South Brunswick's Campbell is the HNT Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year

When Courteney Campbell of the South Brunswick High School track team got set to defend her high jump title at the NJSIAA Indoor Track Meet of Champions, she relied on her technique that her coaches have constantly focused on throughout her brilliant three-year career as a Viking.

When Campbell cleared the bar and clinched her second consecutive gold medal at the M of C with a jump of 5-feet, 6-inches, her thoughts immediately shifted from the logistics of the high jump and onto her brother, who passed away right before the start of her sophomore year of high school.

"Every time I win I think of him first," Campbell said. "Doing this makes me feel closer to him because I know how much he loved sports. I know he would be so proud of me if he was here today."

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Campbell, who is the 2016-17 Home News Tribune Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year for the second-straight season, grew up the youngest of three and was raised in a household that was highly competitive. All three siblings used sports as a way to connect, and Campbell recalls her childhood consisting of non-stop running around with her brothers.

Football was the family sport as both brothers went on to play for the Vikings. Campbell followed in her brothers’ footsteps as she enrolled as a cheerleader during her freshman year.

"My family loves sports. I grew up with sports, that’s all I really knew," Campbell said. "My brothers and I were always competitive and would race all the time."

Sports kept the sibling bond strong throughout Campbell’s childhood, and when her eldest brother David passed away, she relied on a new sport to help ease the pain. Campbell decided to enroll in spring track to help her with the grieving process.

Fast-forward three years and Campbell is one of the most decorated athletes in South Brunswick’s illustrious track and field program.

This year, the Rutgers commit capped off her indoor track career with a sweep of the four major individual events. She earned gold medals at the Greater Middlesex Conference Relays, the Central Group IV sectional relays, the Group IV Championships and at the Meet of Champions. Campbell’s success is undeniable, but it didn’t happen overnight.

"Early on it was kind of a struggle for her during that first season," said coach Stefan Moorehead, who persuaded Campbell to join the team when he noticed her 5’10" frame. "It wasn’t until very late in her sophomore year that it started to click and you can really see that she had potential."

Despite her early struggles, Campbell stuck with the sport. Her reason for seeing it through, her brother.

"I tried the high jump and wasn’t that great," Campbell recalled. "I wanted to make my brother happy and make my family proud so I stayed after it and started to do very well. My team would comfort me on the buses and that’s when I really fell in love with the sport because we are all like family."

The close-knit South Brunswick team captured its third straight GMC title, reclaimed its Central Group IV title to repeat as sectional champions and earned second at the Group IV Championships.

The team’s success can be attributed Campbell’s resilient work ethic and attention to detail, which raises the expectations for her other Viking teammates.

"She can take every single thing that we do in practice and make it count," her high jump coach Dan Mura said. "There are tons and tons of drills that are incredibly boring for specialty events, but she’s always locked into every drill we do."

For one of one of the drills, Mura draws three circles on the ground ranging from 10-16 feet in diameter. He then has the girls literally run in circles to get them accustomed to running on the insides of their feet.

For most of the student-athletes running in circles is a dreaded exercise, but Campbell could care less about how tedious the drill is as long as it is helping her get better.

"Courteney’s really focused on what each drill means and she literally makes every step she takes count," Mura said.

The razorlike focus during practice pays dividends later in the season, when the competition level is raised. During the Group IV Championships at the Bennett Indoor Complex in Toms River, Campbell found herself in a jump-off with Jessica Creedon from Ridge.

The two premier athletes kept one-upping each other while the bar continued to get higher. Eventually, Campbell cleared the 5-6 mark while Creedon failed to get over the bar.

"It was like a 10-minute jump-off," Campbell said. "To me it was actually fun, but it was nerve-wracking too. Honestly I was mentally drained after that but I was super happy."

If Campbell was mentally drained after that, it didn’t show as she went on to defend her title at the M of C and placed eighth in the nation at the New Balance Nationals Indoor Championships with a personal best and new school record of 5-7.

From a sophomore who was unsure if she should take on the sport to becoming an all All-American athlete, Campbell’s attributes all her success to her faith and her brother.

"I use my faith to help me," Campbell said. "Losing him helped me become a better woman, it allowed me to focus on track and it just makes me want to make him proud of me."