Steele Curtain: Football Comes to Tiny Campbell University

BUIES CREEK, N.C. - You could sum up feelings about Campbell University football in just one sentence Thursday afternoon: "I can't wait."

Dale Steele, who was named head coach of the Fighting Camels at a press conference Thursday, can't wait, either.

That's because the CU football program is starting from scratch, building toward a first game in the fall of 2008. Thus, he has a lot of work ahead, starting right now.

Steele fielded questions from area media and Campbell backers like a veteran, which he is. Most recently assistant head coach at Elon University, the Alabama native has 30 years of coaching as he takes his first head coaching position. He said Tuesday that he plans to have one assistant coach in place by Jan. 1 and the rest of his staff before the end of 2007.

"I will recruit heavily in eastern North Carolina," he said. "I am very familiar with this area from coaching at Elon and East Carolina and this is a great place for high school football. We will be in a conference, but I also want us to have as many games as possible with local opponents as well. This is a great opportunity, and I wanted this job from the very start."

Steele said he likes quick-moving, hard-hitting defense and that his offense will depend on the kind of talent available. "One thing I don't like, though, is to get into the kind of we-score, you-score game where both teams just try to outscore the other. And I put great stress on kicking. That's one quarter of the game, it's too important to pass over," he said.

Jim Roberts, Campbell vice-president for business and treasurer, is an ardent football fan. He follows Harnett Central High School football closely and his son, Andrew, now majoring in aeronautical engineering at North Carolina State, was a 2004 Trojan captain.

"I am looking forward to our first game already," Roberts said Tuesday. "This is a great thing for Campbell."

The exuberance was felt by everyone in the room after Steele outlined his plans for a football program, "That will integrate the team with the student body, the campus, the whole Campbell family and the community."

Dr. Norman Wiggins, university chancellor and formerly its long-time president, said "This has been awhile coming and I believe it will be a success." His opinion was echoed by Campbell vice-president Dr. Jack Britt, who said "This will really boost espirit de corps here and give students a good reason to stay on weekends."

Women's basketball head coach Wanda Watkins was among staff members welcoming Steele to Campbell. "This is good for all of us," she said. "We'll all help each other."

Ryan Jones, incoming president of the Campbell student body, was elated, saying football was something he missed at Campbell.

"I went to high school near Atlantic City, N.J.," Jones said. "In my freshman and senior year, we were in the state finals and football is really lots of fun. It looks to me like Coach Steele fits just the kind of image we like to project at Campbell. I will be here for that first game in 2008 as an alumnus. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

C.A. "Chic" Adams of Buies Creek is a leader in the Fighting Camel Club and one of the university's fundraising leaders. He was a member of the search committee that picked the new football coach.

"I was really thrilled at the quality of the applicants (a total of 65) that we had for the head coaching position," Adams said. "Any one of those men had the ability and quality to lead the kind of program we want at Campbell. I am glad we were able to get such a fine man for the position and you know I will be out there supporting the program."

Dr. Wallace opened the press conference by expressing his own delight at the rebirth of Campbell football. "I am glad that Coach Steele is a lineman," the Campbell president said. "I was a lineman too (at Rockingham High School), and in my day, we played both ways, the whole 48 minutes."

Asked if also he played college football, Dr. Wallace said, "Yes, at East Carolina, for two weeks."