- September 20, 2024
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Mainland High School senior Camryn Campbell takes a 3-pointer against Dr. Phillips High School. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School senior Camryn Campbell. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School senior Camryn Campbell is all about supporting the team. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School senior Camryn Campbell fights through traffic at the Dr. Phillips game. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School senior Camryn Campbell warms up with her teammates. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School senior Camryn Campbell. Photo by Michele Meyers
Camryn Campbell is a senior at Mainland High School and coach T. A.’s “go-to girl” for athletics and anything else that needs to be done on campus.
Terrence Anthony or coach T. A., as he is called by his students, is the school’s athletic director and track and field coach. He knows he can rely on Campbell to fill any spot, on any relay team, at any time. If there is something she doesn’t know how to do, she will work at it until she figures it out.
“Camryn’s true event is the long jump,” he said. “She is not a sprinter, but if I put her on the 4x100 relay team, she will sprint. She’s a jack of all trades when it comes to being on that track. She does it all. Whatever I ask her to do, she does.”
Ten years ago, he had just finished training some kids at the Mainland track when he saw Ebony Harris working with her daughters, Campbell and sister Cassidy. The girls had an impending Amateur Athletic Union Track and Field National Championship and Harris decided to take her girls out to get some extra track time.
Anthony walked over to help and has been coaching them ever since.
Campbell comes from a family of athletes and has been sports-oriented since the age of 5. Her mother was a hurdler and a basketball player while attending Atlantic High School, and her father played football for Mainland. She credits her mom for motivating her to run track, which she fell in love with from the start.
“Cammi has always been a competitive kid and a lover of all sports,” Harris said. “She always wanted to try a sport even if it was just one time and never quits anything she starts. The best thing about her is she’s still loving and caring at 17.”
Sports have always dominated Campbell’s schedule at Mainland. This year, she will be a four-year varsity letterman in track and field, a four-year volleyball player with three as a varsity letterman and a four-year basketball player with two as a varsity letterman. Campbell’s experience as a running back for the Daytona Beach Bucs tackle football team and the Cowboys flag football team has lead her to add flag football to her repertoire in spring.
She is currently in the middle of a rigorous game schedule with her high school basketball team, but appreciates the challenge.
“We have a pretty good schedule,” Campbell said. “We don’t have any team that is going to lay down and let us win. Even when we lose by a certain amount of points, we play to the end of the game. We never give up.”
Head basketball coach Brandon Stewart is grateful to have had the privilege of coaching her for four years and having her on his team.
“Camryn Campbell is a special person,” he said. “Tough as any basketball player gets, that is Camryn. She is the type of young lady that falls and gets back up, falls again and gets back up again. She brings grit, toughness and a mentality that is not afraid of anyone. She is a natural leader by example of how hard she plays. I appreciate Cam to the moon for what she has given Mainland High School. She is amazing.”
Athletics have always felt more natural than academics for Campbell, especially when she transitioned from attending Warner Christian Academy in middle school with a student population of approximately 700, to Mainland which has a population closer to 1,900 students. For Campbell, it was a shock, and she struggled to find her footing in her freshman and sophomore years, doing just enough to allow her to play sports.
She now knows she can do the work and that she needs good grades to attend college. With a current 3.9 GPA, the student-athlete has been accepted into four colleges, her top choices being University of North Florida and Florida A&M University. Even though she enjoys watching various legal cases and considered being a defense attorney, she would like to major in English and be a secondary English teacher.
“My mom and my grandfather are my role models,” Campbell said. “My grandfather passed on May 3 last year, and I dedicate all of my games and anything I do in school that is positive to him. My graduation is going to be to him because he is not going to get to see me graduate.”
