There is no doubt that everyone is being affected by the pandemic and the athletic departments in community colleges are being hit hard. The baseball program at Paul D. Camp has set up a donation site that will help the provide the players the sufficient needs in order to play their season.
As I wrote before in one of my articles about how COVID-19 is affecting community colleges and how their athletic departments are trying to navigate through this uncertain time. With this in mind, the Paul D. Camp baseball program is reaching out for help via social media to raise funds for their program. These funds would be able to provide student-athletes the ability to have the necessary equipment they need for travel, practice, and whatever else they need in order to compete with other teams. Daniel Rollins is the team’s head coach and he is the definition of a baseball lifer as he’s been in the game from the beginning as a college player to scouting for the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds to finally being the head coach of Paul D. Camp’s baseball program.
“This was a job that I really wanted to be honest with you. I felt like we had all the makings of doing something special here for a long time. I’m glad that I was fortunate it enough to get it.”
Since Rollins was the head coach, he described the job as a wonderful opportunity and he clearly wants to help build a strong baseball team for the school. The school has given back to him in the same way, as he stated that he had everything he needed from school and the community itself. Just like any coach, Rollins wants to win and him sounding committed to the long term success of the school is a benefit for student-athletes that want to compete there.
Just like other schools, however, Rollins and his team are faced with the challenges brought on by the pandemic throughout the United States.
“You kind of take it day by day because you obviously have to plan for the future, but you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself. We’ve had a very supportive administration, we have a president that’s a former athletic director so he understands what we’re trying to do on a daily basis to help our student-athletes.”
Staying positive is another thing that is a recurring theme within many organizations and this community college is no different as they handle navigating through the pandemic. Whether it’s trying to get their student-athletes to practice under safe conditions, or helping them with the mental part of life, Daniel Rollins and the school have been committed to helping their student-athletes become the best they can be under these uncertain times.
One of the biggest challenges that the school has faced is finding ways to fund their athletic programs and baseball isn’t an exception. That’s why Rollins and his team have set up a donation website in order to help pay for the essentials of playing junior college baseball.
“This fundraiser is huge for us because it allows us to do what we need to in the spring from providing meals, providing charter buses, providing hotels. All of the basic necessities of a college baseball program that bigger college programs might take for granted occasionally, you know we have to work really hard to secure the funds to cover those things.”
In the past, the baseball program would rely on fundraising through college football games from two of their local colleges, however, due to COVID-19 there hasn’t been games which put a temporary stop to their fundraising from the games. While they haven’t been able to do what they normally do, the fundraiser they set up online has been doing well since it’s launch and Rollins said they are a third of the way to their goal.
Despite everything the program has gone through, when it comes to games Rollins doesn’t change his philosophy.
His coaching style is aggressive and fast as he describes “I want to get after it, I want to put pressure on the defense, I want to create chaos and I want our players to create chaos on the base paths.”
He gives the other schools he faces credit as he emphasized the importance of forcing the other team to make mistakes and in turn give his team the opportunity to win. In addition to creating chaos, he also wants his players to understand that cares about every one of them individually and that’s the type of attitude student-athletes want to hear when deciding on where to play. Daniel Rollins has showed that he’s just more than a coach, he’s a role model and guide on the field as well as off the field and that Paul D. Camp community college is lucky to have him.
If you’d like to support Coach Rollins and the Paul D. Camp community college, you can donate to the team using this link!