BREMEN, Ala. – Family, teammates, friends, coaches and more packed out the library at Cold Springs High School Thursday afternoon to recognize an Eagle athlete extending her career to the next level. Cold Springs’ Kinley Campbell signed a track and field scholarship with the University of Montevallo Thursday to cap off her high school career. Before she inked her letter of intent, Kinley heard from several of her coaches, family members and others about how they’ve seen her grow as an athlete and a person in her time at Cold Springs before sharing a few words with everyone herself.
“I just want to thank everyone for coming out and my family for always supporting me,” Campbell said. “Y’all know how long track meets last and y’all were always there at every practice and anything I needed help on you were always there. When I was super mad at myself because I had a terrible day, they had to deal with me but they always helped me come back.”
Cold Springs Track and Field Coach Blaise Carie has seen Campbell develop as a competitor over the last several years and that competitive nature is what coach believes puts her over the top.
“Kinley works her tail off,” Carie said. “It starts in the classroom and then she brings it out on the field and she’s there as soon as you can be and always staying late to the point that we have to make her go. That’s one of her great strengths. She wants to do well and she’s hard on herself when she doesn’t, and it shows.”
Carie can obviously see Kinley’s talent and physical ability but for him, Kinley’s attitude is what sets her apart from the pack and has led her to this point.
“She’s very athletic and very talented but her attitude goes with her athletic ability,” Carie said. “There are people who have talent but not the work ethic. She’s talented and has the work ethic and she’s got the mindset to deal with the struggles and trials that come her way.”
Kinley is thrilled to have earned four more years of athletics and is looking forward to moving on to compete at the college level. She played basketball for the Lady Eagles throughout high school as well and now that she’s transitioning to track and field full time, Kinley is ready to see how far she can go.
“I’m just really excited to get four more years,” Campbell said. “I feel like I really started figuring things out senior year and now that I’ll be able to focus on one sport, I can’t wait to see where I can get in the future.”
Kinley has enjoyed a unique situation in her time at Cold Springs. The Campbell family is deeply connected to the track and field program at the school thanks in large part to the hall of fame career that her grandfather, Claborn Campbell, had there.
“There’s no place like Cold Springs. If I say I’m getting the family together, it’s them,” Campbell said as she looked to the crowd. “It’s everybody. I feel like no matter where I go, Cold Springs will always be home. I look up to my Granddad like nobody else,” Campbell smiled. “My Granddad hung the moon to me. I just aspire to try and be half the person that he is and impact half as many lives. He’s just done so much for me and his athletes don’t remember their wins or their losses, they remember the lessons that they have been taught and that’s something that I want to do when I get older.”
If the number of people who came out to see her signing was any indication, Kinley has already started impacting a lot people in a positive way and she’ll have a whole new group of people to meet when she gets to Montevallo.
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