March 18, 2024

Steve Campbell to Head CSM Men’s Lacrosse

Steve Campbell

Steve Campbell of Prince Frederick has been hired as the new head coach of Men’s Lacrosse at the College of Southern Maryland.

Mr. Campbell said he is excited about the future of the team, and knows his coaching team will be preparing the players not just for the next level of lacrosse but also for life outside of college.

“We are very excited to have Coach Campbell on our staff and head coach of the men’s lacrosse program,” said Michelle Ruble, CSM’s executive director of student life and athletics. “We are energized by his passion and like his vision to develop a fall ball schedule to attract some great players to CSM.”

The initial challenges for the team, according to Mr. Campbell, are recruitment and interest in the sport. “Unfortunately, for the 2018 season we will not have the numbers to field a team,” he said. “I’m planning a very aggressive recruitment plan for this spring and then a very aggressive fall ball schedule, I believe this will lead to the start of a competitive program in 2019.”

He said he knows there are great lacrosse players in the region, and his plan is to get those student athletes to matriculate at CSM.

Mr. Campbell has years of lacrosse experience in Maryland. He played high school lacrosse first at Southern High School and then South River High School, graduating in 1979. After he graduated, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps and played on various pick-up lacrosse teams while he was enlisted.

In the 1983-84 academic year, Mr. Campbell went to Anne Arundel Community College and played lacrosse, with the AACC team going 16-2 for the season and achieving No. 2 ranking in the NJCAA national polls.

That initial success was a heady introduction to collegiate lacrosse for Mr. Campbell, as well as an opportunity for him to see what can happen with great coaching. Being coached by AACC coach Bud Beardmore, a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame coach, for Mr. Campbell was an “honor and privilege.”

“Anne Arundel County has always been one of the ‘hotbeds’ in the lacrosse community,” Mr. Campbell said. “Playing at AACC provided me the opportunity to play with some of the best lacrosse players in the country. It also gave me the opportunity to play for Coach Beardmore, who is in several lacrosse halls of fame. One of the memories that I will always remember from that year is we played it with only 15 players.”

From that experience, Mr. Campbell said he learned the value of being prepared, being open to improvement, training hard, and never giving up.

Mr. Campbell played club lacrosse for the Bayside Shooters and the Annapolis Lacrosse Club from 1986 to 1989.

Mr. Campbell started his lacrosse coaching career at Calvert High School as an assistant in 2003 and then coached for the Prince Frederick Eagles and Dunkirk Warriors from 2008 through 2015. He has coached at every level from 4- to 6-year-old Scoopers to young adults.

Mr. Campbell works as the public safety coordinator for CSM’s La Plata Campus and sees his public safety role as a benefit to his new position as coach. “The idea of being on campus and available to the students is a great advantage as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I also think my role in public safety will aid on the mindset of how I want my players to represent CSM in a positive manner.”

Mr. Campbell knows the CSM lacrosse program needs a concentrated rebuilding effort, but hopes to quickly raise the program to the next level. “The only goal is to field a competitive program; some of the best community college teams in the country are here in Maryland. It’s not going to happen overnight, but if we concentrate on the students that are planning to use the community college route I think we can succeed and build a competitive program where the student athlete wants to play for us because he knows that academically and athletically he will be prepared for the next level,” he said.

Mr. Campbell is a retired police officer. He is married and the father of four children.

For information on Men’s Lacrosse at CSM, visit CSM’s athletics website.

For more about the College of Southern Maryland, visit its Leader member page.

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