DOUBLE PLAY
No pumping fists. No gestures to raise the roof. No screaming at teammates or taunting of opponents. No colored socks. No gimmicks.
Cara Blumfield of El Camino Real High goes about her business so quietly on the basketball court, she almost seems invisible.
“If you watched her play, you wouldn’t say, ‘That kid is awesome.’ But at the end of the game, she’s got 16, 18, 20 points,” Coach Lori Chandler said. “She just gets the job done. She doesn’t need all the glory.”
She might not need it, but the 5-foot-6 senior has earned it.
Blumfield, leading girls’ scorer in the region last season, is averaging 18.1 points, 5.6 assists and 4.8 steals.
“The biggest thing with her is she has all the talent in the world and still works the hardest at practice,” Chandler said.
Blumfield, a two-sport athlete who has signed a letter of intent to play softball at Boston College, has taken a different role this season, her fourth as a varsity starter.
Blumfield, a shooting guard last year when she averaged 23.3 points, is running the offense at point guard and the Conquistadores (15-4) are running better than ever.
“She’s a clutch player, a leader, confident,” Chandler said. “[I] definitely want the ball in her hands. She makes great decisions. A kid that heady doesn’t make too many mistakes.”
Said Blumfield: “I like it better because I like controlling the game. The tempo is kind of in [my] hands.”
Although Blumfield’s scoring average has dropped five points since the position change, El Camino Real is more balanced with three players with double-figure scoring averages.
“It’s definitely more fun now,” Blumfield said. “It takes the pressure away from me. As long as our team plays well and wins, I don’t care [about the points].”
This season Blumfield has found other ways to contribute.
“Before, teams were out to stop me--they would always double-team me,” she said. “Now when they do that to me, I kick it out to [a teammate] and they put it in the hole.”
Blumfield’s style of play is so smooth she almost looks bored.
“I’ve been told I look nonchalant,” she said.
She brings that style to the softball field as well. The slick-fielding shortstop may lack showmanship, but she has earned praise for her range and quick release.
“What other people work hard for and make look difficult, she makes look easy,” said Neils Ludlow, softball coach at El Camino Real.
“When we play other teams, it’s amazing the comments you get. Players and coaches can’t believe the plays she makes.”
Blumfield, who batted .513 with 31 runs batted in last season, never appears rushed when fielding ground balls, regardless of how high she has to jump or how far she has to run. Each grounder is met with the same response: See the ball, glove the ball, throw the ball.
“She has such a great sense for the game. She knows exactly what she’s doing all the time,” said Don Harris, coach of the 18-and-under Stealth Gold travel softball team.
“You could be a world-class sprinter or the slowest runner in the world, you’re out by a step every time.”
Blumfield, who attended Calabasas High her freshman year, has played softball for only four years. Her roots are in baseball, where she gained legendary stature in the Westhills Pony League.
Not just because she was a girl playing with and against boys. That was only half of it.
“As the story goes--at least as some guys told it to me--none of the guys wanted to go out for shortstop because she would beat them out,” Ludlow said. “So they didn’t bother.”
Blumfield played baseball at Westhills from age 6 to 12, and it was on those diamonds that she learned to stab liners headed up the middle and knock down grounders deep in the hole.
Lessons she learned with near-flawless recall.
“She has the best hands of any athlete I’ve ever been around, boy or girl,” Harris said.
Blumfield chose baseball over softball because of her friendships with Woody Cliffords, Brian Somoza and Conor Jackson--who all went on to play baseball at El Camino Real.
“[Softball] wasn’t popular at all and all my friends played baseball,” Blumfield said.
Blumfield’s arm was accurate and reliable. She even dabbled in pitching.
“When they needed someone to throw strikes, they put me in,” she said.
Although not by design, Blumfield thinks playing against boys early in her career helped make her the talented athlete she is today.
Others, however, aren’t so sure.
“I think the truth is she would have been great no matter what,” Harris said.
“Maybe she developed quicker, but at the end of the day, she just has the athletic ability.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
STAT WATCH
A look at the improvement Cara Blumfield has shown from her freshman year at Calabasas High through her sophomore, junior and senior years at El Camino High.
BASKETBALL
*--*
Year G Avg. Asst. Stl. 1998-99 19 18.1 5.6 4.8 1997-98 22 22.3 5.0 5.0 1996-97 17 20.1 4.2 3.5 1995-96 22 12.9 5.2 3.6
*--*
****
SOFTBALL
*--*
Year Hits Runs RBI Avg. 1998 39 20 31 .531 1997 32 27 11 .451 1996 21 11 n/a .292
*--*