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High School on Sept. 16. Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hoover head coach Chris Camper talks with the Bucs during a timeout in a match against Oak Mountain at Hoover.
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Photo courtesy of Kellye Bowen.
Kellye Bowen and Chris Camper, head volleyball coaches at Spain Park and Hoover, hold each school’s Class 7A state championship trophy from the 2021 and 2020 volleyball seasons. Camper led the Bucs to the state championship in 2020, where they faced Spain Park and won the state title.
Chris Camper has no regrets.
In November, Camper announced the end of his tenure as the Hoover High School volleyball coach and the likely end of his coaching career.
“I’m at peace with it being over,” Camper said. “I will miss the competition and the girls and all my friendships and relationships. I’m excited about spending more time with my family, though. I’m very happy with what we were able to do at Hoover and other places. It’s the right time.”
Camper’s teams won many more games than they lost and were regulars in the playoffs. He spent 22 years as a head coach in the state, winning 772 matches in total and the 2020 state championship at Hoover.
“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “Every team I’ve had, we’ve gotten the most out of them and left positive experiences for the girls.”
The journey
At the beginning, Camper didn’t figure he was starting out on a legendary volleyball coaching career. He aspired to be a baseball player, but that dream fell by the wayside after his high school years.
He began spending much of his time playing beach volleyball, and soon that turned into discovering his love of coaching. He served as a volunteer coach at Glencoe High School in 1996 and has coached in some capacity ever since.
“That made me fall in love with coaching, to see that excitement and joy from a group of people and making an impact on them. Playing high school sports is something you’ll cherish the rest of your life, and making that a positive experience is a mutual thing,” Camper said.
Upon graduating from UAB, Camper was the head coach at Erwin (now Center Point) for a year before becoming an assistant at Hoover in 2000. After one season there, he was recruited to begin the program at the new Spain Park High School.
The Spain Park program flourished quickly, advancing to the final eight each of his three seasons there. He took over a fledgling Mountain Brook program in 2004 and helped restore it to its winning ways. He won over 300 matches in the last 10 years at Hoover.
Andy Urban became the athletic director at Hoover shortly after Camper was hired as the head coach. The two grew up together and knew they would work well together.
“I knew him, and we built that relationship and talked about what he wanted the program to look like,” Urban recalled. “We wanted to play to a standard. His dream became a reality to win it last year.”
Hoover’s 2020 team was one for the ages. The Bucs posted a 50-1 record and won the only state title in the program’s history. After dropping their first match of the season, they reeled off 50 wins in a row, hardly losing a set along the way.
Camper believes that team could compete and defeat any team the state has ever produced.
“After the first game, we all agreed that we didn’t want to experience that again,” said Rya McKinnon, a star on that Hoover team. “From there, we were so focused on winning.”
Lending a hand
Even though he is getting out of the coaching arena, Camper’s influence will still be heavy in high school volleyball, particularly locally.
Kellye Bowen led Spain Park to the program’s first state title in 2021 and knocked Hoover out of the playoffs at the North Super Regional in Camper’s final match. Despite their schools being local rivals residing in the same school district, there has never been a hint of animosity between the two.
Quite the opposite, actually.
“He was a great mentor, not just to me, but to younger coaches planning to get into the game,” Bowen said. “I didn’t know what was going on when I came up here [in 2014]. It’s a lot to take on a [Class] 7A program. He did a phenomenal job over at Hoover, turning that program around, and he helped me.”
Bowen was a star at Curry High in the mid-2000s, so she competed against Camper’s teams as a player and coach. Her Spain Park team was the one on the other side of the net from Hoover in the 2020 state championship match. She also takes pride in Hoover City Schools winning titles the last two years.
Michael Heard was a longtime assistant for Camper at Hoover and remains one of his closest friends. Two years ago, Heard became the head coach at John Carroll, his alma mater, and led the Cavaliers to the state tournament in his first year.
“Without Chris, I don’t think I’d be a head coach right now,” Heard said. “Without his assistance, I never would’ve gotten an opportunity. That goes beyond thanks. I don’t know where I’d be without him.”
Heard said many of the things he does in his program at John Carroll are a result of observing Camper’s ways over the years. He also believes one of the best indicators of the quality of Camper’s programs at all of his stops are the future successes of the players he coached.
“That always made him the proudest when kids would grow up and start a career and a start a family,” Heard said. “It was really his life’s work to make sure that they were given the best opportunity through volleyball to succeed in life.”
McKinnon played under Camper the last five years and put together one of the most illustrious careers a high school player can have. As an eighth grader, she was so impressive Camper brought her up straight to the varsity team.
“The first year I was there, I didn’t talk much; I was very shy and quiet,” she said. “But each year, I felt like me and Camper grew closer. I’ve said this before, but he is truly like family.”
McKinnon credits Camper for helping her mature quickly, despite being such a young player at the varsity level.
“The biggest thing I learned from Camper was how to be a leader,” she said. “He put me in a lot of situations that caused me to step up.”
Great memories
The wins were plenty, but McKinnon will cherish just as much the meals at a local Mexican restaurant with team and coach before or after a big game.
On the court, McKinnon supplied many of the moments Camper will recall fondly for many years. Some of his teams stick out for various reasons, including the 2003 Spain Park team, his first team at Mountain Brook and his 2017 Hoover team.
“I remember all of it, and I can recall plays that I called and all that,” he said. “I always said as long as I have a team that loves it half as much as I love it, we’ll be successful.”
Camper said there’s nothing quite like leading a Hoover team onto the court ahead of a state championship match, something he got to do multiple times.
“The proudest moment of my professional life is walking into a packed arena with Hoover volleyball players walking behind me,” he said.
Camper walks away at peace, ready to pour into his three children’s burgeoning athletic careers and all the other extracurricular activities that come with that.
Might he coach again in the future? Never say never. Either way, he believes he hit the jackpot.
“Being able to say I’m the volleyball coach at Hoover High School is the pinnacle of my professional career,” he said.
