In A Flash…
Senior Madyson Camacho is reveling in her role for Bison softball.
What was your decision-making process in deciding to return for this spring?
I wasn’t really expecting to even get the opportunity to come back. I thought that my career was done. Then, Darren [Mueller} called me and was like ‘hey, do you want to come back?’
My first reaction was to immediately come back. Then I l had to sit down, talk to my parents about it. In all, it wasn’t really a hard decision for me to say yes, but I don’t regret my decision at all. I’m living the dream here.
And how do you handle an emotional roller coaster like the one you experienced last spring?
I was just sitting with my seniors and sitting with our team when he told us the news. At the time, it was just heartbreaking. I thought that I was really done and we did not expect it either. It was really hard. That moment was incredibly difficult because you say goodbye to these people like you will never seen them again. This place became like a second family to me. I love this family, I love the culture that Darren built and the idea of leaving that was hard. Luckily, things changed course a bit, but I would not wish those feelings on anyone.
How do you focus on your controllable variables? Like you cannot control a positive test or anything like that. How do you focus on what’s in front of you?
I think we’re doing our part of staying healthy and we’re making the right decisions. If someone does test positive, it sucks, but it’s going to happen at some point. You just got to follow the rules and hope for the best.
How have you gone about establishing yourself as a leader on this team?
For me, I thought about what I want to leave behind here. I am always asking myself if I am doing enough for these girls, if I am being a good teammate, if I’m being a good leader or even if I know these girls well enough. Those are factors I feel are important to being a good leader. We’re trying to show them the way of Bison culture, but we are also trying to build a great culture here at NDSU.
Where have you seen yourself improve the most?
I think I have grown up a lot. I probably would say I was the troublemaker my freshman year. I just realized that I need to grow up and this is my dream and I want to make something out of it.
How did you go about that maturation process throughout your time here?
I guess I really didn’t know what it meant to be a Bison my freshman year. I wasn’t really trusting the process. Once I really did trust the process, I feel like that’s when I grew a lot as a person.
How does your hard non-conference schedule help you succeed in Summit League play?
We are very competitive and we always stick right with those really good teams. We’ll have our losses and we’ll have our great wins, but it does prepare us pretty well for Summit League play. Everybody wants to beat us and we want to beat everybody. We are going to do our absolute best to be the winner.
What do you want your legacy to be here at NDSU?
I’m definitely not taking this year for granted. I think it was our first weekend in Arkansas and we were just hanging out playing hacky sack. I just looked around, looked at the field and looked at my teammates and I was crying because I was so grateful to be there. It was such an emotional moment.
The legacy I want to leave behind is I want to be known as the teammate that busted her tail for everyone. I just want to be known as the person who was able to lay it down on the line for her team.
Madyson Camacho
Outfield
Senior
Hometown: Homeland, Calif.
