Despite her setback in sports during her senior year in high school, she was determined to play college basketball. Cammas became a woman on a mission and turned her dream into a reality.
“I wanted to play college basketball. That was my dream, my everything. So I called around to junior colleges and basically got myself tryouts with no stats,” Cammas says.
Her determination paid off. “I was able to get a scholarship at this little small town community college and play basketball.”
Then things took another twist in Cammas’ college sports career. “The coach, who also coached the volleyball team–that’s how small this school was–called me and said, ‘Hey, I have an opening on the volleyball team. Would you want to play volleyball too?’. I was like, ‘Heck yeah!’.
That was fortuitous for Cammas because, at five-foot-seven, it became a challenge to compete in college basketball against women much taller than she was. But at volleyball, she excelled and even won a defensive player of the year award.
Cammas remains in contact with her former coach, Kathy Bell, to this day and is grateful she saw something special in her.
“She means a lot to me and took a chance on me to fulfill my dream to get to play college sports. [She] was amazing, more than a coach–like a mentor and a mom-away-from-home,” Cammas says.
Lessons Cammas Learned From Sports (And You Can Too)
Cammas emphasizes that her experience taught her to never give up and to consider every opportunity.
“I made the effort and called schools for tryouts, and obviously, there were some I didn’t get,” says Cammas. “But ultimately, it led to that volleyball scholarship and paid for my college.”
Besides teaching her lessons in persistence and resilience, Cammas thinks being part of a team sport can benefit your career as well.
“When you’ve been part of something where every piece has to be well-oiled in order to get to a goal, that does translate in the business world,” emphasizes Cammas. “You can’t have one selfish person–that doesn’t work in [team] sports. It also doesn’t work in business.”
Cammas thinks there are other valuable business lessons you can learn from sports, like being coachable, being adaptable, being competitive, and learning how you can improve when you lose at something.
The Continuation Of Sports As An Adult Athlete
When you’ve been a lifelong athlete, it’s hard to think of turning off the sports spigot just because you graduated high school or college. Athletics tend to be woven into the fiber of who you are.
That was the case for Cammas. So she joined a women’s recreational basketball team in her early twenties, where she was initially one of the youngest players in the league. Now, more than 20 years later, she’s become an integral part of the league and has handled many logistics for her team. (You can search for your own adult sports league near you in our directory, by the way).
Cammas thinks adult recreational sports leagues are an incredible outlet for people to just get out there and enjoy themselves.
“We have [former] D1 athletes to [former] high school athletes on our team. There’s always a mix, and as long as you play hard and have a good time, no one cares if you miss a shot,” she says. “I love the women I’ve played with over the years.”
Besides basketball, Cammas also took up pickleball and golf in adulthood. And she hikes nearly every day. Cammas started a networking group on Facebook that incorporates hikes and then wine afterward. She squeezes in nine holes of golf during lunch for business meetings.
Being active while incorporating business has blossomed and become somewhat of her personal brand, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
And, of course, being goal oriented is deep in Cammas’ DNA. One of her main goals? To hike all 50 states. Considering what she’s done so far, nothing should stop her.
