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We continue our list of the Top 15 Softball Stories of 2019, which will run through December 31st when we’ll present our No. 1 story of the year.
Here are the previous stories (clink on link to read):
- #15… Team USA Dominates Summer Competition… with One Exception
- #14… USA Softball’s 2020 Stand Beside Her Tour… Taking the Brand Nationwide
- #13… Sam Show’s Bat Flips – & Clutch Performances – Light Up the 2019 Season
- #12… National High School Player of the Year Sydney Supple Spearheads Hometown Field of Dreams
- #11… Busy Year for the NPF Including USSSA Pride Out & CA Commotion In
- #10… PGF Nationals Celebrates 10 Years with Barnburner Finishes
- #9… Coaches Accused of Abuse by Players at Power 5 Colleges
We’ve surveyed the softball community and talked internally as well to come up with what were the most impactful and relevant stories of the year pertaining to the world of fastpitch softball.
Where applicable, we are providing links to the original articles and/or references when the story first happened.
Today’s story… #8: Mark Campbell’s Passing. If you followed club and high school softball, especially on the West Coast, you knew of Mark Campbell and all he did for young softball players everywhere. He won championships with the OC Batbusters and Victory USA with Pacifica High in Garden Grove, California, but his lasting legacy will be the impact he had on those fortunate enough to have played for him or just simply been able to know him… including those of us at Extra Inning Softball.
To provide comments, insights or thoughts, email: [email protected].
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Mark Campbell was one of the most influential club and high school coaches in the country, but you wouldn’t know it talking to him.
Though he had CIF and league titles as the head coach at Pacifica (Garden Grove, California) since 2007 and also won multiple PGF and ASA club national championships, first with Victory USA and then OC Batbusters, he was a down-to-earth coach who had a good sense of humor and was as down-to-earth of a coach as you’d find.
In March of 2019, the softball world was shocked when he was hospitalized and then suddenly passed away. Within hours, I had coaches, players and even parents calling me from all over the country expressing their sorrow and sharing “Mark” stories.
My lasting memory involving Mark will be a nice conversation I had with him literally minutes before the 2018 PGF 18U National Championship when he was helping Mike Stith coach the OC Batbusters.
Mark was as relaxed as he could be and we talked about everything except softball prior to the game that would be televised on the ESPN channels.
The coach was like that, he was a retired detective and could talk intelligently about just about everything so you’d sometimes forget how influential and successful he was in developing and coaching softball talent.
Another time I went to Pacifica High and he wanted me to meet this young and always-smiling catcher with braces who would become a force for the Mariners and one Stith would said would “someday play in the Olympics.”
Her name: Dejah Mulipola and today she is on Team USA prepping to play in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Dejah was one of many players, especially catchers, who Mark would coach and develop and lead to great success on-and off-the softball field.
Campbell’s loss was felt by all those who knew him, but through his selfless work his legacy will live on forever with all those who knew him.
*** Scroll down to read the Extra Inning Softball articles and tributes on Coach Campbell we published this year… note: these are published in reverse chronological order.