Many folks in the Delaware County community of Powell were stunned over the summer when their school, Village Academy, closed its doors.
The long-time institution saw its student enrollment dwindle year by year until it was determined during the summer break that it just wasn’t feasible to continue operations.
That decision left Village Academy students, including its athletes, scrambling to find new academic homes.
While the school’s closing was a sad day for Village Academy sports, it did have an upside for the Fairbanks High School girls cross-country team.
Amelia Cameron, a junior at FHS, joined the Panther program over the summer after having spent her entire school career at Village Academy.
“I had gone to Village Academy since kindergarten, so it was a big shock that the school closed,” said Cameron during a recent Fairbanks practice session.
“We had heard about a month before that it could happen,” she said. “A lot of people tried to save the school, but the enrollment had dropped to something like 168 (for grades K-12).
“School officials determined that was too low to keep going.”
At its zenth, Village Academy averaged approximately 20 students per each grade for its one building.
“School officials wanted to give students and their parents time to find another school,” said Cameron of the summer closing.
The Panther junior said she officially learned the school closed from her parents, while she was attending a medical camp.
Cameron has aspirations of becoming a doctor, either as a surgeon or in a trauma unit.
Once the school closed, the distance runner and her parents began looking for a new location.
“I had looked at Jonathan Alder and a couple of other private schools,” she said. “However, I’ve lived in the Fairbanks district all my life, so it was an easy decision to make.”
Cameron’s father had worked in Powell for a number of years.
“It was just easy for him to drop me off at school each day,” she said. “We live about 20 minutes from Village Academy and 20 minutes from Fairbanks, so I was right in the middle of the two.”
It hasn’t taken Cameron long to make an impact on the Lady Panther program.
A little more than a week ago, she broke the school’s girls cross-country record when she turned in a time of 19:59.6 and finished third at the Pickerington North Classic.
She broke teammate Adeline Fitzwater’s old mark of 20:26 and became the first girl in Fairbanks cross-country history to run a sub-20 minute time.
“I was super-excited about that,” she said.
No one should be surprised about that since Cameron has had quite a stellar running history.
“I’ve been running track and cross country since the sixth grade,” she said.
She placed tenth in the Division III girls 3200 meter run during the state track meet at The Ohio State University’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in early June. Her time was 11:58.
She also competed on the indoor track circuit last winter and placed 17th in that state meet with a clocking of 12:26.0.
Cameron, who also competed in the 1600 meter run, also ran in the state cross-country meet at National Trails Raceway near Hebron as a sophomore in 2018.
She finished 48th and crossed the finish line with a time of 20:45.
Cameron also played basketball through her freshman season before deciding to concentrate on her running career.
“I would like to run cross-country and track in college,” she said.
Local fans will get to see the entire FHS program compete on Tuesday.
The Panthers will host their annual high school-middle school invitational, beginning at 4:45 p.m.
Along with the school races, there will be an open 5K race and a children’s fun run.
Cameron said the transition to Fairbanks has gone well.
“Even though Fairbanks is a smaller school, it’s still bigger than what Village Academy was,” she said. “However, I’ve made a lot of friends at school and the cross-country team has been wonderful.
“Fairbanks is a good fit for me.”
One thing Cameron has had to get used to is being on a team with more athletes.
“We had five girls and four boys running cross-country at Village Academy,” she said. “I’m running in a bigger pack with my new team.”
“Amelia came here with her goals and she has a very high running IQ,” said Panther coach Mike Van Winkle. “She is a very coachable athlete and the transition has been seamless.”