CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Beginning in July 1984, Steve Campbell made a difference for many athletes in the Calallen community. Now in 2024, the Calallen High School Athletic Director and Head Football Coach announced his retirement. A 42 year career that will end after the 2023-2024 school year.
"It's been a lot of fun," Campbell said. "If I had a chance to do it all over I'd do it again. I appreciate the community, I appreciate Calallen Independent School District and all of the players. Y'all have been a big impact on my life."
The 65-year-old coached for 40 seasons in Calallen and two at Tuloso-Midway. He replaced Phil Danaher as the Calallen football head coach in Dec. 2021. Danaher, retired due to health reasons, ended his career as the winningest head coach in Texas high school football history with 490.
"Well one thing about coach Danaher that probably a lot of people don't really realize is that he had confidence in his coaches," Campbell said. "He had confidence in me, and very rarely did he even come into the film room where the defense was working. He pretty much let us coach, and he pretty much let everybody coach at all their positions. Defensively he trusted us to have a good game plan."
Campbell taught and coached in CISD since 1984, the same year that Danaher started his record-breaking coaching career with the Wildcats. He was always by Danaher's side as the defensive coordinator.
"40 different groups of kids, and they all have their positives," Campbell said. "For the most part I'm very biased. They're Calallen kids. They're different, they work hard and they're like a family."
During Campbell's 2-year stint as the Wildcats head coach, he posted an overall record of (20-5), including an impressive (13-1) record in 2022 that ended in the UIL 4A-DI Regional Final. In 2023, the Wildcats finished (7-4) falling to Beeville in the first round of playoffs.
"Whenever I took over, I did the same thing. I had to trust our offensive coaches to come up with a good game plan," Campbell said. "Being the head coach as a defensive coach at the same time you have to trust your assistants to come up with good game plans, and that's what I carried over from him (Danaher)."
He also won 16 district titles as Calallen's boys track coach, with 45 state qualifiers and 3 individual state champions.
Coach Campbell’s mission statement is “to guide students in their pursuit of excellence on and off the field of play, in order to cultivate lifetime skills preparing them to compete and succeed in the ‘Game of Life’”. He has been an exceptional role model to the students of Calallen, and has impacted generations of young men and women.
"I know 2016 was very special when you go to the State Finals and get to play in AT&T Stadium," Campbell. "That was really an amazing experience.
He graduated from Ray High School in 1977 and graduated from Texas Lutheran College in 1981 and received his Master's Degree in 1982 from Sul Ross State University.
The district will conduct a formal search for his replacement.
Cambell's Calallen Era – 40 seasons
Overall Record - (442-85-2)
Home Field Record - (197-20-2) including 43 straight wins from 1990-1997
District Championships (Sole or Co) – 25
Undefeated Regular Seasons – 13
Undefeated District Seasons – 23
10+ Wins Seasons – 32
Points Scored – 18,661
Points Allowed – 6,719
Shutouts – 106
Times Shutout – 7
16 Consecutive Seasons w/10+ Wins – 2nd longest all-time all classifications
40 consecutive winning seasons – 3rd longest streak in Texas
55 consecutive district wins from 1994-2002
Campbell's Playoff Records
Playoff Record - (93-39)
39 straight seasons in the playoffs – Longest streak in Texas
Bi-District – (35-2)
Area – (25-8)
Regional Semifinals – (19-10)
Regional Finals – (12-7)
State Semifinals – (2-10) (1993-1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018)
State Finals – (0-2) (2005 and 2016)
