By Joanna Chadwick
Rose Hill senior Koby Campbell is 24 points from hitting the 1,000-point mark in his basketball career.
“It’s something I’ve had in the back of my mind,” said Campbell, who is 6-foot-2, “Winning is first, obviously. But the closer I’m getting, it has driven me to get there more. It shows my growth as a player.”
Campbell, whose team plays El Dorado tonight, gets to the rim offensively. He has added more efficiency from three-point range, which has opened up his game.
“The ball is in my hands quite a bit,” he said. “We run an offense where he tries to get me off ball, so it’s not in my hands as much.”
Campbell, who has led the Rockets to a 4-2 record, has definitely grown as a player.
“My progression has been about me getting smarter and getting stronger,” he said. “I had the mindset, but I wasn’t as strong as I needed to be… And when I say strength, that also means mentally stronger.”
Campbell has focused on putting on muscle so he can handle the physicality of the game. When he lifts, it’s for a specific purpose.
He works on bench press or his shoulders so he can handle the contact when he goes to the rim.
He jumps rope in order to be more explosive late in games.
He works on his core because it affects everything.
His mental strength has been just as critical as he became more of a vocal leader through the years.
“My freshman year, we won five games, and when you’re not winning, people don’t really want to be there,” he said. “Sophomore year I new something definitely needed to change here. We needed to have the most positive environment possible. I wanted to help myself and my team.
“You have to want to be there and play as a team. So I was making sure that everyone in the program was locked into the same goal.”
Rose Hill was 13-8 last season after opening the year with six straight wins.
Campbell’s future likely includes a broadcast journalism career. He discovered his talent in a class at Rose Hill and is the host of Are You Serious?
It’s possible he’ll play football in college.
After not playing his junior season, he’s getting looks at wide receiver from schools such as Emporia State and Fort Hays State.
“I haven’t decided where I’m going to go,” Campbell said. “I haven’t decided on football or basketball, but I have interest in both.”
