Basketball, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Michael Jordan
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the eighth-grade travel championship with all of my friends.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Traveling with 1 second on the clock because I thought the game was over. We still won.
Music on playlist: Rap
Future plans: Attending college and studying education
Words to live by: “Go 110 percent 100 percent of the time.”
One goal before turning 30: Having a job that I enjoy going to every day.
One thing people don’t know about me: I have a pet hermit crab that has been alive for 13 years
By Craig Ostroff
Ask Upper Moreland boys’ basketball coach Dan Heiland what makes Colson Campbell the ideal leader for the Golden Bears, he can tell you all about Campbell’s impressive average of 14 points, eight rebounds, and four assists per game this season.
He can … but he won’t. At least, not at first.
Because as important as his contributions are on the court, what Campbell brings to the team goes far beyond numbers in the scorebook.
“Colson is a kid that does all the right things on the floor, in practice, in and out of the classroom,” Heiland said. “He’s a coach out there for you. He knows where everybody needs to be, what the game plan is, and he knows how to execute. He’s a role model for the younger guys, a kid you can trust to do the right things in the right moments both during and outside of game situations.
“We always preach the ‘We Over Me’ mentality, meaning that ‘we’ the team are more important than any individual and that means doing what is best for the team even when it might not feel or be what is best for you. Colson is a great example of that mentality for our program, and he sets that example every day on and off the floor.”
That’s the way the three-year starter and three-year captain has always approached the game. And now that he’s in his final season for Upper Moreland, Campbell just wants to pass on what he’s learned while having the most fun possible.
“This year has been really special,” he said. “I get to be at the head of the team, be one of the guys to lead everything. All the things I got from the seniors before me when I was a freshman and sophomore, I’m now in the position to take that advice and I get to show the younger kids how to do it.
“I’m really enjoying it this year. I think this is one of the best teams I’ve been on. We have so much depth on our bench, I’m excited to have all these different pieces and players to mix and match during games.”
Of course, it’s always fun to win, and this year’s Golden Bears’ team has had no shortage of victories. While the Bears posted winning overall records in each of Campbell’s previous three seasons, the current squad is well on its way to exceeding those, entering the week at 10-2 overall. The Bears sit in second place in the Freedom Division, and hope to make some noise in the league, district, and even states before the season ends.
“We want to make a big push this year,” Campbell said. “We want to make a run in the league and in districts. We have high hopes, but we also know we have to take one game at a time.”
A strong postseason run would be a stellar finish to a basketball career that actually spent a lot of time in a different Suburban One gymnasium – Central Bucks South where his father Jason Campbell was a longtime head coach.
“I was a C.B. South fan. My dad was the coach and I would go to all the games when I was younger,” Campbell said. “We always joked around about me playing there, but we live in Upper Moreland, so I always knew I was going to play at Upper Moreland. But it was cool to see how the team worked, what went on in the locker room and off the court. I was able to take a lot of that with me to Upper Moreland.”
He took his father with him as well. Jason Campbell is in his third season as an assistant coach for Upper Moreland. In addition to playing for his father, Campbell also gets to play with his brother Cannon, a freshman on the team.
“It’s very special to have my father here, not many people get that opportunity,” Campbell said. “He was always a coach on my teams growing up, but having him on the high school team and bringing his knowledge over really helps the team.
“And it’s really special playing with Cannon. We always play against each other in the driveway, and it’s competitive. I think it was the second game this season, I assisted him on back-to-back baskets, that was really cool.”
Any sibling rivalry? Who’s got more wins in those driveway showdowns?
“Me,” Campbell said definitively, adding with a laugh, “If he’d ever start to beat me, I’d throw a couple elbows. He’s beaten me a couple times, but I have the better overall record.”
It’s all about personal glory and bragging rights with those one-on-ones in the driveway. But when he suits up for Upper Moreland, Campbell’s ego takes a distant backseat. Whatever the team needs from him, he will do and do well.
While that’s always been Campbell’s approach to basketball, it became critical when he first entered Upper Moreland, a freshman trying to earn his place on an experienced team.
“As a freshman, I had to find my role,” he said. “In eighth grade, I was the team’s main scorer, but I knew that’s not what the team would need from me in ninth grade. I knew I had to focus on defense and rebounds, that’s what was going to get me more minutes. Scoring was not on my mind, just defense and helping the team any way I could.”
“When Colson came in, we didn’t know if he was going to play JV or varsity,” Heiland said. “He quickly showed he deserved varsity minutes, and we saw that he was a guy we could put on the floor at any moment and in any situation. It can be really tough – he’s playing with 17-, 18-year-olds who have been in the program for 3 years, where do you fit in? Colson took it in stride, did what we asked, the upperclassmen saw his efforts and knew he deserved to be out there. He was out there to impact the game wherever we needed him.”
