Fort Hill blends past with present, future at Cavanaugh camp
CUMBERLAND — More than 42 years since his passing, Bobby Cavanaugh’s impact on baseball in Cumberland and the surrounding area can still be felt. If you were a youngster interested in baseball in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, odds are you participated in one of Cavanaugh’s camps, either as a player, a guest coach or a student helper. Fort Hill drew inspiration from its winningest baseball coach in school history and held Coach Cavanaugh’s Baseball Farm System camp last weekend for children in grades second through sixth.
The camp had free admission and 45 youngsters attended, each receiving a day of instruction in hitting, defensive and base-running drills, a camp shirt, a Fort Hill baseball hat and a game ball. It also wouldn’t have been right holding a clinic bearing Cavanaugh’s name without teaching bunting — the first thing he taught and a fixture of his Fort Hill squads. “It exceeded our expectations,” said Fort Hill head coach Tanner Brode.
“We maxed out on registrations. ... They were from all around the county.
I think over half were from Fort Hill feeder schools and then some from other schools as well. ” Cavanaugh’s version of the camp, which ran for 26 summers beginning in 1950, was for children aged eight to 12. While Cavanaugh had perfected winning as a manager — compiling a 387-164-3 record, five pre-MPSSAA state championships and 10 Allegany County titles in 33 years at Fort Hill from 1937-69 — his camps were predicated on learning the fundamentals of the game in a fun manner.
His Fort Hill players at the time were also regular fixtures as helpers at his camps, and its modern iteration continued that tradition with the Sentinels’ entire varsity squad and 10 junior varsity players assisting. Eight of Fort Hill’s varsity and JV coaching staff were in attendance. As word of Fort Hill’s efforts to honor Cavanaugh’s legacy spread, it attracted 12 guest coaches — nine of which were former players and the rest past camp or pee-wee-league participants.
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