HALF AND HALF: John Rhys Plumlee hosts baseball/football camp, relives 'crazy day'

ORLANDO — More than three months later, John Rhys Plumlee still calls it “the crazy day.”

He has mentally replayed April 14 — when he recorded two hits as the center fielder in UCF’s baseball victory over Memphis and then scored two touchdowns as the Knights’ quarterback in their spring football game — a million times since then.

Saturday, the dual-sport star got to physically relive it, and he brought some friends along for the ride.

With the help of the Kingdom NIL collective, Plumlee hosted a half-baseball, half-football youth camp for approximately 50 first- through eighth-graders. They spent the morning doing baseball activities at John Euliano Park and the afternoon sharpening their football skills inside Nicholson Fieldhouse.

“I wanted them to have the opportunity to live that day, too,” Plumlee said. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s one of the coolest days in my sports life that I’ve gotten to play. I got to do two things that I love at an extremely high level.

“I kind of wanted to let them experience that as well because I thought it was so cool.”

SJ Tuohy, executive director of the Kingdom NIL, pitched the camp to Plumlee after the crazy day. He saw someone bring up the idea online, and Plumlee loved it immediately.

As a kid, he used to show up to his piano lessons in full football pads. He recalls rushing from his baseball games to his sister’s volleyball tournaments.

“We were always doing,” Plumlee said. “It was just one thing after another, and that’s what we loved to do. I’m just really blessed to have the parents I have that allow me to do the things that I love to do.”

But he doesn’t remember ever formally combining football and baseball into one day like he did on April 14. Certainly not at a singular camp.

“I would go to football camps, and I would go to baseball camps,” he said. “But if there was one that was baseball and football, I would’ve been there.”

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Plumlee and a few of his teammates from each sport served as instructors.

“It was amazing, the fact that they genuinely care about the kids,” said Mary Ashbaugh, a Groveland resident whose son, George, participated in the camp. “It looked easy for them to interact with them. They really wanted to see the kids succeed. They encouraged them, and there was some teaching.”

Plumlee said one of his favorite parts of the day was the intersection of worlds. After the morning drills on the diamond, his baseball teammates led the campers to their PDQ-catered lunch and handed them off to his football teammates there. Plumlee liked watching the two friend groups interact.

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He wanted to ensure his teammates were involved in the camp. He made headlines earlier this year by rejecting money from the Kingdom so it could be distributed to other football Knights.

Saturday generated additional NIL cash for Plumlee and his co-instructors.

“They were pretty strategically picked from both sports, guys that maybe don’t have huge deals,” Tuohy said. “It’s a good way to get a couple hundred bucks in all his teammates’ pockets. It was pretty easy work, and we had a good time with the kids, so I think it was pretty effective for that reason.”

Plumlee wore a constant smile during the camp, getting to go through another crazy day. He ended the afternoon by racing the kids, who received a 10-yard head start, in a 40-yard dash and posing for photos with them.

“I just remember being the age of these kids,” Plumlee said. “All I wanted to do was play football and baseball at the highest level. That is all I wanted to do, so I’m getting to live out my dream. Anything extra on that is just icing on the cake.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF's John Rhys Plumlee relives 'crazy day' with half-and-half camp