Jane Camp affirmed that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but the diamonds to which she referred weren't those that adorn fingers, necks or ears - rather those of the athletic variety.
A longtime softball player - she participated in numerous Gordon Gambill tournaments at Warner Park in the heyday of big-time women's slowpitch softball - she now has ventured into male-dominated baseball.
She is the coach at Brainerd, and neither she nor her players have given her boundary-crossing role a second thought.
"I'm actually glad she's the head coach," junior Edward Taylor said. "She works with us and she's trying to help us get to college."
William Sullivan Jr. had never been coached by a woman, but he's quite comfortable with Camp.
"I never played for a lady before. It's different but it's interesting," he said. "She knows the game. She's getting the job done. It doesn't matter to me at all."
Baseball is a sport with which Camp is familiar - she also is a former umpire - yet her mindset is centered more on her participants than the sport itself.
"Besides being the coach, she's like my second mom. She keeps me focused on my grades and my sports," Taylor said. "She's there even when I'm playing football."
"The guys are happy, I guess. I've got the same guys coming back," said Camp, who retired after spending 30 years teaching in Georgia. "We're doing the small things - getting on base, catching the ball when it comes to you. Some of these kids had never had a glove on their hand before."
The Panthers haven't yet won a game. They've been run-ruled a couple of times, but they haven't yet been shut out.
"We're a better team. Our fundamentals are better. There's a positive attitude. There's no arguing. If somebody makes a mistake we pick each other up," said Sullivan, the only player who also plays summer travel ball.
The Panthers played at Hixson on Monday and Wildcats coach Colton Green noticed a difference from past seasons.
"If you look at it baseball-wise, they caught the ball better and they had one pretty good pitcher. The guys were in the proper positions. They looked like they had improved," Green said. "She had a good rapport with the kids. She was teaching in the dugout as the game went along."
Camp has the attributes all successful coaches need, he added.
"I felt like the kids were listening to what she said and that they were giving good effort. There was a different feel to it from past years. They were trying to get better, and she was trying to help them get there," Green said, adding that a coach is a coach. "If she can do the job, then she can do the job. It's all about the kids respecting you and playing hard for you. They're doing that."
Athletics have been a part of Camp's life almost since she was old enough to toddle. Packed in that five-plus decades are stints on the U.S. national women's rugby team and several years of semi-pro softball.
It wouldn't matter to Camp which sport or activity she was coaching or teaching as long as she got the result she seeks.
"Years down the road," she said, "I want these youngsters to look back and remember these times as some of the best of their lives: 'Yeah, I played for this crazy lady. She was my baseball coach.'"
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.