Profiled Guest: Mr. James Campen, Assistant Offensive Line Coach, Green Bay Packers
By Dave Sargent
MaxPreps.com
James Campen valued his career as a student-athlete at Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs, Calif., and continues to teach football and life lessons today as the newly-appointed Assistant Offensive Line Coach for the NFL's Green Bay Packers.
"How could I pick just one most influential coach? They were all great," Campen said.
Campen credits all of his coaches at the amateur and professional level for providing him with guidance and personal motivation, teaching him values that he has applied throughout his life. After a high school career in football and wrestling that included a second-place finish in the California State Wrestling meet and selection to the All-Superior California football team, Campen attended Sacramento City College for two years and excelled on the gridiron.
As an admittedly undersized offensive lineman, his goal was to earn a full scholarship to a four-year college. His goal was achieved when Tulane University in New Orleans made him an offer he could not refuse. According to Campen, his high school and community college coaches helped him with "the mental part of competing in athletics-how to be focused and committed and how to be adaptable to any situation that comes your way."
Campen also remembers, with some emotion, the coach who suggested his eventual move to center, a position he was not interested in playing. That change was difficult but eventually resulted in Tulane's offer of a full scholarship.
"My athletic career taught me to be adaptable and flexible and to do whatever was necessary to achieve the goals set by the team. It also taught me to listen; to be a sponge," Campen said.
To this day, Campen is a good listener and is sought for advice and counsel.
Hard work and persistence were an athletic way of life for Campen and were emphasized throughout his high school career. "Never give up" seems like such a clich‚, but following that belief has benefited Campen repeatedly throughout his life. That thought served him well when, after graduating from Tulane in 1986 with a degree in Social Science and an emphasis in Criminal Justice, he was not drafted by any National Football League team. Persisting, he talked his way into a free agent tryout with the New Orleans Saints.
His resolve must have been further tested when he was cut at the end of training camp that year. Yet, his discouragement was channeled into determination because when facing defeat, he had been consistently told by coaches, "What you must do is learn, get better, and try again."
In fact, Campen emphasized that a couple of heartbreaking team and individual losses in his athletic career were turned into positive learning experiences by his coaches (losing the championship match in the state wrestling finals and losing a Section Championship high school football game as a junior).
"It's only one loss," he was told by one coach. "What must be done is to take ownership of the situation and prepare to be successful the next time you are in a similar position," advised another.
He quickly learned the value of owning all that you do and never assigning blame for a disappointing outcome to others. In relation to his dream of playing in the NFL, Campen did just that by making the Saints' roster in 1987. Determination and drive paid off in 1990 when, as the Packers' new center, he was named to the USA Today NFL All-Pro team.
The importance of taking a leadership role is another theme Campen advocates.
"I was a team captain on every level I played. That would not have happened if it were not for my high school coaches," Campen said.
He recalls an incident during high school wrestling season where some of his teammates did not support another team member because he was not well-liked outside of the wrestling room. That coach challenged Campen to "act like a captain" and explained that all people, and especially teammates, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
As a leader and captain it was his role to intervene in the demeaning situation and to stand for what was right. Campen has never forgotten that lesson in leadership and has many times reflected on the proper use of power and authority in his roles as a coach and mentor, including volunteer work he did as a deputy sheriff with both the New Orleans and Green Bay Police Departments during his playing career.
Indefinable intangibles are an important part of athletics and life and carry with them a variety of lessons. Having worked with Campen and having had numerous discussions with him, I know he highly values the concept of "Team". As used here, "team" means the mutual and equal emotional and physical commitment by members of a group unified toward achievement of a common goal.
Asked to describe his favorite memory from high school sports, Campen focused not on a particular win or single successful outcome. With deep satisfaction he described his full immersion in the "Bruin Tradition" at his high school.
"Holding hands, marching into the stadium together, proudly singing the school's fight song prior to going into battle," Campen says gave him a vivid understanding of the concept of "team."
One of the quotations remaining in his consciousness from a speaker he heard in community college expresses a firmly held coaching belief. "In order to find yourself, you must first lose yourself in the concept of team."
Not only can athletics provide the participant a comfortable place in which to set goals and work to achieve them, it also provides the opportunity for reflection and personal growth. For James Campen, that means checking your ego and individual goals at the door of the locker room and making them secondary to the goals of the team (or any cooperative group to which you belong). The role of the coach is essential to the direction and pace of that personal growth.
Athletic participation has been a formative part of Campen's framework of beliefs and personal values. Lessons in adaptability, ownership of outcomes, leadership, proper use of authority, persistence and the concept of "Team" are all carried with him to this day and applied in his chosen career. It is the charge of coaches at all levels to continue to maintain perspective about the impact of athletic participation for all youth. It is their charge to insure meaningful lessons, such as those learned and retained by Coach Campen, are learned by all participants in their care.
Dave Sargent: dave@maxpreps.com
Photo courtesy of Jim Biever and the Green Bay Packers