B.C.'s back: Campbell will return as FSHS football coach after 4 years away

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Bob Campbell addresses the Fort Scott High School football team after a practice before the start of the 2005 season. Campbell will return as head coach of the Tigers next season while also continuing his work as a partner at BSD Financial. (Tribune file photo)

Word had swirled around since mid-December but Monday night, the USD 234 School Board made the return of Bob Campbell as Fort Scott High School's football coach official.

However, Campbell won't be giving up his day job. He'll continue his work as a partner for BSD Financial, where he went to work after leaving FSHS after the 2005-06 school year.

"I feel fortunate in that I have two jobs I really enjoy," Campbell said in an interview Wednesday evening. "I'll get the opportunity to do both of them."

The Kansas State High School Activities Association allows coaches who are not employees of a school district to be a coach under what's known as "Rule 10." This is what allows Campbell to continue working at BSD Financial. He will also oversee the summer weight program.

"I believe (both jobs) can be done," Campbell said. "But there is some unknown because I've not done it this way.

"I'm very excited about the opportunity. It's only possible because the three guys I'm partners with -- Jordan Witt, Larry Davenport and Jim Sather -- are all understanding and are giving me the opportunity to do two jobs that I really enjoy. I like my current job. I like our business. I like our future. But I'm also excited about the chance to be coaching again."

Campbell, a Uniontown High School graduate, was Fort Scott High's head football and boys' track coach from 1992 to 2005. No other head football coach was at FSHS longer than nine seasons.

While Campbell was head coach, the Tigers won 124 games, six Southeast Kansas League championship and two Class 4A State championships. Fort Scott also appeared in four other State championship games.

After the 2005-06 school year, Campbell took the position at BSD and former assistant Don Epps took over. Epps' first two seasons saw the Tigers win 16 of 21 games. But over the last two seasons, Fort Scott won only four times and Epps stepped down as coach after the Tigers went 1-8 last season. Epps will continue to teach at FSHS and coach boys' track.

Some fans hope Campbell can lead the Tigers back to their winning ways. At the same time, it's been four seasons since he's coached any level of football. Next year's seniors were in seventh grade the last time he coached a game.

"It doesn't seem like it's been that long but it's been almost four years," Campbell said. "And in four years, things change. But there are things about coaching that don't change, in my opinion. I'm going to do it that way I feel it should be done. We're going to work extremely hard. We're going to have high expectations and demand a lot from the kids.

"I think the notion that you just step back in and things are as they were, it'll require a lot of hard work and I'm looking forward to that challenge."

When Campbell coached the first time, his primary job was to teach with football as the "other" job. So in that sense, the situation he will put himself into is familiar.

"One of the benefits of my current job is that I'm able to set my own schedule somewhat," Campbell says. "Not all the time, but a lot of the time. I have some flexibility on my hours at work. And that's one of the things that allows me to be able to do this.

"To do either job requires a lot of time. To do both of them, I'll have to make sure I'm organized. It will require probably some long hours but when I was teaching and coaching, it required a lot of long hours. It's kind of the nature of the business."

Another part of the business of coaching is teaching kids how to be better people as well as better athletes.

"One of the things I thoroughly enjoyed about coaching was being able to work with young men and have an opportunity to impact them, " Campbell said, "not just on the field but off the field. The excitement of getting back into coaching and the atmosphere on Friday nights, I'm sure will be emotional.

"The game changes. There's trends on offense and defense. But there's some things that have always been constant in the game. You have to block. You have to tackle. You have to play hard. You have to run to the football. And those are all things that, regardless of when you're coaching or where you're coaching, those things will always hold true."

Campbell says he has enjoyed support from the community as well as his employers as he made the decision to return to coaching.

"Another positive factor, I feel, is the continuity of the staff," Campbell said. "A lot of the guys on the staff either played football for me or we coached together. I'm excited to get an opportunity to work with those guys again.

"And I've really appreciated the number of people who have been thoughtful and supportive of me and my family. Those people have been very supportive of the program. And I'd be remiss if I didn't say that the school gave me the opportunity to do this and I'm looking forward to it. And the guys I work with are giving me the opportunity to do this. So it's only because a lot of people have been very supportive of my decision that I'm able to take this on."

Campbell said he wasn't exactly sure how he would feel once he gets back into the coaching routine.

"What will it be like? I don't know," Campbell said. "I can probably answer that question better after the first practice, after the first game."