Louis Campbell, 43, has been named the new head coach for Martinsville High School’s basketball team. Originally from Rahway, NJ, Campbell attended the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNYBuffalo) in New York where he earned his bachelor’s degree in social science and played combo guard for the Buffalo Bulls basketball team.
After college, Campbell played professional basketball internationally in Germany, Japan, France, and Spain. In 2015, as a player for Strasbourg IG, he was awarded the French Basketball Cup MVP for his role in his team’s victory in the 2014-2015 French Basketball Cup tournament.
Campbell returned to the U.S. where he joined the staff of the Chicago Bulls as a Player Development and Video Coordinator. He moved to Virginia in 2020 and eventually found himself in Martinsville where he became an Assistant Coach for the Patrick & Henry Community College Patriots basketball team.
He joined the staff at Martinsville High School in 2021 as a paraprofessional and substitute teacher and currently works as a special education teacher at the school. During his time at MHS, Campbell said he has had the opportunity to interact with student athletes and watch them in action.
“I knew that I had something to offer” the team, he said.
Campbell, who has mentored student athletes most of his adult life, plans to take a holistic approach to his coaching style. He said he is looking forward to getting to know not only his players, but his players’ families and “getting to know where these kids are from. If I want to maneuver them in the right way, I’ve got to see where they’re coming from first,” he said.
Campbell said he hopes to teach his team to look beyond their athletic talent, to see their abilities not only as a key to success in basketball but as a key to opening up other doors and other pathways in life outside of the basketball court.
“I think it’s imperative that our athletes see themselves as more than just athletes,” Campbell said. “Our athletes have to be scholars, they have to be students, and they have to have a different mindset on how they use the sport. That’s everything to me.”
“We are excited for a new era of Bulldogs basketball,” said Martinsville High School Athletic Director Tommy Golding. “We are a strong athletic conference, and we have high expectations both of our athletes and our coaching staff. We hope he will bring something to our program that we haven’t had in a while.”
