During Black History Month, App State Athletics is highlighting some of the accomplishments and perspectives of student-athletes who strive to make a difference.
Kameron Miller is a sophomore infielder from Harrisburg, N.C. In his freshman campaign with App State, he registered five home runs and 15 RBIs in 19 appearances, highlighted by a six-RBI game against Marshall on March 30 and a two-homer game against No. 13 Wake Forest on April 30.
Cal Clark is a right-handed pitcher from Charlotte, N.C. After beginning his career as an outfielder for the Charlotte 49ers in 2023, Clark made the switch to pitching. He has overcome an arm injury that cost him nearly the entirety of his 2024 season at Gaston College to appear in each of the Mountaineers' first two weekend series of 2025, including two scoreless innings against UMass Lowell on Feb. 22.
Q: Who are your most influential mentors and role models?
Kameron: The most influential person in my life is my dad. Ever since I was young, he has pushed me to be the young man that I am today. He's always wanted me to strive for greatness and succeed at every level.
Cal: The Most influential person in my life has to be my mom. Growing up she was a single mom and she's gotten me through a lot of tough times – helped me through my surgery, mentally – she's my rock, you might as well say.
Q: How did you get into playing your sport?
Kameron: I got into baseball when I was eight years old. I grew up playing soccer and a bunch of buddies at my new school played baseball. I kind of just tagged along with them and fell in love with it, and I've been playing ever since.
Cal: It had to be my grandfather. He was a three-sport athlete going through high school and he's the one that introduced me to baseball. Growing up, I remember being on the couch with him watching Yankees games, just talking to him about the game, going outside and playing catch, him throwing the tennis ball to me and me hitting the tennis balls with a big red bat. That just grew my love of baseball right there.
Q: What brought you to App State?
Kameron: The thing that brought me to App State was definitely the coaching staff. When I came on my visit, they were super into who I was and how they wanted me to leave the school when I was done playing here – and that was to become the best man that I could be – and that really touched me and made this place home.
Cal: It definitely was the coaches, they're great. They were one of the first schools I talked to going through the recruiting process, and having this full-circle moment of coming back here is awesome. It's a family, and it's something that we talk about every single day, but to see it live, in the flesh, it's definitely a family here for sure.
Q: What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered?
Kameron: When I'm done playing here, I just want my legacy to be known as being a good person – someone who cared about his teammates, cared about his coaches, cared about his peers around him and someone who strives for greatness and wanted to succeed in everything he did.
Cal: I want to be a Hall of Famer on day playing this game of baseball. I want to be someone, when you look back on it, came in every day and gave my best, put in 110% effort every single day. I want kids to look up to me and really play the game the right way. I want people to remember me as a good person on and off the field and always doing things the right way.
Q: What does Black History Month mean to you?
Kameron: Black History Month to me is a way for our voices to be heard as African Americans. As a baseball player in college, I have such a big voice and people look up to me, and I'm just so happy that I get to express that, and I think that Black History Month is a great time to show that we have a voice as well.
Cal: What Black History Month means to me is that you have people that came before me who paved the way, and now I get to be an example to the younger generation coming up, to play this game of baseball.
