Video: A PGF Championship Tribute to Mark Campbell

Funeral services were held today in Cypress, California for Mark Campbell, the highly-successful and much loved fastpitch high school and travel ball coach who died unexpectedly last Monday morning.

Coach Campbell led his OC Batbusters 14U team to the 2015 PGF National Championship and also won a CIF Div. I title coaching the Pacifica (Garden Grove, California) High Mariners in 2014.

Mark won many other titles, tournaments and other events on the field, but where he will have a lasting impact is the lives he touched.

Gary Haning, who headed the OC Batbuster organization for over three decades, put it perfectly in his Facebook post shortly after Coach Campbell’s passing:

I was fortunate to know Mark and whenever I asked his opinion he was kind, funny, patient and honest about the strengths and weaknesses of his team and players.

I will always remember talking to him last July 28, just about 30 minutes before the Batbusters 18U team would go out and play in the PGF National Championship game against Georgia Impact-Lewis, who would win 6-4.

Before the game, waiting to enter the stadium in Bill Parker Park in Irvine, California, I spoke with Mark for about 10 minutes and was relaxed and funny, the always witty guy who was blunt, but likeable and insightful, but easy to talk to.

He was a great developer of players and people and the responses to his passing have shown that. I’ve talked to former players and many have said the same thing: “we feel like we’ve lost a father figure.”

His brother, Craig Campbell, started a Mark Campbell Memorial GoFundMe account On March 20 and with a goal of $30,000 it was just $630 short in three short days. That’s indicative of how loved Mark was not just in the softball community but by everyone who knew him.

Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) release a wonderful video compilation this weekend of some of the coach’s on-air footage during PGF Nationals the last couple years. You’ll get a sense of who he was in these clips as announcers Darren Sutton and Amanda Freed interview Mark.

As it says in the closing slide, “Your contribution to the game will live on forever….” We would add: “The impact you’ve had in the lives of thousands will live on forever too.”