New Westlake football coach Mark Campo meets with his team last week. Campo takes over the Demons after leading the Admiral King program the past five seasons. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Campo to lead Demon gridders
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published June 17, 2009

The Westlake football program has its new leader.

Last Thursday, the Westlake Board of Education approved the appointment of Mark Campo as the Demons’ new head coach. He replaces Mark Hollars, who resigned last month to take a teaching and head football coaching position at St. Marys Memorial High School in western Ohio.

Campo was the head football coach at Admiral King High School in Lorain the past five seasons. A former physical education teacher in the Lorain City Schools, Campo has been a guidance counselor with Lorain Middle School and Admiral King.

He will assume a guidance role at Westlake and run the Occupational Work Experience program at the high school. He met with his new team early last week.

“Coach Campo impressed the committee from the very first interview during the selection process,” said Westlake athletic director Dennis Bartlett, who said there were over 60 applicants for the position.

“Coach Campo is a man of high character, has a strong track record and truly cares about kids,” said Bartlett. “We believe he will be a great fit here at Westlake.

Campo, a 1980 graduate of Admiral King, earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from John Carroll University. He also completed the Registered Nurse program at Lorain County Community College.

Prior to his teaching and football coaching career, Campo was an RN with Lorain Community Hospital and Elyria Memorial Hospital.

On the gridiron, Campo brings 18 years of coaching experience to Westlake. He was an assistant varsity coach and junior varsity coach at John Carroll before going back to his alma mater. He took over a program that had fallen on hard times, and his first team at Admiral King went 0-10.

Campo, however, eventually turned the program around and made it competitive in the Lake Erie League. Last season, the Admirals went 7-3 overall and 3-1 in the league, good for second place in the league’s Erie Division. Two of the team’s three losses were by one point.

Overall, Campo’s team went 20-29 over those five seasons. He faces a new challenge at Westlake, taking over a program that went 2-8 overall and finished winless in the Southwestern Conference.

“Everything here is in place to have a successful program,” said Campo last Saturday afternoon. “We have the players, we have the facilities. There’s no reason it shouldn’t happen here.

“My primary concern is that the student athletes here have opportunities after high school, that we win conference championships and that we compete in the state playoffs,” said Campo. “We want to build a football program based on character, work ethic and tradition.”

Campo said he was impressed with Westlake’s academic excellence as a school system, along with the community support. He felt those would be factors as well in turning around a program that has gone through several head coaches over the past decade.

How was his first meeting with the players?

“It was good. Refreshing,” said Campo. “They seem like a great group of kids. I met with the seniors, because after all it’s their team this year. Most of the kids came up to me and shook my hand.

“Number one, I told them that I wasn’t going anywhere,” he said, referring to the number of past coaching changes. “This is not a stepping stone job for me. I’m from the area, my family is here, this is my home. I want to be here, and I’m not moving.

“It’s going to be one of two things. I’m going to be here, and we’re going to get the job done, or they’re not going to want me to be here anymore,” he said.

Campo said he wanted to build the Demon program from the ground up. He noted that a number of the program’s younger squads have had success over recent years.

“You win with players,” he said. “Most coaches at this level know the x’s and o’s and can hold their own. The main difference is the players. They’ve won here at the junior high level. Now we have to take that success and make it grow.

“It starts with the elementary school program, the middle school program. You grow it from the bottom up so that there is consistency from year to year. And in doing that, you form relationships with the kids from the elementary level on up. You get them passionate about the game of football.

“Once you do that, you can be competitive in the SWC, year in and year out. We want to get kids excited about Westlake football,” he said.

Campo said that will start with the example he and his coaching staff sets.

“We’re going to work hard and demand a lot, and the players will eventually understand what we’re talking about by our actions,” said Campo. “Everything we do will be for them. We’re going to work our tails off to make them better, and before long they’ll realize I mean what I say.”

Campo said getting the team competitive in the SWC would mean getting stronger in the off-season.

“The league I’m coming from (Lake Erie) had some very athletic kids,” said Campo. “They were able to do some things that would make you turn around and scratch your head. The SWC is a more physical league, more smash-mouth.

“There is some finesse, but most of the teams grind it out. You have teams like Avon Lake and Olmsted Falls, Brecksville, North Olmsted, Amherst. Berea and Midpark are getting better each year. Getting physically stronger will be key for us in order to compete. We’ll have to be stronger, and just as physical.”

Campo’s nursing career came after he initially couldn’t find a job in the teaching profession. He said he was able to take something from that occupation when he finally got his opportunity to coach and teach.

“I learned how to treat people and how to talk to them,” he said. “Really, it’s the same in whatever you do. That’s how you bring people together, accomplish goals and make things happen.

“Bottom line, you try to do the right thing. I want the players and parents to know I’m excited to be at Westlake and look forward to meeting them and working with them. We want to make some good things happen here,” he concluded.