Some of Charron Campbell’s teammates and coaches from Amphi’s first girls basketball team to win a region title joined with her family members at the school’s gym Sunday to play basketball, the game she loved, as a memorial for her.
Campbell passed away at only 39 years old last month from health reasons.
She was part of The Arizona Daily Star’s 5A Southern Coaches All-Region Team as a senior in 1999-2000, a year after the Panthers won the 5A Southern title. She later played for Pima College.
Coaches from throughout her four-year career at Amphi observed while some of her teammates, cousins, friends and her mom played a game in her honor at the gym. They ate a meal and released balloons outside.
Everyone wore red with Campbell’s No. 42. Her favorite music was played during the games and picture books and flyers were given to everyone as a keepsake.
They engaged in a group prayer.
The Panthers in 1998-99 were coached by Phil Reynolds and were led by Cattheria Turner, who went on to play at Oklahoma State and later became a coach at the college level.
Wamnee Wea “Eagle Woman” Ereaux told the Arizona Daily Star in a 2003 interview of the 1998-99 championship team with Campbell:
“That was the coolest team I’ve ever been on. We had three Hispanics, two Anglos, four African-Americans, an Asian and a Native American, five seniors, five juniors and a sophomore and we got along great, like 11 best friends. There was no drama; we just all liked to play ball and win.”
Here are some photos from Sunday’s event, which was arranged by Celia Rodriguez, a former teammate and best friend.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District
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