Meet Mark Campbell, the sixth women’s basketball coach in Sacramento State history

Sacramento State athletic director Mark Orr first met Mark Campbell at Saint Mary’s College in 2008.

At the time, Orr was the athletic director at the Moraga school and Campbell was getting his foot in the door coaching at the Division l level. He worked as the team’s director of operations after spending the previous season at Pepperdine.

It pays to stay in touch with old acquaintances. Orr introduced Campbell as the sixth women’s basketball coach at Sacramento State on Wednesday.

Campbell was emotional thanking family, friends and former players. Family includes wife Ashley, who played basketball at Vanderbilt, and young daughters Maley and Makay.

“This is truly a dream come true for me,” Campbell said. “This is something I’ve been working very hard for over the course of my career.”

Orr added, “What a great day to be a Hornet. This is just a tremendous celebration for Sacramento State women’s basketball. I’m thrilled to hire Mark. He’s going to do a tremendous job. My vision for the program is we are going to compete for championships. These student-athletes, this university and this community all deserve it. The fan engagement for women’s basketball in Sacramento is here.”

Building the Hornets program won’t be an easy task. Campbell replaces Bunky Harkleroad, who went 88-151 in eight seasons as Hornets coach. The Hornets went 3-22 last season. Sacramento State last had a winning record in the 2014-15 season, when the Hornets went 18-16.

Campbell has experience coaching, recruiting and rebuilding a program. Campbell spent six of his seven seasons at Oregon as the associate head coach. He helped recruit players such as Sabrina Ionescu, Satou Sabally and Ruthy Hebard, who were all top-10 picks in last year’s WNBA Draft.

Oregon’s 2020 recruiting class was the top-ranked group in the nation, according to ESPN. Campbell emphasized how important it will be to recruit players from the NCAA transfer portal, players with local ties and from around the world.

“Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program,” Campbell said. “We have open scholarships, so we are working the transfer portal right now. We are working hard to find players that will fit our style of play. Northern California is truly a women’s basketball hotbed. I have a lot of very close relationships with people in Northern California. We are going to work hard on keeping those kids home. While we do that, we are going to recruit the globe.”

Campbell had similar success in helping rebuild Oregon State when he served as associate head coach. The Beavers went 9-21 in the 2010-11 season and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament a few seasons later.

“There’s a learning curve when starting anything new,” Campbell said. “This is the third program now that I’ll rebuild. When we got hired at Oregon State 11 years ago, we got hired in July. There was one scholarship player on the roster when we took over. We had to hold open tryouts because we didn’t even have a roster. We held open tryouts in the community and (about) 100 women’s basketball players showed up. It ranged from high school kids to 50-year-old moms of four that wanted a chance to play in the Pac-10.

“We got to the NCAA tournament (at Oregon State) four times and that program got to the Final Four six years later. Then we did it again in Oregon. They were 4-27 before we took over and we started at ground zero. I can kind of say I’ve already been there done that.”

Campbell is still in the process of putting together his staff. He has already hired Xavier Lopez as the associate head coach. Lopez spent time with Campbell at Oregon as an assistant, where he helped with scouting and recruiting. Campbell plans to run the defense, while Lopez will run the offense.

“I’m going to work quickly to put the staff together,” Campbell said. “It’s going to be a diverse staff that’s going to bring a lot of great life experiences. … (Xavier and I) have been together the last seven years at Oregon. Our primary duties have been overseeing recruiting. He’s going to have a huge impact on our offensive scheme. We’re going to play a very European style of basketball.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 4:38 AM.