BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
SMITHS STATION — For most of his senior season, Hudson Campbell didn’t fully trust his right arm.
An injury during his freshman season that already cost him a full year of baseball had begun aching again, and Glenwood School’s star center fielder cautiously played through the aches.
Then came the game against Spain Park High School on March 12.
With the Gators trailing and a runner breaking off first, a ground ball skipped into the right-center gap for Campbell to run down, spin and uncork a perfect throw out at third.
For a player who’d spent weeks wondering whether the arm would hold, it was more than just a throw: it was proof he’d fully made it back.
“It’s a blessing because I’ve kind of been in everyone’s shadow the past two years,” said Campbell. “If I’d been on any other team, I probably would have shone brighter than I have, but I’m so proud and blessed to have won this award my final year.”
Campbell’s senior season was the perfect finale to a career filled with trials and tribulations.
In 123 at-bats this year, he collected 54 hits for a .439 batting average, two home runs, 51 runs, 46 RBIs and 18 stolen bases.
Of all those numbers, Campbell said the RBIs mean the most after Mason McCrane, who batted ahead of him last year, rarely left him runners to clear.
While he credited McCrane for helping develop his game and boosting his confidence whenever it faltered, Campbell’s love for the sport traces back to his early childhood and his older brother.
“I just watched him play all these years and I wanted to get into it as soon as I could,” Campbell said. “It definitely was always my brother. I had some favorites, like I always enjoyed watching Mike Trout, but for me it was always him.”
Ever since he could walk, he had a ball in his hand, and he officially began playing tee ball at the age of 4.
Then, when he was 9 years old, Campbell’s team unexpectedly won a Little League title, and he knew his future was with baseball.
However, even with a bright future in the sport, things didn’t always go to plan for Campbell.
After a UCL injury wiped out his freshman year, he slowly built himself back up with what he characterized as a “building season” as a sophomore before things really began clicking again as a junior.
A self-described perfectionist, he recalled not leaving the cage without a clean finish, sometimes 50-plus extra swings past when he should have stopped.
The journey, Campbell said, was also built on his family’s never-ending support and having more confidence in him than “sometimes than I have in myself.”
Then there was Glenwood head baseball coach Tim Fanning, who pushed the Gators’ senior class to come together and grow as leaders.
After the season opened with the seniors admittedly playing as a group of individuals, the turning point came against Northside High School in Columbus, Georgia, where some matter-of-fact words landed.
According to Campbell, that moment was exactly what he and his teammates needed to hear to “lock in,” and that tough love was the perfect anecdote to summarize his experience growing within the program.
Fanning, who watched Campbell grow from a sidelined freshman into one of the area’s top outfielders, said the senior leaves a mark on the program that will endure even after he leaves.
“Hudson’s been a three-year starter for us, and to see how much he’s grown in the time as a player and leader makes me so proud,” Fanning said. “He knew a lot of weight would fall on his shoulders this year, and he didn’t shy away from it; he embraced it. He was so consistent for us all year, and we certainly wouldn’t have had the success as a team that we did without him.”
Having recently graduated, Campbell said he plans use his extra free time perfecting his golf game, which he recently picked up, and bass fishing, another lifelong passion of his along with baseball.
Later this year, he’ll enroll at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia, with Glenwood teammate and The Observer’s Player of the Year, Carter Judah, where he’ll begin with an undeclared major.
As for the legacy of a senior class that stacked four-straight AISA and AHSAA state championships, Campbell kept it simple.
“It’s just not caring what other people think,” Campbell said. “Everyone told us we weren’t going to win another state championship because of how much had left. We just used that as fuel and never stopped working.”
