HANCEVILLE, Ala. — In this interview, I talked to former Hanceville basketball and baseball player, Drew Campbell. Drew made some incredible sports and high school memories during his time at Hanceville.
“My favorite baseball memory has to be my freshman year when we went to Glencoe for the first round of the state playoffs. After losing the first game, we came back and won the next two games to advance to the next round. We had a team full of so many talented players, but also just some of the best friends I could ask for,” Campbell said. “My favorite basketball memory has to be our Final Four run in 2020. I was a manager my sophomore year, but that team was something special and getting to experience something like the Final Four with some of my best friends was just awesome.”
He added,
“My favorite high school memories are just all of the friends that I made. When I moved to Hanceville from Cullman, the only person I knew was Adam Cooper, but quickly, I became friends with a lot of great people. All the coaches and teachers at Hanceville are great. I’m so glad I moved there and got to be around some awesome mentors and friends.”
Drew played for some great coaches at Hanceville and learned a lot from them during his playing career.
“The coaches at Hanceville are great. They are the kind of coaches I hope every player can have. If you ever needed anything, they made sure you knew you could call them. I loved all of my coaches at Hanceville; they made sports and high school in general so much more fun,” Campbell said. “Without coach (Michael) Chandler, I would’ve never had the success that I did in baseball. I hadn’t played basketball since I was really young and in the two years I played, I learned so much from coach (Stephen) Chandler. I loved every minute of being a part of these programs. I learned how to get better at those sports. I also learned from them about life and about being a good person, which is the example that they tried to set for us every day.”
Drew learned a lot during his playing days and Hanceville will always hold a very special place in his heart.
“Everybody at Hanceville is a family. Time and time again, I’ve seen that if you need anything at all, your classmates and teammates have got your back. The teachers helped out as well; anything we needed, they’d love to talk to us or help us out with it. So, it’s definitely that family aspect where everybody knows everybody, and we are all just great friends.”
Drew will deeply miss being Bulldogs this year, especially being a leader to the younger players in basketball and baseball.
“When I was one of the younger guys, we had some great leaders in both sports, so I wanted to try and be as much like them as I could. I helped out the younger guys at their positions and also just relaying the message that the most important thing is being a good teammate to everyone, whether it’s giving someone a ride or whatever it may be when they need it,” he said. “I’ll miss being in class every day and being at practice with my best friends. I’ll miss all the great teachers and just being in their classes. I’ll miss playing baseball and basketball the most, being a part of those teams and just having fun on the field and on the court with my friends.”
Drew gave some advice to the students that just started high school this fall.
“The advice I would give is just savor the moments you have with your friends in the time you have. I met my four best friends in high school: Adam Cooper, Matthew Cornelius, Ashton James, and Victoria Stanley. I am confident these friendships will last forever. You never know when is the next time you will see any of your friends from school. Don’t overstress about things. Everything is going to work out exactly the way God has planned it to.”
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