Local Legend Calls It Quits After 34 years

Friday, 15 January 2016 15:38

2016 will mark the end of an era in CIS basketball as a local legend calls it quits.

WOODSTOCK - A local basketball legend is retiring this year after 34 years as an Ontario University coach.

Woodstock native Peter Campbell will leave basketball with the most wins as a coach in Wilfrid Laurier University history. Campbell started his coaching career coaching girls basketball at Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock and also spent time coaching at College Ave. Campbell shares with Heart FM what he considers the highlight of his storied career.

"The biggest highlight of my career is all the people I have had the pleasure of coming in contact with, whether it's the NBA guys like Todd McCullogh and Steve Nash and Jamal Magloire and Jay Triano or the University guys I have had the pleasure to coach or the National team guys I have had the pleasure to coach and the kids I get to coach as a councillor for the Celtic basketball camps in the summer."

Campbell says he has seen the game grow and progress in Canada immensely during his time as a coach and will likely stay involved at some level even in his retirement years.

"The game is dramatically better and that's because of the athleticism of the players, in other ways the style of the game has changed, when I started it was a very coach oriented game I think, now it has become more of a players oriented game which in some ways is really good and appeals to me because I enjoy a more free style of play."

Campbell's University coaching career actually started as a bit of a fluke. He was working as a principal in Tillsonburg and was about to enjoy a year off when he got a call from Sudbury.

"It was the Spring of 85 when I got a call from Sudbury and they're men's coach just quit and it's too late to get anybody good and he said you got next year off, I had a 4 over 5, he said why don't you come to Sudbury and coach the men's team here for a year and then we can have lot's of time to research and find somebody good to coach our team and I said sure."

34 years later Campbell is still coaching University basketball and is one of the most respected men in the game in Ontario. He is hoping to leave the CIS scene with a bang as he tries to lead the Golden Hawks to a 15th consecutive postseason birth.