BIDDEFORD — Ryan Camire is one of those athletes who likes to push themselves to attain loftier goals.

It was with that mindset that the Sanford junior approached the 2012 high school baseball season ”“ a campaign that set him apart from all others, and one that led Camire to be selected as the Journal Tribune 2012 High School Baseball Player of the Year.

“I’m one of those kids who is never satisfied,” Camire said. “There’s always something that I look back on and think, ”˜I could have done that better or I need to get stronger at this aspect of the game.’ I know I just have to keep working.”

Up until this season, Camire had always concentrated and excelled on the basketball court. He finished 2012 rated third in Class A scoring (18.1 points per game), was an all-conference selection in 2011 and 2012, and was named a member of the Journal Tribune’s 2012 All-County Team.

But as the 17-year-old began to think long term and focus on a goal of attending West Point, he put athletics into perspective.

“I’ve had some success playing basketball, and I just wanted to put some time in and see how much more I could do playing baseball,” said Camire, who also received all-conference academic awards in 2011 and 2012. “I kind of felt like with baseball I might stand a better chance and it might help me out in getting into West Point if I can play at that level. That’s one of the reasons why I started to get more passionate about baseball.”

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The extra effort definitely paid off for Camire as his statistics simply jump off the page.

On the offensive side, he led the Southern Maine Activities Association with 24 hits and his .436 average was fourth-best in the SMAA. On the mound, Camire finished the season 4-2 with 0.99 earned run average, good enough for seventh-best in the SMAA and nearly a half run lower than any other pitcher in the county. Five of his seven starts were complete-game efforts, and his 49.1 innings pitched were the fourth most in the SMAA.

“First and foremost, Ryan is a quality individual,” said Sanford head coach Mark Boissonneault. “He’s such an in-shape athlete and his work ethic is unparalleled. He does everything that is right in order to get himself prepared. He was the heart and soul of our team. Obviously, we were hoping for a better season than what we had but if it wasn’t for him we would have been hurting a lot more. He was the workhorse of our pitching staff and our leadoff hitter. The stats speak for themselves as far as where he compares in the league.”

 High School Baseball All-Stars

Pitchers ”“ Ryan Camire, Sanford; Bobby Cote, Biddeford

Catcher ”“ Louie DiTomasso, Wells

Infielders ”“ Jeff Gelinas, Thornton Academy; Brady Fleurent, Biddeford; Alex Fallon, Thornton Academy; Paul McDonough, Wells

Outfielders ”“ Robert Ecklund, Kennebunk; Jack Kenney, Thornton Academy; Taylor Reuillard, Biddeford

— Contact Mark Jeanneret at 282-1535, Ext. 323.



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