As a result, Campbell earned regular varsity minutes as a freshman and was voted a captain in his sophomore season. While that iteration of the Golden Bears’ team was younger and less experienced, there were still numerous older players on the team.
Campbell admits it took a bit of time to adjust to being looked upon to be a leader while still only a sophomore.
“It was an honor to have my teammates vote me for captain, it showed they had a lot of faith in me, and I really took that seriously,” Campbell said. “I knew I had the ability to be a leader, but there was pressure to be a captain at a young age.
“I’ve definitely seen changes in the way I lead the team over the years. As a sophomore, we had other senior captains, and I felt they could take the role of being the more vocal leaders. I think I’ve gotten more vocal as I’ve gotten older, but as a sophomore, I was more the lead-by-example type.”
But even as a freshman and sophomore, Campbell had been doing all those “little things” to improve, and his teammates had taken notice.
“His offseason (after freshman year) was tremendous,” Heiland said. “He showed up to everything he could make it to. Being a leader means doing the right things whenever you can, and he did. Even the guys older than him saw that and voted for him. As a sophomore, he was more lead by example than a vocal leader. He’s still trying to find out where he fit in, but he still fulfilled his role, did all the right things, gave everything he had every possession.”
Now a senior, with vastly improved confidence and strength – not to mention a second team all-league selection as a sophomore and first team all-league selection as a junior under his belt – one thing hasn’t changed - Campbell’s approach to the game. Which means that even as a senior, he knows his role and plays it to perfection.
“Coming into this year, I thought I was going to have to average 20 points each game,” Campbell said. “But we’ve had so many guys stepping up to score. We have (Jaden) Cybok stepping up huge and leading us in scoring, Nate (Best) is stepping up … my role is different. I have to be the guy to get rebounds and I love that stuff, but at the same time I know I have to be a scorer and contribute where I can. But I’m focusing on those little things – controlling the ball, limiting my turnovers, getting rebounds.”
“Colson is an all-around player,” Heiland said. “He gives everything at both ends, he doesn’t save himself for one side. He does whatever is best for the team, whether it’s scoring, rebounding, creating for others, or playing tough defense. His work ethic in the weight room allowed him to take the next step in being more physical defensively, being able to position himself and maintain, beating people to spots, beating people in the post. He’s a nightmare matchup on both sides of the court. He can defend, he can score from anywhere, he has a high IQ of the game and understands it. He’s such a smart player, and the work he puts in in the offseason has allowed him to take steps each year.”
•••
Campbell doesn’t just excel on the court, but in the classroom as well. The epitome of student-athlete, Campbell carries a difficult course load filled with Honors and AP level classes. Despite his commitments to basketball (and baseball in the spring), Campbell is ranked near the top of the senior class with an outstanding GPA.
“That’s so important to have someone who can show the kids that they can succeed in basketball and also in their academics,” Heiland said. “Being a student comes first, and with his Honors classes, his high GPA, it show the other kids that you can do it. You have to put the work in and take the time to do it, but you can do it.”
“You have to put your academics first,” said Campbell, a member of the school’s National Honor Society. “That’s what’s going to be with you later in life. Not many people are going to make money in basketball.”
Campbell is still weighing his options for college, and trying not to rule out anything. He’s thinking about studying education and is still looking for the best fit, whether that means playing college basketball or just focusing on academics.
But wherever Campbell spends the next four years – whether he’s representing the school on the hardwood or just in the classrooms – there’s no doubt what that school will be getting … and what Upper Moreland will be losing after he plays his last game for the Golden Bears.
“Wherever Colson ends up, that school is getting an incredible young man who continues to grow in maturity,” Heiland said. “He makes the right decisions and is always going to positively impact whatever institution he goes. He’s a great student, someone you want to have as part of your student body. And he’s the kind of kid who isn’t going to make it all about him, he’s going to make sure everyone around him is doing the right things and having fun and making a positive impact.
“For us, Upper Moreland is losing a kid that has come a long way, who’s carried a lot of figurative weight on his shoulders. He’s been on varsity since he was a freshman, three years as a starter and captain, a lot of guys look to him for direction for guidance on what they should do or what do they need to do to improve or help the team. To eventually have to say goodbye to him is tough. He’s a great kid – tough, coachable, he’s been with me for four of my five years here. I’m really hopeful that when his time has ended here at Upper Moreland basketball, he passes the torch onto the next group of kids to set the bar and set the expectation of what we need to continue our success. I can’t say it enough. He’s had such a great, positive impact for our program.”
