After winning just six games combined the past two seasons, senior Rachel James and her Walton teammates are putting together their finest season in recent years with a good chance to clinch an above .500 record.
"I feel like I've been waiting forever to get here to a winning season where we're doing well," says Rachel. " We're positive. We're just hitting well finally."
And James is a big reason for the Warriors success. She's in her third year as the starting pitcher and is a two-time MAC all star. She also carries a 96 point 8 grade point average and will attend St. John Fisher next fall.
"It's always been kind of easy for me to do schoolwork and I think it's not because it's necessarily easy, just because I got instilled in really good habits when I was younger so doing homework it's just like second nature," Rachel says.
Rachel also absolutely loves her teammates and she likes to do nice things for them. So last week after an extra innings win against first-place Greene, Rachel had an idea.
"I was gonna buy balloons but the store didn't have any regular balloons to tape on their lockers so instead I went out and got the animal balloons, the twisty ones that the clowns use, and I learned how to make balloon animals for them," says Rachel.
"I'm not as fast as a clown is."
"And that's a dog... Like our teammate Holly Reynolds hot dog!"
She's got a 96 average, she's an all-star pitcher and maybe even an amateur clown. All of that makes Rachel James this week's Academic All Star. In Walton, Justin Horowitz, Action Sports.